EDEN Cracked GTM in the HVAC Industry
Sep 10, 2024
David Brennan MBA
There are go-to-market playbooks — and then there’s the reality of trying to sell into industries where the standard tactics fall flat.
That’s exactly the puzzle Ben Phillips is solving with EDEN, a platform bringing heating and cooling installs into the modern age — and tackling climate impact at the same time. Think replacing furnaces, heat pumps, and home appliances through an online-first, dead-simple experience.
But getting contractors to adopt new software in a fragmented, trust-first space? That’s not a marketing funnel problem. It’s a boots-on-the-ground challenge.
Key Takeaways
EDEN helps homeowners get instant quotes for heating and cooling installs
Contractors are the customers, but don’t trust cold calls, emails, or outsiders
Ben and team knocked on 150+ doors in person to get early adoption
They unlocked scalable growth by partnering upstream with equipment suppliers
The lesson: sometimes you have to earn trust manually before you can scale digitally
Solving for Homeowners First
EDEN makes it incredibly simple. You enter your address, and the platform taps into a data stack that lets them understand your home — equipment, layout, specs — better than you do. No manual inspection. No forms. Just a quote and an option to book, right away.
“Our goal is to make the process stupid simple — and that goes for the contractors too.”
Behind the scenes, EDEN partners with HVAC contractors, giving them a SaaS tool that lives on their site and handles instant quoting, equipment selection, and customer intake.
The contractors love it. But getting them to trust it — or even respond to a cold email — was another story.
The Sales Strategy That Didn’t Work
“You’re selling to an industry that doesn’t trust outsiders. Email and phone were dead ends. These folks aren’t online. We got roasted by front office staff daily.”
So Ben and the team did what most SaaS founders won’t do.
They printed flyers, packed snacks, and hit the road — knocking on doors, contractor by contractor. In two months, they visited 150 shops in person.
“We literally brought Choco Pies and walked in. When your foot’s already in the door, it’s harder to slam it shut.”
And it worked.
They earned their first few customers and built trust. That got the flywheel turning.
Going Upstream to Scale
But they knew the boots-on-the-ground model wouldn’t scale. So the team started asking a different question: who does every contractor already trust?
The answer: equipment suppliers — the companies that sell furnaces, heat pumps, and HVAC systems to the contractors directly.
These suppliers had a major problem: contractors weren’t selling newer, higher-efficiency systems like heat pumps because they didn’t know how to quote them, explain them, or close them.
EDEN solved that exact problem — so they pitched upstream.
“We just signed with the biggest supplier in the Pacific Northwest. Now we’re rolling out with major players in California and across the country.”
By solving a pain point for suppliers and tying it back to the contractor workflow, EDEN found a way to scale distribution — without sacrificing the trust they’d earned in the field.
The Lesson for Founders
“Every industry is its own snowflake. You can’t assume the standard SaaS GTM playbook works. You have to grind until you find your version of the recipe.”
That meant doing the unscalable, eating rejection, and iterating fast — all in a space where most startups wouldn’t even try.
Now EDEN is growing quickly, partnering with suppliers, and helping contractors close more jobs with less hassle.
What’s Next for EDEN
Ben and the team are:
Partnering with major HVAC suppliers across the U.S.
Expanding their contractor network
Preparing for their next fundraise coming out of Alchemist Accelerator
They’re also looking for investor partners who care about climate, infrastructure, and tackling the kind of hard, unsexy problems that actually move the needle.
If you’re building something in a legacy space — or if your GTM playbook just isn’t working — this is your reminder that sometimes the fastest way forward is to slow down, show up, and earn your way in.
Book a Free AI Assessment if you're building in a trust-first industry or struggling to scale an early GTM motion. We’ll help you identify how AI can support what’s already working on the ground, reduce manual load, and deliver a strategic roadmap to scale without losing the human touch.
