Too Long; Didn't Read
<a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/google-closes-3-2-billion-purchase-of-nest/" target="_blank">When Google acquired Nest</a> in 2014 it was the biggest acquisition of an energy tech company. Nest had taken the lowly thermostat and made it desirable and sexy. It was the first smart home product that made utilities think ‘<em>customers might actually care about this stuff!</em>’. The Nest story also became a slide in every energytech company’s fundraising pitch deck; around this period I saw at least fifty pitch decks that had Nest as a model and <a href="https://hackernoon.com/tagged/google" target="_blank">Google</a> as a possible acquirer. It seemed awesome!