HomeBoost’s app shows you where you can save on your electricity bills

A few years ago, Selina Tobaccowala’s daughter started leaving post-it notes around the house telling everyone to “turn off the lights” and stuff like that.

Tobaccowala had just sold his last startup, Gixo, to OpenFit and was looking for a new challenge. “I saw the kids and thought, ‘Let me see if there’s anything there on the sustainability and climate side,'” she told TechCrunch. “There had to be something more than extinguishing our lights.”

Without a background in climate science or hardware engineering, she wasn’t sure where to start. So Tobaccowala turned to something she knew well: investigations.

“Given my love of surveys, I surveyed a ton — a ton — of customers,” said Tobaccowala, who used to be president and CTO of SurveyMonkey.

What she found was that people were struggling to figure out how to lower their electricity bills.

“When we talked to consumers, we heard the same thing over and over: They get that email that says, ‘Hey, you’re spending more money than your neighbors,'” she said. “They were kind of stuck on what to do about it.”

Tobaccowala co-founded HomeBoost to help people conduct their own home energy assessments. The company was part of the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

HomeBoost’s assessment process begins by sending customers a BoostBox, a small kit that includes an infrared camera, a blacklight and a link to an app that guides customers through the process. As people walk around their home, the infrared camera shows them how cold (or warm) air is seeping into their home; the black light tells people which lights could be upgraded.

Using data from the scans, the app automatically generates a report that suggests the most cost-effective upgrades, including discounts based on where the person lives.

In many parts of the country, utility companies offer a similar service. Utilities, motivated to reduce end-user energy use, often work with energy auditors to survey people’s homes to identify ways to reduce their use. But the quality of these services can be very uneven, Tobaccowala said.

“We talked to a bunch of consumers who had had home energy assessments done and there was this feeling that was like ‘all they did was try to sell me an upgraded HVAC,'” she said.

The HomeBoost app is cheaper and faster than an accountant, and it helps people feel more in control of the process, Tobaccowala said.

HomeBoost charges customers $99, which is about a quarter of the cost of a traditional, in-person appraisal. It also works with utility companies, which cover some or all of the costs for customers. The startup has signed deals with Central Hudson, the Omaha Public Power District and, more recently, Avista. Omaha Power, for example, pays for all but $19 of the cost, while Central Hudson will cover the entire cost if homeowners check out the BoostBox from a public library.

But not all homeowners want to complete the survey process themselves, and not all accountants are pushy salespeople. Dedicated auditors can spend between two and 10 hours surveying homes, gathering data and building reports, Tobaccowala said. For that, HomeBoost has developed a version of its app for professionals so they can serve more customers.

The company is also testing a feature that will connect homeowners with contractors who can follow up on the upgrades outlined in the report. For contractors, it’s another source of new business, and it allows them to get information about a project before they even set foot in a home.

By bringing consumers, utilities and contractors together, Tobaccowalla hopes HomeBoost can ultimately deliver on the climate front as well. “It’s a very unique situation where everyone is committed to actually lowering the utility bill, which in net results is an improvement in the climate,” she said.