​Comfort Connect and Anuj Khanna - A Success Story in its Early Stages

Since we purchased our home several years ago, the HVAC and plumbing systems have been sources of incredible stress.
 
We have had plumbing fixtures break. Once, this even resulted in water damage that forced us out of our homes for several months. The HVAC system has randomly stopped working several times - leading to incredible paranoia during the winter months when my children were younger than one year old.
 
These problems are stressful because they can upend your life in extreme circumstances, but even in ongoing, normal circumstances, they are not fun. Finding reputable and affordable technicians can seem impossible. Redoing work that wasn’t done properly is also a headache. The unpredictability of the associated costs is possibly the worst part. 
 
These repairs run several thousands of dollars - it would be nice if the expense were magically predictable. After all, most of us don’t have several thousand dollars just sitting around. Even if you can afford monthly groceries (which is getting harder for most), just about everyone would rather go on vacation.
 
So when I found out about Anuj Khanna, and his fintech, Comfort Connect, I was immediately intrigued. Comfort Connect partners with leading home services contractors to install HVAC, plumbing, and electric systems in your home. Instead of paying for the entire system upfront, you pay a monthly subscription fee. In return, you receive use of the system, as well as ongoing maintenance AND emergency service with qualified and responsible technicians, at no additional charge.
 
Having a company provide you these systems at a reasonable monthly cost AND take full responsibility for ongoing maintenance and emergency care is a really big deal. It means the original installation will be done correctly, as will ongoing service, because otherwise the company bears the consequences and expense down the line. 
 
Comfort Connect offers the opportunity to finally rid yourself of the most annoying part of home ownership. As you can see, I’m pretty excited about all of this. My credit cards are tired of covering for yet another unexpected home problem.
 
There are many fintechs that make the world more financially accessible for a greater percentage of consumers. This is one of them, making the cost of home ownership more predictable and manageable, and that is an absolutely amazing thing.
 
Here are four reasons I believe Anuj Khanna will succeed in leading Comfort Connect into a long and successful future:

1. Dedicated team with strong early traction  

Comfort Connect does not give off startup vibes. When I visited their offices in the heart of Bethesda, the only startup-like characteristics I noticed were that the CEO (Anuj) is a pretty young guy and that the person who let me in was wearing jeans. 
 
This isn’t a group of people working from beaches around the world (not saying there is necessarily something wrong with that approach). There is a core group of employees that wake up every day and come into the offices to work hard to keep their network of homeowners and contractors happy, and to expand this network. 
 
Comfort Connect has already completed their Series B, raising millions of dollars. 

2. Regulatory frameworks 

Anuj and his team are not just talking to homeowners and contractors. They are working on every single aspect of the business necessary in order to make this movement successful. And yes, this is a movement. A movement that says that home ownership does not have to be so difficult, that the way in which home ownership is run in this country can be reformulated to make it more sustainable for more people.  
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One of those aspects is regulatory factors. Anuj and his team know which regulations affect his company’s ability to be successful in this movement, and they are working to influence those regulations so that homeowners can benefit accordingly. 

3. A desire to change an actual problem with which there is deep familiarity, and not just have a VC-friendly pitch deck

There are a LOT of fintechs out there. Many are born from a couple of founders getting together and just trying to figure out what they can slap into a “60 second elevator pitch” or an investment teaser, so they can try their chances at the VC funding roulette. While this fintech genesis method has some winners, I personally am attracted to stories where the founder’s interest has deeper roots.
 
Anuj decided to build Comfort Connect because, while working as a private equity investor, he spent four years successfully turning around one of the largest home services contracting platforms in the country. This gave Anuj an incredible depth of knowledge and experience with how these companies function at a high-level. This gives him the credentials to lead Comfort Connect to success.
 
They then sold the home services platform to a company in Canada, where consumers rented their HVAC systems instead of purchasing them. With the US markets headed towards subscription-based services across sectors, Anuj feels that this is the perfect time to introduce this concept to the US market. 
 
He feels strongly that US consumers are not interested in owning these systems, instead they are interested in predictability of expenses and comfort from knowing that their systems will run well on an ongoing basis. Anuj has placed his bets accordingly, and so far, these bets look like they are paying off. 

4. He takes the time to attend to the details personally  
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When I contacted Anuj, I wanted to talk to him about general communications services for fintechs. He personally took the time to meet with me and get to know me. A CEO who takes the time to understand all of the opportunities around him, big and small, and takes the time to build up his team personally, is a CEO who has the soft skills to back up the formidable financial (and legal!) skills that make his resume so impressive. 
 
I would humbly suggest that his attending to these types of efforts personally is one more sign that he, and Comfort Connect, are headed towards incredible success. Watch them!