Ilija Crnobrnja was an exchange student in Massachusetts waiting tables, learning English, and studying agricultural economics. When he met and married his wife, he realized he needed a new job, so he found himself in the HVAC business. He worked his way through almost every role in HVAC. 

Along the way, his love for building science, customer service, and high efficiency homes was ignited. As you'll hear, Ilija's passion is deep. That passion made him destined to be an entrepreneur. He had to create and build a business to deliver on his vision. 

So he and his partner David refinanced their homes and founded SumZero. In their first 6 months, they made $350. That's it. Today, they are a $9M heat pump installer with incredibly happy customers all over Massachusetts. 

Join us for Ilija's insights into:  

• How building science teaches us to look at the home as a system...
• ... and why HVAC is the engine of that system
• Why heat pumps are the future, and if you build a heat pump business today, you'll enjoy it for decades to come
• His impressive approach to training his team
• Why employee compensation in the HVAC industry needs to be redesigned
• Why you should structure your entire business to focus on delivering a Comfort Consultant's promise to homeowners...
• ... and more

Show notes:

• SumZero Energy Systems
• Ilija's LinkedIn
• Corbett Lunsford and the Building Performance Workshop
• Joe Lstiburek and the BuildingScience.com Corporation
• Matt Risinger and his build channel on YouTube