air-conditioning
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How the Company That Made Korea's First Radio Quietly Became a Software Business
It started by building Korea's first radio in a country still rebuilding from war. Nearly 70 years later, LG's fastest-growing money comes from the software inside the TV, not the TV itself.
Lennox
A 130-year-old furnace maker has become a $5.2 billion climate-control platform. Its real advantage is not the metal box outside the house - it is the dealer network, parts shelf and service loop wrapped around it.
Vigilante Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning
Vigilante Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning is a family-owned Brooklyn contractor that has served New York City since 1927. Now in its third and fourth generation under the Vigilante family, the company handles residential and commercial plumbing, heating, air conditioning, drain and sewer work, and fire-protection systems across the five boroughs, built on flat-rate pricing, licensed master plumbers, and background-checked technicians.
Pascal
Pascal is a Cambridge, Massachusetts climate-tech company commercializing solid refrigerants to replace the greenhouse-gas coolants that make air conditioners, heat pumps, and refrigerators bad for the climate. Spun out of Harvard in 2023, Pascal builds cooling systems around barocaloric materials - wax-like layered solids that absorb and release heat when squeezed and released - working at pressures low enough to run on today's mass-market HVAC hardware. The company raised an $8M seed round in 2024 and aims to eliminate refrigerant emissions while cutting cost and boosting efficiency.
Danny Mayer
Danny Mayer is the co-founder and co-CEO of Windmill, the design-led air care company often called 'the iPhone of air conditioning.' A Harvard economics grad who spent a decade in investment banking, private equity and health-tech leadership, he teamed up with his brother Mike and third-generation AC expert Ryan Figlia in 2020 to reinvent the unloved window air conditioner. Windmill launched to thousands of waitlist sign-ups within 24 hours and has since expanded into air purifiers, fans and a connected smart-air suite, raising a $5M Series A in 2024.