MeterLeader

MeterLeader operated a web-based platform that let households, employers, building owners and cities run gamified energy-saving challenges built on real-time utility meter data. Users synced hourly electricity and natural gas data from their online utility accounts through a third-party data provider, joined a challenge, followed energy-saving tips, and tracked usage against their own prior-year baseline for the same period. Challenge pages displayed each participant's percentage change in kWh electricity use, therms of gas use and pounds of carbon emissions, plus aggregated group savings, while exact consumption data remained visible only to the individual user. Percentage change rather than absolute use was displayed to normalize for differences in home size, home type, occupancy and equipment; increases in usage were not counted against the group total.

The platform had two user roles. Organizers designed a challenge, set energy-reduction goals and rewards, recruited participants over email and social media, monitored progress, and rewarded winners with prizes and recognition. Participants synced their meter data, joined one or more available challenges, and tracked their ranking. Marketed use cases included employee engagement for companies seeking to measure and reduce emissions from work-from-home staff as part of ESG reporting, programs for building owners, and city climate action plan engagement with residents, including customizable weekly educational email content on energy efficiency and home electrification.

MeterLeader was integrated with hourly electricity and gas data from 12 utilities across 10 states; San Diego Gas & Electric listed MeterLeader LLC in its third-party application directory as a web-based residential and commercial/industrial tool covering competition, demand management, energy management and gas, with alerts, energy-use display and tips/recommendations. The company's website carried a notice that MeterLeader was shutting down and that the app would no longer be available on December 6, 2024.

Founding story

Co-founders Natalie Zandt and Jolyon met in 2009 as students at Cornell University, where they were members of the Sustainability Hub student club. After noticing lights left on overnight in campus buildings, they created Lights Off Cornell, a web application that mobilized over 200 student volunteers to switch off lights at night in six campus buildings and measured the resulting carbon emission reductions; volunteers were paired up, assigned buildings, and sent reports of their impact. After graduation Jolyon earned a PhD in theoretical physics and worked six years at MIT before moving into data science, while Natalie, an environmental science major, worked as an energy efficiency consultant at ICF designing and implementing residential efficiency programs for four utilities in Maryland and later for SoCal Edison and SoCal Gas. In 2018 Natalie proposed recreating Lights Off Cornell at national scale and approached Jolyon; MeterLeader launched roughly nine months later. After building an MVP, Natalie spent over six weeks in San Francisco seeking early customers before the platform went live in 2019.

Business model

MeterLeader offered a turnkey, web-based challenge platform sold to organizations — employers, building owners and cities — that wanted to engage a defined population in measurable home energy reduction, while individual participants could sign up and join challenges for free. The company positioned the product as requiring little setup or maintenance and no energy expertise on the customer's part, and was recruiting pilot partners.

The site listed a pricing page and marketed paid, sponsored challenge programs to companies, building owners and cities, with free sign-up for individual participants; specific pricing terms are not stated in the available material.

Traction

By the time of the 2021 profile MeterLeader had over 200 users and was in the early stages of pre-seed fundraising, with challenges available to customers in PG&E and SCE territory and a pilot planned with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. Following the 2022 backend rebuild the platform supported 12 utilities in 10 states and was listed as an approved third-party application by San Diego Gas & Electric. The company was actively seeking pilot partners and investment before announcing its shutdown.

Latest developments

MeterLeader announced on its website that it was shutting down and that the app would no longer be available on December 6, 2024.