A few years<\/span> ago, mattress company Casper\u2019s co-founders Philip Krim and Jeff Chapin were banging their heads against the wall. Krim was in Long Island in New York while Chapin was in Wyoming. The weather in New York can be pretty different from that in Wyoming, but when bad storms roll through, they both suffer power outages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent most of COVID out on Long Island, where the power lines are old,\u201d Krim told TechCrunch+. \u201cThey would go down through bad storms. I had solar, and my wife\u2019s like, \u2018We have solar, why do we lose power?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t have a battery.\u2019 I tried to add a battery. I struck out with three different electricians. I called the people who installed our solar; they said we would not roll trucks just for a battery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I called Jeff because he\u2019s smart and honest. I\u2019m like, \u2018How do I do this?\u2019 He was like, \u2018It\u2019s really frickin\u2019 hard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapin\u2019s experience hadn\u2019t been much better. After moving to Wyoming, he grew concerned that his home would be without heat if, during a blizzard, the nearby cottonwood trees started shedding limbs onto the power lines. \u201cThat\u2019s how they survive in a windy climate: They drop branches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n