As the Portland, Ore. housing market headed toward all-time lows in 2007, Sky Heating & Air Conditioning had to make major changes to survive. The end result, a total transformation into a growing company focused almost entirely on selling high-end, high-efficiency products like 16 SEER heat pump and geothermal heat pump systems. They also owe some of that success to an experiment they conducted via YouTube.
Sky Heating & Air Conditioning was founded in 1980 by Bill Smith and is also owned by Ken Cutright and Travis Smith. The company focused mainly on the residential new-construction market until the entire real estate industry began its slump in 2007. In the boom times the company was installing 30 systems each week. By the end of 2009, they were lucky to complete 30 new-construction jobs a year.