Alex Blumberg on Turning Buildings into Grid Assets with DaisyChain Energy
From Inevitable by an MCJ podcast
April 1, 2026 · 39 min
About this episode
Alex Blumberg discusses how DaisyChain Energy turns commercial buildings into flexible grid assets to address building decarbonization and energy economics.
Alex Blumberg is Co-founder and CEO of DaisyChain Energy, a company building a hardware-enabled software platform that turns commercial buildings into flexible grid assets. Best known as the founder of Gimlet Media and co-creator of Planet Money, Blumberg’s second venture focuses on solving one of the most overlooked problems in climate: the misaligned incentives inside buildings. In this episode, Blumberg explains why building decarbonization has stalled—not because of smart grid technology, but because of economics. The conversation explores how DaisyChain uses submetering and rate arbitrage to create immediate financial value for building owners, while unlocking the ability to deploy batteries, heat pumps, and other distributed energy resources over time. They also discuss their expansion into hospitals, where power quality issues create major operational risk, and how the same platform can solve both problems. At a system level, Blumberg outlines a future where aggregated building loads become flexible assets that help stabilize the energy grid and reduce peak demand. We’re proud to have invested in DaisyChain and support their journey towards the modernization of the grid.
People in this episode
Guest: Alex Blumberg
Topics covered
- building decarbonization
- grid assets
- energy economics
- submetering
- rate arbitrage
- distributed energy resources
Keywords
- DaisyChain Energy
- Gimlet Media
- Planet Money
- energy grid
- batteries
- heat pumps
Mentioned in this episode
Products: DaisyChain, DaisyChain Energy
Books & works: Turning Buildings into Grid Assets
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