Opower's best product was a piece of paper. Utilities mailed it to homes, and it showed how much power you used compared with the neighbors next door. People who saw that they used more tended to cut back. By the time Opower went public in April 2014, 93 utilities in eight countries used its software, and its data covered 52 million homes and businesses. The company sold the idea that a nudge could work like a power plant.

Once Called Positive Energy

Dan Yates and Alex Laskey started the company in 2007 in the Washington, D.C., area under the name Positive Energy. Their first product was the home energy report, built on behavioral science research. Utilities paid because regulators rewarded them for cutting demand, and saved power was cheaper than building new plants. Opower later added web and mobile tools for utility customers. The bet was that utilities, slow buyers of technology, would pay for cloud software that made customers both thriftier and happier.

Oracle Buys the Nudge

Opower sold shares at $19 on April 4, 2014, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as OPWR. Growth slowed as utilities took a long time to sign and renew contracts, and the company kept losing money. The stock drifted well below its offering price. In 2016 Oracle bought Opower in a cash tender offer at $10.30 a share, a deal valued at about $532 million, and folded it into its utilities business.

Cover: The Lamp, Mary Cassatt. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lamp at home (household energy).