Since March 2024, Distro has been written about, interviewed, put on panels, and picked by HARDI to build a free AI tool for the whole HVACR industry. Almost all of it sits on other people’s websites, which is part of the point, though it does mean it’s spread across seven trade publications, a podcast, a print edition, three association sites and a couple of video libraries.
Hoping to provide anyone interested in Distro (or our insights) one place to find it all, we created this page to document everywhere we've been showing up.
Independent reporting and analysis
AI Agents in Distribution: Why the Window for Competitive Advantage Is Closing Fast
Distribution Strategy Group · 10 October 2025
A write-up of a DSG panel moderated by Brian Hopkins, DSG's Chief Operations Officer, with Distro founder and CEO Jason Sullivan and Brooks Hamilton of AI Strategy Advisors. Sections cover what separates agentic AI from traditional automation, speed and service quality, the case for acting now, protecting trust while automating, and how customer interactions are likely to change. Jason describes agency as a spectrum rather than an on/off state, and works through levels of autonomy in quoting, from AI-suggested products inside a quote to systems that monitor an inbox and update the ERP.
AI and 'Ask A2L'
The ACHR NEWS · 19 September 2024 · Matt Jachman
Coverage of a Q&A between HARDI marketing director Allison Greene and Jason Sullivan on the final day of HARDI's Focus conference in Dallas. The article explains what Ask A2L is and how HARDI and Distro built it, then sets out Jason's points on adopting AI: using it to be more consultative with customers, giving it specifics about location and type of business, working to defined metrics, and the risk of putting company data into a public tool.
"When you're looking at such a nuanced, important, industry-specific issue like the A2L transition, it turns out that those kind of general tools ... don't do a very good job, but are, in fact, kind of misleading."
How Distributors Can Use AI to Boost Revenue and Margins
Industrial Distribution · video · 13 minutes
A video interview with Jason Sullivan on Industrial Distribution's channel, part of the publication's 5 Minutes with ID series. The publication's framing is that distributors sit at very different stages of AI adoption, and that those who have not started tend to be held back by change management, uncertainty over which application to choose, a missing digital foundation, or fear of failure. The conversation covers where distributors have seen revenue and margins improve. The article version sits on inddist.com.
Columns by Jason Sullivan
Written by Distro's founder and CEO, published by industry titles.
Knowledge Gap
PHCP Pros · July 2026
On product and technical knowledge leaving PHCP distribution as experienced staff retire, under the subhead "The problem nobody talks about in PHCP distribution." Sections cover preserving institutional knowledge, a different approach to product information, and turning knowledge into productivity. The argument is that the constraint is retrieval time rather than effort, and that shared drives and internal wikis did not fix it because they do not deliver an answer at the moment someone needs one.
The article cites a distributor that loaded more than 1,100 documents into an AI knowledge engine connected to its Prophet 21 ERP: knowledge retrieval times down 80%, product match accuracy at 90%, more than 4,200 logged conversations, and quoting reduced from about 30 minutes to roughly five.
The AI Capability PHCP Distributors Are Missing
PHCP Pros · April 2026
On cross-referencing products across brands a distributor does not stock, under the subhead "The cross-referencing problem no one in distribution is talking about." Sections cover why most AI in distribution solves only half the problem, why cross-referencing changes things, plan and spec as a revenue driver, the effect on team capability, and the case for a single platform. The argument is that tools limited to a distributor's own ERP cannot handle RFQs naming unfamiliar part numbers or brands the distributor does not carry.
Figures cited: RFQs of more than 100 line items processed in 60 seconds, matching at 95%+ accuracy, and time to quote cut by 90% or more.
AI in Wholesale Distribution
PHCP Pros · October 2025
On implementation rather than product, subtitled "How leadership change and the right partner shape the future." Sections cover leadership that guides change, choosing a partner, how AI fits into existing distribution workflows, agentic AI, common myths, and treating AI as a strategic capability. The three myths addressed are that a distributor's data is not clean enough, that the team will not use it, and that AI will replace people.
AI for Distributors: Supporting the Entire Sales Team
Electrical Trends · 25 January 2026 · introduced by David Gordon
A column first published in Southern PHC and reprinted by Channel Marketing Group. It goes role by role through a distributor's sales organization, with sections on the counter, inside sales handling a pile of RFQs, outside sales answering on the spot, project teams on large jobs, branch managers, and executives, then makes the case for AI that works across the whole sales team rather than in pieces.
David Gordon, who has published ElectricalTrends since 2006, adds an introduction noting that Distro works with small distributors as well as some large and national ones, and that different businesses need different approaches.
AI for Distributors: Supporting the Entire Sales Team
HVACR Trends · 27 January 2026 · introduced by Chuck Labow
The same column on Channel Marketing Group's HVACR title. Editor-in-chief Chuck Labow adds an introduction and a closing note on measurable ROI. The author bio here also covers the AskA2L tool built with HARDI.
Interviews, panels and webcasts
Building AI Technology for Distribution with the Human Mind in Mind
Distribution Talk · episode 157 · 29 May 2024 · 36 minutes
A podcast interview with host Jason Bader, who spent 40 years in distribution and now runs The Distribution Team. The conversation covers how Distro turns industry documents and thousands of product SKUs into real-time recommendations for counter and inside sales reps, Jason's background in technology and behavioral psychology, and AskA2L, the tool built for HARDI.
Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Applied AI for Distributors 2025: AI in Action
Distribution Strategy Group · Chicago, 26 June 2025 · panel
DSG's preview of the panel program at its annual conference. Jason Sullivan appeared on "AI in Action: Real-World Applications Driving Distribution Success" with Kristen Thom, SVP of Customer Experience at White Cup, and Sahitya Senapathy, CEO of Endeavor AI, on how their companies use AI for sales prioritization, inventory forecasting, pricing and data cleanup. DSG also published a short promo for the session.
The HARDI partnership
In 2024, HARDI, the association representing more than 450 HVACR wholesalers, worked with Distro to build AskA2L: an AI chat tool answering questions about the A2L refrigerant transition. It drew on EPA rules, material from AHRI's Safe Refrigerant Transition Task Force and industry documents, was free to use, and could be embedded on a distributor's own website.
HARDI and Distro Announce Launch of AI-Powered, AskA2L Tool
HARDI · 29 March 2024 · Connor Pilbeam
The launch announcement on HARDI's own site, with quotes from Jason Sullivan and from Alex Ayers, HARDI's VP of Government Affairs, who explains the tool was built to educate HARDI members and then opened to the wider industry.
HARDI to launch AskA2L to aid industry in refrigerant transition
Homepros · 25 March 2024 · Alec Stevanovski
A newsletter brief published ahead of the launch, with comment from HARDI on how the tool accounts for location, product category, volume and recent legislation, and examples of the questions it was built to answer.
HARDI's New AI Feature Helps With Refrigerant Transition
The ACHR NEWS · 27 March 2024
A short news item on the launch, covering how answers account for location, product category and recent legislation, and that distributors could embed AskA2L on their own websites.
HARDI and Distro Announce Launch of AI-Powered AskA2L Tool
PHCP Pros · 1 April 2024
The launch announcement in the plumbing, heating, cooling and piping trade, covering the sources the tool draws on and the range of professionals it was built for, from wholesale executives to contractors in the field.
Company and product news
Distro Launches Redesigned Platform Website
PHCP Pros · 2 June 2026
An announcement covering the products on the platform: AI quoting and order entry, plan and spec, Distro Agent for internal teams and customer-facing use, and automated accounts payable, with integrations to Epicor Prophet 21, Eclipse, Infor, NetSuite and DDI. Figures given: 90% faster quoting, 80% faster knowledge retrieval and 92%+ item match accuracy.
Distro launches new website
Southern PHC · 18 May 2026 · Gillian Rosier
The same announcement in Southern PHC, which has covered plumbing, heating and cooling contractors and wholesalers across 14 southern states for more than 70 years.
Y Combinator
Launch YC: Distro, bringing point-of-sale AI to industrial distribution
Y Combinator · 20 May 2024
Distro's launch post from the Summer 2024 batch. It sets out four pressures on distributors: experienced reps retiring with product knowledge, quoting complex systems, growing SKU counts and supply disruption, and difficulty hiring and retaining counter staff. It cites HARDI's 2023-2024 State of the Channel report on a 13 percentage point shift toward counter staff and inside sales influencing purchasing decisions.
Four principles follow: meet reps where they are, onboard without a long implementation, treat the distributor's data as theirs, and enhance rather than replace. Includes four product screenshots.
Distro on Y Combinator
Y Combinator
The company profile. Lists Jason Sullivan's background: co-founder of Vested, CTO at Elementus, tech lead at Coatue, senior software engineer at PeerIQ, and before that a credit derivatives trader, with an MS in Computer Science from Stanford and a BA in Cognitive Science from Yale.
YC S24: AI Agents for the Enterprise
Wing Venture Capital · 30 September 2024
Wing's write-up of the 243 companies that pitched at the 39th Y Combinator Demo Day, grouped by theme. Distro is listed under AI Copilots as the wholesale entry.
Last updated: August 2026
Written by:
Jason Sullivan
Founder & CEO of Distro
