HomeTech.fm - Episode 260 - A Chat with abode systems' CEO, Chris Carney

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

On this episode of HomeTech: We welcome Chris Carney, CEO and co-founder of abode systems, onto the show. Chris joins us to discuss abode’s robust and highly customer-centric approach to DIY home security. We cover everything from abode’s flexible pricing options and smart home integrations, to the exploding popularity of DIY security and the challenges faced by consumers in today’s evolving connected home market. Don’t miss it! That, plus the latest home tech headlines including: Control4 lifts the veil on their new OS3 software. New insights from Best Buy on their Total Tech Support program. Hubitat introduces a mobile app. Amazon expands its Alexa Announcements capabilities. A new ecobee thermostat rumored to be coming very soon. And more…

The Home Tech Podcast is supported by you. To find out more, go to hometech.fm support. This is the Home Tech Podcast for Friday, May 31st from Denver, Colorado. I'm Jason Griffin. And from Sarasota, Florida, I'm Seth Johnson. Jason, what is going on? I am, you know, I'm looking forward here. We've got WWDC coming up, Seth. It's been heavy on my mind. So heavy on your mind. Is it heavy on your wallet? Are you ready to do some betting on this?

Because we've got to do our bets. All right. We're going to get into some wagers here. Yes. All right. We typically cluster around that HomeKit. Is HomeKit going to even get mentioned? That's right.

Do you think HomeKit's going to get a mention? A mention as in like talked about yeah so so we've typically done we've typically done over unders on the show and this year we're scaling that we're changing our approach here is home kit even mentioned i am going to say and perhaps this is wishful thinking i'm going to go with yes i'll go with no just to be going with no i i mean okay well I'm going to go with yes. I'll go with no just to be contrary. You're going with no. Okay. Well, somebody's got to go with no. Yeah, of course. I mean, if you're going with yes, I'll go with no.

I'll get the next one. And that way I'll cover my bases. Is HomeCut going to get mentioned? Yes or no? You're with yes. I'm with no. And if it's yes, then is the Home app updated in any meaningful way? And by meaningful, I mean something as simple as changing out the wallpapers from that stupid red flower in the vase thing. That would be meaningful.

So does that qualify as meaningful or does it have to be more than that? No. Wallpapers is enough. Okay. I'm still going to... Or do you want to go first on this one? I will say no on the wallpapers, but if they does get mentioned and they do update it, you know, I'll obviously lost out on two of these things. Yeah. Well, you know, I think HomeKit has to get a mention, but I got to say no, there's no significant update on the Home app. Okay. They're sticking to their guns on that wallpaper.

It's been there for like five years. I mean, why change it now? All right. It ain't broke. Last one. This is a big one, Jason. Is the HomePod even mentioned? Is Siri in the can even mentioned? Or do they just brush it under the rug?

They just not want to think about it. Here's my answer on this one. It gets a brief mention, and that mention leads to the brief HomeKit mention. Those two are rolled together. Oh, okay. All right. I'm going to say no, but it will be in product images. I'm going to say they don't talk about it, but they will.

Lifestyle images? Yeah, lifestyle images. Okay. That's what you're? Yeah, lifestyle images. Okay. That's what you're going with. All right. Okay. It'd be wonderful if they updated it. We're on the record now.

Yeah. There's no going back. So that's coming up Monday. If you're listening to the show here on Friday, that's just a couple of short days away. And so we'll be looking forward to that. It's always fun regardless, but yeah, it doesn't appear that either of us have very high hopes for HomeKit. Temper your expectations, I think, is the message from the hometech.fm podcast. Lesson learned. All right. Well, moving on here,

we've got a great episode. We had Christopher Carnion, or Chris as he goes by, from Abode. And he is the CEO and co-founder of the company. And I really enjoyed it. DIY security has been a very dynamic and very rapidly growing landscape. And Abode has been one of the, you know, they were really one of the leaders of that market. They were one of the first to come to market and a lot has changed as they've grown and evolved as well. And so really appreciated Chris taking some time to come on and learned a lot and look forward to sharing that interview with our listeners. Excellent. Well, what do you say we jump into some home tech headlines first? Let's do it. Control 4 has announced the release of its smart home OS 3. According to the company,

OS 3 offers more than a thousand new features and capabilities, including new fluid, refined, and intuitive interfaces. Control 4 says the OS 3 brings support for more than 13,500 third-party devices and 7,500 Control 4 SDDP, which is their discovery protocol, embedded products. Yeah. Pretty big launch for them, and there is a lot that has changed i think they buried the lead on this one though seth what what is it no more circle of power it's the end of an era i mean i that's kind of been going away for a while like it's it the the the interface that was on the new ea controllers of did away with that, but it would still pop up in other places. But I think now they have unified that.

They've refined it a little bit better. Do I dare say they've made it look like savant? Savantized. Savantized? Is that a word? Can we say that? It does look similar to savant. And it looks like, Greg is saying, it looks like ping in there so like i think the design languages have kind of

like solidified a little bit on what uh these professional home automation systems look like and they look very similar if you look across the line now if you look at savant you look at control four they do they look similar they do they control similar things but each each has their own little forte and things that they they do than other ones. You know, like Savant has a really cool customizable Tyler control thing that you can get. Control 4 doesn't have that. Crestron Ping has the ability to step up into full Crestron system if you need to. So each one of them has their positives and negatives or however you want to stack those. But I think it's interesting to see the interfaces kind of become, I don't know, homogenized, I guess, is the word I'm looking for.

Like they almost look the same to me. Yeah. Well, I think it's the design language. I think you hit the nail on the head. And it's certainly a much more modern look. And it's consistent with we had Martin Plein,, the CEO of Control4 on back on episode 250. If you missed that one, definitely go check it out. It was a really, really interesting conversation.

And I know that's what he mentioned, like where Control4 is at in their very long term as he laid it out. of their trajectory right now is really focused on making things more modern and sleek now that they feel as a company that they've got a very robust platform in place. And so their next big focus, as Martin laid it out, was focusing on really modernizing and making it more sleek and attractive. And this appears to be very consistent with that. So we'll be interested to see how things go as it gets deployed. It does look like it is available for dealers now. So go ahead and check that out. All right, well, moving on here, Best Buy reported better than expected first quarter revenues of just over $9 billion, up 1.1%, and continues to forecast solid growth for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, its total tech support program is helping the company understand client behavior better. This from CE Pro.

The new CEO, Corey Berry, iterated to investors that the most important element of total tech support is the strategic relationship building it enables with its customers. The first stage of annual renewals is just beginning, and the company says that renewal rates are in line with their expectations. They don't, however, Seth, go on to specify what those expectations were, which is really interesting to me. And so really curious, you know, from our perspective at OneVision, we're very interested in this story and to know what those renewal rates look like

for a company like Best Buy doing this with their annual plans. Really interesting keeping a close eye on this one. What's the churn? Is that the word for it? Ch on this one. What's the churn? Is the churn, is that the word for it? Churn? Yeah. What's the churn? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We need to know. We need to know Best Buy. Tell us. Yeah. And then go ahead.

The most surprising thing for Best Buy, I went to a Best Buy the other day and I was walking around and somebody in a blue shirt came up to me and they were like, Hey, can I help you? I'm like, what? I had not had that experience in like, you know, a very long time so new ceo must be doing something yeah well i mean that goes back i actually did a piece in residential systems we can i'll find we can put up in the show notes about there's been a long-term turnaround for best buy revolving around the customer experience and it started in the store that was their first focus and and now they've moved that out and are focusing more on in-the-home, which is what we're seeing with total tech support. But yeah, no, you hit the nail on the head.

It's a totally different experience going into a Best Buy today versus going into a Best Buy five or ten years ago. Yeah, and it's probably been that long, honestly. It's been a while since I've been in there. But it was like, you people need to stop asking me. You're annoying me. You know, it's like that's how bad it was like, you people need to stop asking me. You're annoying me. You know, it's like, that's, that's, that's how bad it was. And, and, and, and before it was like a ghost town in that place and you couldn't find a customer service rep to help you. So yeah, they've definitely turned it around. NBC has launched its free news streaming service. NBC news now will air live programming

between 3 PM and 11 PM Eastern through both the web web as well as the NBC News apps on mobile devices and Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku. It'll offer ad-supported mix of live programming both on the hour segments and breaking news as well as pre-recorded features and interviews. Kind of cool, yeah. No, I like it. I think it's good to have these options. ABC and CBS, I believe, have similar ones, and I don't get to watch a lot of TV these days. The kids are sort of taking that over. And when the TV's on, which, you know, is limited in and of itself, the kids typically have it. But, yeah, if I want to watch something quick, I'll typically default to the news.

So this will give me another option. I'm going to go check that out. Yeah. Moving on here, Hubitat unveiled the new Hubitat Elevation mobile app, which aims to provide customers with key features, remote access, presence detection, and push notifications and help Hubitat users, quote, elevate their environment, end quote. The Hubitat Elevation mobile app is now available for iOS in the Apple App Store and for Android devices in the Google Play Store. It's an app. It's not a pretty app, but it's an app. Yeah.

It's got tiles. Yeah. It's got tiles. That is true. Speaking of design languages, yeah, you got to start somewhere. And, you know, we talked about Hubitat in the past year. They didn't have an app at all, and now they have one. And I'm sure now that they have it out and existing, they can iterate on it,

just like Control 4 has done over the years, and make the interface a little bit better. But, yeah, it's not a pretty app, but it is a functional app, I guess, is what they're going for, right? Yeah, got to start somewhere. And one thing that jumped out at me there, remote access. I know we had gone back and forth on that a few weeks ago and, uh, it does look like they're moving in that direction to give people more flexibility there. I know Hubitat, if you're not familiar, one of the things that makes them kind of unique is their approach to keeping home automation in the home. And this is traditional, you know, traditional companies like Control 4 or Savant, for example, or Crestron do it, have always done a ton of local processing,

but in the DIY straight to consumer space, really everything has traditionally been very cloud focused. And so Hubitat is really focused on keeping that processing in the home to make it quicker and more secure, but it does appear that they're getting demand for remote access and this app is a step in the direction of addressing that amazon has slowly been expanding the circle of devices that can use alexa announcements but now it's throwing the gates wide open the company has made the intercom like feature available to any device with alexa support built in you could use your thermostat or fridge to tell the kids the dinner is ready, and in theory, you won't have to visit a specific room like you might today. So like a specific room that has an Amazon Echo device.

This does open the gates to implement intercom in every room out of any kind of device possible. Yeah. You don't have to get up and walk around like a savage anymore. No. Or just like yell really loudly. Yeah. This will require, of course, device makers to implement it. There are some specific requirements, so not every product is going to have this right out of the gate, but

no, it's a nice feature. All jokes aside, I do like the idea of that little cherry on top, some extra functionality. so that's cool moving on here an updated ecobee thermostat and sensor is expected any day now and thanks to lowes all has been revealed this from uh from dave zatz doing what he does best and getting the scoop the new model will improve upon its predecessor by swapping the plastic display for glass plus enhancing wireless capabilities with dual band wi-fi and bluetooth beyond those hardware enhancements integrated alexa capabilities will more closely mirror first party amazon hardware with calling drop-in and messaging speak of the devil yeah there you go hey it's good good to see uh good to see it

happening because i i mean it makes sense the The thermostats, and typically in homes, are fairly centered in their location. I can think in the bigger homes, they were always, like, near the kitchen where you would have an intercom, one of those giant Niles, or not Niles, but, like, giant intercom, M&S intercom stations, right, with the CD player built in. So it makes sense that they have that they start building that in. So that's really cool. Yeah, it'll be a nice addition for folks who are interested in Ecobee. So go check that out.

That'll do it for our headlines. We're going to jump into our interview here with Chris Carney from Abode very shortly. But before we do that, we want to mention all of the links and topics that we'll discuss on this episode can be found on our show notes at hometech.fm slash 260. That's 260. While you're there, don't forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

We'll send you weekly show reminders and other occasional updates about all of the great things going on here in the world of home tech. Again, that's hometech.fm slash 260. Don't forget, you can join us in the chat room live Wednesday starting 7, 7.30 p.m. Eastern. You can find out more at hometech.fm slash live. And oh my gosh, look in the chat room, Jason. That is a new tone intercom that Greg took a picture of today. And look at that. It's got

a tape deck built into it that is a thing of beauty that is a gem right there i love that greg took a picture of it look at that wood green beautiful the finish on it they don't make them like they used to i like how it still has the basf tape still in there like it's ready to go. Probably still works. Yeah. Well, you can't break these. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, without any further ado, Seth, what do you say we jump into our interview with Chris Carney from Abode? Hey, Chris, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm doing great, guys. How are you? Doing very well. We're excited to have you on the show and to dive in and do a deep dive into Abode and learn really what you guys are all about.

We look forward to that. But before we jump into that, we'd love if you could share just a quick sort of personal introduction with our audience and talk a little bit about your background and what brought you to the point where you are today. Perfect. Yeah. So I actually come from a home security background. I had worked for Tyco and ADT for about 15 years prior to starting Abode. And so working there back at that time, it was kind of pre the interactive services type solutions that were coming into the space. And at ADT,

I was actually on the strategy team that helped develop the Pulse solution, which became the Pulse solution. And so I was able to kind of see the various technologies that were out there. And then I moved out to California for a business that ADT purchased in the software space for their commercial business and just had a bunch of ideas of what we wanted to do with that business. And the management team wasn't really aligned. So I said, I'm in Silicon Valley. I know what I want to do and I'm going to try to disrupt the

traditional model and create a company that I'm really passionate about in the space is really try to give people the ultimate customer experience while staying true to the kind of the professional grade technology. So that's kind of what Genesis of Abode was all about. Yeah. Yeah. So sort of that founding vision, you would say revolved around maybe some of the frustrations or limitations associated with that sort of entrenched model. Yeah, exactly. So like, you know, the long sales process, sales and install process, the business model around, you know, tying people to the long term contracts, you know, and then really the whole interactive piece, which really still, you know, at the time, back in 2013, it still wasn't, you know, really fleshed out yet, fleshed out yet. So we wanted to make a very open solution that you could interact with these other products that were starting to come on the market at the time. Nest had just really come out

and they did the deal with Google, I think, in 2014, which was we had already gone down the path of building our system. So we were kind of pre them, um, at least becoming their solution that it is today. Um, so we had that idea back then and really, you know, it's kind of, as you guys know, it's taken off tremendously across multiple of the big guys entering the space. So. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we'll, we'll get into talking about getting some of your thoughts on the broader, uh, landscape here before broader landscape here, certainly before the end of the interview. But let's sort of zoom in and talk about Abode specifically first. And for anyone who hasn't completely picked up on it or isn't totally familiar, give us a quick overview,

if you can, of what Abode really is about today and what makes you guys special or unique in what you yourself alluded to as a very growing and dynamic market? Sure. Yeah. So the first thing we decided was we wanted to make this all about the customer. So it's every decision that we make in our business is really putting them first in the process. So really what kind of makes us a little bit unique and special is when customers buy our product, it's you guys check all the boxes. So we try to provide that professional-grade home security to start, but then also allow people to add other devices to the system,

whether it's the different categories of garage door openers, lights, thermostats, all around the smart home to make a true experience for a customer. We also bundle in very, very reasonably priced plans and make it very easy for the customer to consume. We have, I believe, one of the only products on the market today in home security, which we dub our on-demand monitoring, which allows customers to purchase monitoring for small increments of three and seven days, which is very unique. And then just we do full home automation built into our hub, both at the edge and in the cloud. So we push down all of the scenes that people create through the app. We push it down to the gateway so it still can communicate to the sensors in the home if there is loss of power or internet. So you can still like unlock your doors if you come home and your system's, you know, down. It still works over cellular and you're still able to unlock your

turn on your lights that are, you know, battery operated. So it was really just meant to, you know, put the customer in control of all decisions and give them a really good experience and flexibility. And that's what we see a lot of people coming over to us from the traditional channel is, you know, you guys provide us flexibility. I don't need to pay for monitoring and install the product for them. The on-demand thing is a pretty cool idea. There's a lot of good ideas. I'm actually, while you're talking there, kind of going through the website and trying to buy a system. And it's a very straightforward, like there's a little wizard there at the very first page that you can click on.

It's one of the most straightforward things that you can do. When I was selling security, I wish I had something like that just to take in information. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And we do that because we realize that a lot of times people wanted to talk to us prior to, even though we go more towards a DIY crowd, you still have people that have a few extra questions or things that they want. So we've created this wizard that allows people to give us a really good idea of the system and the size of their home and how many things that they're looking at to buy. And then we provide them the ability to have us call them, email them, or they can go right to their cart to purchase. And we find that a lot of times people just have that one last question that they want answered and

we're able to help them and get them through the sales process. And then, and then what we, what we added this year is an integration into Hello Tech, which is the, is, which is a way for us to, you know, help people that don't want to install it themselves. So we, we call it the do it for me service from us. And so we offer it straight through Hello Tech through the buying process. They can check out and choose that professional installation as a SKU at the very end. And then Hello Tech will kind of follow the delivery and make plans with the customer that best suits them to come out and install the product for them. Very neat. Very neat. So let's talk a little bit about the product that you have. Obviously, there is a centralized panel type product that's kind of like a hub. Let's start with that and kind of go out there for the accessories that you can get. basically had Z-Wave, Zigbee radio, a 433 megahertz radio that provides very long range

for our security sensors. And then we had a battery backup and a cellular failover plan that had 3G. We've upgraded that gateway now. That was what we originally released back in 2016 we now have a 4g cellular which you know future proofs the product quite a bit and then we also have z-wave plus on board now which allows us to have the full encryption with s2 and be able to take advantage of the longer range of the z-wave devices they you they continue to evolve on that standard. So that's kind of what we call our Gen 2 gateway, which we're selling today. And then we also released a gateway very similar to that, and it's our all-in-one product. It's called IOTA. And so that gateway is similar in functionality that I just described, but it also includes a 1080p camera on board, two-way voice, and it has a motion sensor and a light sensor.

And so that one is more for like a smaller environment, an apartment or, you know, something where somebody can just have a plug and play system. It can also connect to all of our devices which i can go through in a second but then connect into you know all these third-party devices as well so if you just had an apartment that had one door you could get a door lock you know a light bulb and a thermostat for like eco b and then have you know full smart apartment um with you know basically one security device you could have professional monitoring you know at small bits at a time with that as well. So really, it's also earmarked potentially for the aging in place population. So people that want to have adult children in other places that just want to look after someone,

you can know whether or not they moved. You can speak to them through the two-way voice, have a panic button attached to the system, and you have a full-blown aging in place, kind of hub in place for them. But we do have an accessory product line that goes across the full breadth of security devices. So things like motion sensors, glass break sensors. You know, we have a motion sensor that has a camera embedded that can take still images. We have an IP camera and we have, we actually have four different types of door sensors because we found there's a lot of people that don't like, you know, that to see the sensors on the outside. So we have a recess sensor for the people that are, you know, are okay with drilling.

And we have a slim sensor that can fit in the gaps i've got to stop you there because that slim sensor is probably the coolest thing i've ever seen coming from a security standpoint yeah so i mean there's it's like it's you know for people that don't want to see the things and we heard a lot of that from the very beginning where you know people like look i like your product but i really don't want to see these these ugly you know chunky sensors so we've we've shrunk down our our traditional door sensor down to like a mini sensor, which is still pretty small, but people don't, you know, don't necessarily like those either sometimes.

But I think they're fine. Right, right. And then water leak as well. And we have a smoke, what we call our smoke alarm monitor, which can listen for the smoke alarm sound. So the siren that is a traditional UL listed smoke alarm can sound. Our sensor can pick up that sound and alert the customer that there's an alert happening when they're not home.

And then obviously, if you had an old system that had multiple smoke sensors all on one network, essentially, you only need one of those devices to basically protect your whole house from when you're not there to get that alert when you're not home. Water leak sensors as well. Right. I want to loop back around to one of the things you mentioned there that you added into the second gen gateway, which is the S2 security. Can you go a little bit into that and what is the advantage on the S2 security stuff? So as far as I know, there's, well, I know that there's longer range on the Z-Wave devices that are on the 500 series chip of Z-Wave, which is that, um, as a Z wave plus. Yeah. And then there's also the encryption, um, is stronger, um, with the S2 when that's enabled,

when that's on an enabled device that has the S2 on the other end. So it's, it's just around the higher encryption level as well as range and battery life, I believe are the upgrades, um, on Z wave plus. And since we're talking battery life, I believe, are the upgrades on Z-Wave Plus. And since we're talking about security systems, it's probably a good thing to have that extra bit of security added in when you're using those Z-Wave sensors. Yep. Cool. I want to jump in here because obviously we're talking radios.

I know you've got ZigBee and Z-Wave built into there. And let's talk a little bit about that. I think that segues nicely into a conversation about how the Abode system fits into a broader smart home. So it's obviously, you know, you listed out the accessories there. It's a very robust lineup. You guys clearly have a lot of flexibility there and options for users, but talk about how it fits into a broader home automation or smart home setup as well. Yeah, for sure. So we, so the, you know, we, we knew that when we started this, that we wanted to be open. And so the only way, and you know, at the time they're really,

they're really, and I believe even today, there still really isn't a clear winner on the, you know, who's winning the, the interoperability, whether it's ZigBee or Z-Wave or Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, there's still a lot of devices on all of these different frequencies. So, you know, the idea was to include at least two of those. And we chose those two due to the light bulbs. And like Philips Hue has a good integration, is a Zigbee integration. And a lot of the light bulbs that were out there. And then Z-Wave really kind of hit the door locks and the light switches and the garage door openers. And then so we chose to include both of those to keep this thing as open as possible and give the customer the ultimate choice and what they wanted to add. And then we've also done Wi-Fi integrations with Nest, with LifeX,

obviously Alexa and Google Assistant. So there's, again, to kind of expand across the different categories that are out there. We just think it's important. And then a lot of these things work with our automation engine. So you can set up scenes just like, we have complex and or scenarios in there. So you can disarm my system when I come, when I enter my geo fence or when I enter my home, we have a geo location control as well, coming and going from home.

So when you come home and you can say, turn on my light if it's after 5 o'clock or something. So it's pretty good as far as – I mean, it's kind of like a – I wouldn't call it like a mini control 4, but I mean, it has all the attributes of like 90% of the use cases that most people would want to have. You can capture it with our hub to be able to do all these things. Yeah. And I saw that on the website. I think you did a good job of, you guys have done a good job there on the website for people who are curious to go check that out. I think you guys call it Q automations, I believe. And you've got a really nice, it looks like visual interface with a fairly robust, like you mentioned, logic engine.

So you can do kind of win then scenarios, which a lot of people are very familiar with now. And so talk a little bit about that, the sort of interface for end users and how all of this is set up. How have you guys developed that? Yeah. So, you know, we, again, trying to keep it in line with like putting the customer there and try to make it as easy as possible. We are developing now, and our goal is to actually make it easier. So our vision is to actually be able to present to customers kind of like a library of automations when they actually add a device. We can kind of give them a menu to say, you know, you've

added a door lock to your system. Do you want to, you know, lock your door when every time you arm your system and you're in away mode and you leave home, you know, so we'll start, our goal is to start using, you know, some of the AI and algorithms and, you know, other things that we've been developing to, you know, better this. But as of right now, we try to make it as easy as possible to actually create the recipes through the mobile app or the web application that we have now based on what's already installed. But eventually we'd love to take it to the next level and give, you know, that library where it's like, just add this, press a button and people don't have to think about choosing all the devices to make things work. That's the ultimate.

That's the holy grail. Yeah, certainly. Cool. Well, now that sounds great. I'd love to actually get your take on something specific here that is topical and timely. You've mentioned Nest a couple of times, and as you I'm sure well know, Google's recent decision to kill off the Works with Nest program is making waves for a number of manufacturers and as a result, of course, consumers. Give us your take on that. What's the shakeout going to be generally in your opinion? And then specifically, how are you guys dealing with that? Yeah. So I i mean i believe we probably have one of the deepest integrations with works with nest of any company that's on that platform right now i

believe um maybe with the exception of like a control for you know someone that's kind of built built out we we actually touch all the nest products with our integration. So we have integration with the cameras, the thermostat, and the smoke detector. And so it's significantly going to impact, it would have, if they didn't walk back, what they announced first, it would have had a major impact on all the customers that invested in both of our solutions together to create their smart home. But it looks like that they've kind of walked back and they're going to support, as of August 31st, any customers on the Works with Nest platform with us. And those customers will continue to be able to use the system the way they have it today. New customers won't be able to get access to that API and will be put

on the Google Assistant API, which we're working really hard with them to try to add as many features as possible. But just kind of based on our use cases and things, I'm not sure it's going to get to that level or we're having a hard time thinking it will, you know, just based on like, you know, roll a camera, when a clip from a Nest camera, when there is an alarm event on an abode system, like we do that today. Or I can roll a Nest cam when a door opens, for give me a gif of that event, what happened 10 seconds before

and 15 seconds after. So there will be some things that, you know, be challenging to do. But I mean, my comments are pretty, I had made a few comments. We were asked back when it happened a couple of weeks ago, and I'm pretty clear on that. I think it's really, you know, a negative for the industry. And I think it's not, it's not good for the customer. And that's where, you know, I think those are the people that are going to be hurt the most will be on the customer experience side. And unless they can recreate everything on Google Assistant, I think that's the way it's going to be. Right, right.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. One good question. I wouldn't be an integrator if I didn't ask. Is there some kind of API or plans for API, the integration with Abode with the product? Yeah, it's a great question. We get that asked a lot. So we have a pretty rabid Reddit following and people that have really helped us. Is there any other way to have a Reddit following? Yeah. So they've helped us in many ways. I mean, they helped us actually have a customer support form before we even had one. And they've also helped us with features and things we've added. And, you know,

that's something that we've had a lot of requests for from that community. So it's a great question. It's something that we're looking at. I have a new CTO on board since the beginning of January, and he's, you know, he's going to take us there. And we're exploring, you know, he's going to take us there and we're, we're exploring, you know, what that looks like and, and how, you know, what makes sense for that too. Like what are going to be the most valuable things for people to write, write up against, you know, of that API. So it's, it's definitely a plan that we're looking at very seriously. And we just started to over the past couple of months, you know, try to put some, put our arms around what, what does it need to look like?

So there's definitely going to be more to come on that. And that's not a, you know, a BS answer. That's like, that's literally the best that we're going to do right now, but we're serious about it though, for sure. Oh, very cool. It's good to hear. I, you know, it's, it's always a good thing to even just be able to tell, uh, it's, it's, it, it from a, from a, either a DIY perspective or even from the professional side to have the ability to tell if

your system's armed or not outside of that system is always a, a good way of, of triggering other, other indicators that, you know, turn off the waters, you know, that kind of thing. So, um, yeah, I think right now the best thing that we're trying to do is understand what are the best use cases that, you know, makes it valuable. Um, and not just kind of, let's really try to build what, what, what's really valuable and not just build something and hope people come and try to use it. So that makes a lot of sense. It's a lot of work to make an API. So that they absolutely that. So we've talked about a we talked about the product. We've talked about the hardware and some of the software here with the automations and the apps that you can use. Let's talk a little bit about the pricing and the plans that you have, because I think these are probably some of the most competitive I've seen in the industry when it when it comes to what you get for what you're paying for. Yeah. So I would say, you know, I would say when Ring entered the space, it kind of changed the game for any company in our space just as far as like what pricing looks like.

So if you wanted to remain competitive, it was something that we felt like we needed to kind of adjust. So we've definitely come down on pricing and it's really as a direct result of, you know, wanting to stay in this game and, you know, go up against, you know, you know, an Amazon owned company. Right. So we we definitely have, I believe, the most, you know, robust, you most robust plans for what you get. Like you said, everything that we've packaged up, I feel like, is the best value for people. But we're kind of invisible in some cases where Ring gets a lot of the press because they have the money to put their name in the press a lot better than we can. And SimpliSafe, they're also spending a lot of money, but they're very, very limited on what their solution can do versus ours. So I think our challenge is to get more visibility and show people what we have. And then I think we'll definitely be mentioned more with that crowd.

But the pricing is very reasonable. I mean, it's like under $200 to get a starter kit. And then for the IOTA, it's a little bit more expensive, but you have three extra devices basically built into that unit. And both of them have 4G, latest technology, and all these integrations. And the free plan is by far the best value out there we give everyone you know access to any kind of automations you want to build so it's kind of

like the best of like smart things with the with the home security system but not as many integrations as smart things obviously right um yeah so yeah i think i mean i hope i answered that the way you wanted it but it's i believe we do have really competitive pricing as well. It's competitive. It's not only competitive, it's flexible. I mean, like you mentioned the on-demand stuff, which is huge. If you're on the free plan and you're going out of town for a couple of days, do the on-demand thing if you see value in that. And that way you can sleep at night in the hotel, not worried that your house is getting broken into. But even your Connect plan is $8 a month, or the Secure, which is the professional one, is $20 a month.

Those are great price points. Yeah. And even on Connect, I have to be honest, I was shocked to find how much people's internet goes out that people don't really realize. Oh, yeah. Because we analyze the data that our cellular system uses. And I would say literally 80% of the people that are on the Connect plan are utilizing this cellular backup on a monthly basis. To some extent, there's some data being driven there. So that means that a lot of people don't realize that their internet's going out for bits of time. And if you had an alarm event and

you're on an IP-based system, you're not covered. So it's a lot more important than I think. And we don't really market it that way. But as I've been learning more and more about, you know, the cellular connection as a failover, it's, it's pretty important. And it's like you said, it's pretty cheap. Right. We, Jason and I both are kind of involved in the, the what they call the RSM industry where they, we do the remote systems management, I believe is what it is. And we have these little devices and software packages that we put in to monitor the devices on the network. But as a benefit of that, you get to know when the Internet goes down. And I'm just getting notices today from clients that their Internet is going down. And why?

Who knows? Who knows why? But, you know, 10, 15 minutes, it's down. And then it comes back. But like you said, if you were— So you guys see that you're seeing the same thing then, essentially, right? Yeah. All the time.

All the time. Yeah. It's very typical. And yeah, like Seth mentioned, a lot of professional integrators will put these devices in and they monitor connectivity and status of various home automation devices. But yeah, I've had a whole lot of experience and even some recently in my home where I was having some, some internet issues and it really helped me sort of zero in on, on a, on a bad modem is actually what, what the issue was. But, um, yeah, coming back to that. Yeah. I was going to say, I'm wondering if it's because of all these devices now they're on everybody's network, if that's causing, you know, some of these routers and some,

some of the ISPs, you know, services being, you know, whether it's throttled back or the amount of data that's available, I don't know. But I think maybe it's going to become more and more of an issue as more and more of these devices get online too. Yeah. And I think having that cellular backup in place is definitely a must at this point. If you really want the peace of mind of, especially like I think about my wife and I here at our home, and we travel frequently around the holidays, and we'll be gone for a little while at a time. And it's nice to just have that peace of mind of a security system, but it doesn't do you a lot of good if you're totally relying on the network and the network's out, right? So if you really want that peace of mind, I think it's pretty critical to have. I think actually that transitions nicely into one of the other questions

I wanted to ask, speaking about peace of mind, what sort of ongoing service and support options do you offer for users? Especially as you start getting into smart home use cases and things like that, that can definitely be an important factor. So how do you guys approach that? Yeah. So today we cover chat, email, and phone. So we're covering all three. And we see probably 60% of our inbound cases are essentially coming in from a pre-sales perspective. So people asking questions before they buy, which it's a pretty good, pretty good size number. And then the remainder are, you know, your typical, you know, they're probably split between account, you know, billing, you know, logistics, you know, like tracking orders and things like that. And then the,

and the remaining, you know, 20% are technical support, true, you know, technical support issues. So we cover, we cover them on all three of those, um, all three of those platforms today. And I, I don't have the exact hours, but I believe where I know we're seven days a week on support. Um, and where I think we go until 8 PM, um, Pacific time, seven days a week. So got it. Yeah. And I also noticed as different on the different pricing plans, you guys, you guys had some different, I think there was a different option at the higher tiers for like a premium support model as, as part of that, uh, as part of those higher tiers. So definitely worth checking out. I think as you alluded to, and talking about the, the, the growing landscape and the number of options out there, you know, something that I live

and breathe as part of my, my day there, something that I live and breathe as part of my day job and something that I know a lot of our listeners think about that maybe the more casual consumers don't is that service and support layer. And what does my experience look like? Not when things are working perfectly, but when things aren't working. And I think that's a really important factor for people to consider. So definitely go check that out. As we start to butt up against our time here, I did want to zoom back out and talk about the growing DIY security landscape. This is really a category, frankly, that going back five, six years really hardly existed, if at all. And, and I think now it's, it's one of the more popular areas and a lot of different options out there and talk about some of the challenges and opportunities that you guys see as a company and, and for consumers as well with this growing, uh, the growing number of options out there. Yeah. So, I mean, it's definitely changed the entire landscape. Um,

like, like you said, and I was at, um, an event in San Francisco this past week, last week, called Connections run by Parks and Associates. And I was on a panel for, you know, this exact topic. So we, you know, they had asked the audience, you know, how many people believe that, you know, this is basically growing share or, you know, taking share from the traditional players. And, you know, as the conversation evolved, you know, I think it's doing both, but I think it's taking share away from traditional players more than, you know, everyone initially thought when they first asked the question based on the answers we all gave. So I think, you know, I think there's plenty of room for growth. You know, there's like 25% of customers have home security today or a professional home security system. So I think there's definitely room to grow that pie bigger. And there's also room for companies like ours to, I want to call it take, but basically have an alternative for people to move away from that traditional model into something more like what we have that may really want security, but don't want to, you know, have to be tied to that

model, whether it's because they're a renter and they're not going to be there long term or what. So it's an exciting space. I think the interoperability, you know, from a smart home perspective is definitely a challenge and we need to continue to, you know, innovate. And then the opportunities are, you know, new markets. So outside the U.S. is there is there's a big world out there that this stuff is also, you know, an opportunity for. And then also, you know, adjacent type companies or, you know, industries like energy management and insurance. And there's other places for us to partner up with those types of companies to be a new offering to the consumer through them. So that's kind of where we're definitely focusing our time and, you know, trying to grow our business that way as well.

Very cool. Very cool. Sounds like you guys have a lot of, uh, a lot of potential in front of you. Uh, and I'm, I'm glad that we were able to sit down and talk with you. We've seen Chris, we've seen abode for a number of years. You've seen some of your new press press releases float across and we've talked about you in the past, but I haven't been able to wrap my head around the product until now sitting down and talking with you and going to your website. I got to say,

your website's probably one of the best I've seen in the industry, especially when it comes to security. Thank you very much. Yeah, appreciate it. You guys should be congratulated on that one. Thanks. So I do want to say thank you very much. If people want to reach out and get in touch with you or learn about Abode, where would you say to go? Yeah, so I mean, we have a direct phone line actually these days, which I can give the number 650-443-7834. And then you could always write in at support at goabode.com, or you could email me directly at CEO at goabode.com and love to feel messages from this podcast. It'd be awesome if people did actually write me. Cool. Yeah. Well, like Seth said, Chris, we really appreciate it. I enjoyed learning more about the product and the company and your take on where this is all going. It was really a fun

conversation. So we appreciate you taking the time and we'll look forward to staying connected in the future. Thank you, Jason. Thanks, Seth. Good to meet you guys. Enjoyed it. And that wraps up the interview with Chris. And I want to say this, Jason, this product, I said a little bit in the interview about it, but like we've talked about Abode. It's been on the edge of our radar for a while. What a really, really cool product and company. It looks like they're really, there are not too many of these companies out there that, that really look like they focus on the customer. And you can tell from like the buying process to the system design, to the pricing, like they are really like just trying to make it easy for people to use and well first acquire and buy their product, but they're also making it easy for them to use and get involved with adding more stuff.

It's really, it's really cool system and a really cool company. I agree. I think it's, it's one of those things that's so easy to say, like we're a company that focuses on the consumer. And when I first heard him say that, that, that sort of thing goes off in your head. It's like, all right, a lot of companies say that, like, how do you do it? Like, what, what does that actually translate to? And I think throughout that conversation, I came away with the same sort of impression that they're a company very focused on making security easy and approachable for consumers. And I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting to know Chris and getting to know the product a little bit better as well. It was great.

All right. No mailbag this this week but we do have one pick of the week i don't know where it went it's not on our cards or anything but uh jason so so when richard was was on the show the other week he let me in for a little hint he said that the smart home show would be coming back and uh mike wolf as you know was the the previous host of the smart home show he might mike's been really busy in the kitchen space, but he decided to hand it off to both Richard and Adam Justice, both good friends of the show and supporters of the show, actually. So really cool. The Smart Home Show is back.

If you don't know, like sometimes when these shows end, like you go through and you clean out your old feeds in the podcast app or whatever, you just delete them out, and you don't go back and ever check. If you've done that with a smart home show, go back. There's two episodes in there now. They've had two episodes released, and I'm pretty sure they have a WWDC episode in there. There's no website yet.

There's nothing really to point you to other than just searching for it on your podcast app of choice, but that'll get those two episodes back in there if you're already unsubscribed. If you have been listening, it's a pretty good show. So check it out. Cool. Well, yeah, I'm excited to hear about this.

You know, Mike did a great job with that show. Always, I always enjoyed it. And he's since gone on to really focus on the kitchen, smart kitchen, like you said. And I think he's doing some amazing work in that space. But I'm excited to see the smart home show. Somebody sort of pick up the banner. And I think Adam and Richard will do a great job with it, both friends of the show. I'm a big fan of the work that they do on their individual respective podcasts. Adam has the

Connected Home Show, and Richard has the Home On Podcast, both really, really excellent podcasts. If you're a fan of this show and haven't checked those out, definitely encourage you to do that. Now the Smart Home Show as well. Make sure that one is in your feed. I'll be, I'll be really interested to see what, uh, Richard and Adam do with that show. Yeah. And Mike, Mike has not written a book. No matter what you think, Mike has not written the book. It's a different, completely different Mike Wolf that I, I cannot imagine being named Michael Wolf and, uh, and, and being one letter off from, from, from like someone who who's writing books that are politically charged in this day and age. Can you imagine?

His feed is just going to look at it. His Twitter is getting blown up. Yeah, what is this, Fire and Fury? Yeah, and he's got a new one coming out in the next couple of days about Trump again. And it's just like, oh, my gosh. You go and look at Mike's feed and it's just like mentions of people really mad at him. And he's like, I do smart kitchen stuff.

You know, it's like, wrong Mike Wolf. Yeah, I didn't, wrong guy. Oh, that's a bummer. All right, cool. Well, yeah, that's great. Definitely go check that out. If you have any feedback, questions, comments, picks of the week, ideas for a topic or guest,

give us a shout. Our email address is feedback at hometech.fm. Once again, that's feedback at hometech.fm. Or visit our website at hometech.fm slash feedback and fill out the online form. We've had several people reach out recently with topic and guest ideas, and we really appreciate it. We're actively pursuing a couple of those, so definitely keep them coming. And we do want to give a big thank you to everyone who supports the show, but especially those who are able to financially support the show through our patron page. If you don't know

about our patron page, head on over to hometech.fm to learn how you can support Hometech for as little as a dollar a month. Any pledge over $5 a month gets you a shout out on the show, but every pledge gets you an invite to our private Slack chat, The Hub, where you and other supporters of the show can gather every day for the inside baseball conversations about all aspects of home technology. And typically, typically, we're hanging out in there with this, you know, WWC when it happens, and these live events, we're in there, you know, messaging back and forth.

Oh, it's a ton of fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, that's always a blast. If you it's a ton of fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's always a blast. If you want to help the show but can't do it financially, we definitely get that. We would appreciate a review on iTunes or in your podcast app of choice. Those reviews definitely help more people find the show. So please take a moment to do that.

We would really appreciate it. Well, that wraps up the show this week, Jason. Pretty good show, pretty good interview. It's good to get back in the interview saddle again. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to look for some more guests here more consistently in the months ahead. It's definitely a lot of fun to get those different perspectives on the show. I agree. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that wraps up this week. Jason, I hope you have a good weekend. All right. You as well. Take care, Seth. See you next week.