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The Home of Tomorrow Is Here Today
The Jetson's home of tomorrow might be right next door. BeAtHome.Com -- one company with a high tech idea that's come to market…
Grocery shopping in five minutes…knowing there is someone at your front door thanks to a computer notification…or seeing your kids come home from school -- even though, you are miles away at work. It may seem like a home in the future but there are many homeowners living that life right now.
Dan Malstrom is one of four entrepreneurs who founded BeAtHome.Com two years ago. The internet software company allows customers to access and manage their home from a private home web site. Malstrom says customers simply plug in the hardware to an outlet and phone line, connecting the system to a designated personal web site.
"It controls heating, cooling, lighting, security devices, video from w/in the home, services such as grocery services, and we'll be adding many more in the future -- such as energy and medical services for family members."
The BeAtHome technology can be a tremendous time saver for busy families. Lisa and Dan spend about five minutes grocery shopping from their rural Fergus Falls Minn home. As they use up an item in their kitchen cupboard, they scan it with a wireless bar code scanner, recording the size and brand they've used. Those items are beamed in their home computer, which will, on command, place a grocery order with a grocery store in Fargo, which provides online shopping and delivery. The groceries are then delivered right to Dan's Fargo office.
Malstrom has set up 45 wireless devices in his own home -- including a camera in the kitchen and one overlooking his backyard, a pressure sensitive entrance mat at the front door, motion sensors, temperature and lamp controls, smoke detectors, and door sensors alerting the computer when a door is open.
The base package offered by BeAtHome.Com, which includes cameras, home security, home automation and home controls -- runs about 25-hundred dollars, with additional monthly service fees.
Malstrom says the founders of BeAtHome.Com did not spend a lot of time at a bank, seeking financial backing as they started up the company. "What we really spent time doing was raising capital from other entrepreneurs in the Fargo-Moorhead area, friends, technologists, people who had started companies themselves before and knew what it was like to really invest money in innovation and engineering well head of the market's acceptance of the products."
At first, BeAtHome.Com only had a few customers, mostly employees. But today the automated home management and security systems are installed around the United States and later this month the company plans to expand into Canada. BeAtHome.Com is also planning to expand into South American and Eastern Europe later this year.
"We're growing and growing quickly and the industry heavyweights -- the technology companies are really looking for ways to expand the BeAtHome technology."
From seasonal property owners over fifty, to new homeowners and two-parent families, Malstrom says the BeAtHome.Com technology is used by a wide variety of customers. Malstrom says the potential for home automation in North Dakota is growing. "As satellite and high speed internet become prominent across rural North Dakota, you're going to see systems like this not only being used by homeowners across North Dakota, but you'll find systems that will be able to manage farming operations and various devices and sensors in grain bins and tractors and in fields."
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