home-automation
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Takeshi Homma
Takeshi (Ted) Homma is the founder and CEO of HOMMA Group, a Palo Alto smart-home designer, developer and builder he started in 2016. Descended from a Japanese family with fifteen generations in the building trades, he spent years at Sony and Rakuten before setting out to build what he calls a 'housing version of Tesla' - turnkey homes with proprietary, AI-driven technology woven into modern architecture. HOMMA has delivered pre-configured smart-home communities in Portland and proof-of-concept units in Boston, and partnered with a Mitsubishi Corporation subsidiary to scale the idea.
HOMMA Group, Inc.
HOMMA Group is a Palo Alto-based smart-home developer that builds residences with proprietary technology baked in from day one, rather than bolted on by the resident afterward. Founded in 2016 by former Sony and Rakuten executive Takeshi (Ted) Homma, the company designs the architecture, hardware, and software together so lighting, shades, thermostats, and door locks adapt to residents automatically. Its Cornerstone AI platform lets builders embed and remotely manage smart systems across multi-unit developments, with projects spanning Portland townhomes, a Boston high-rise, and a 30-unit Portland tower built with Mitsubishi's Diamond Realty Investments.
Brilliant Smart Home
Brilliant Smart Home (Brilliant NextGen, Inc.) makes smart home control simple by replacing a wall of light switches with an in-wall touchscreen that runs lighting, climate, music, intercom, cameras, and smart devices from one panel and one app. Founded in 2015 in San Mateo, California, the company sells control panels, smart dimmer switches, and smart plugs to homeowners, home builders, and multifamily property managers. After a 2024 bankruptcy and acquisition by Almeida Strategic Investments, it relaunched as Brilliant NextGen with a builder-and-integrator focus and a second-generation Power over Ethernet platform.
CANDY HOUSE
CANDY HOUSE, Inc. is the consumer-hardware company behind Sesame, the retrofit smart lock that mounts over an existing deadbolt with adhesive tape and turns a smartphone, fingerprint, card, PIN or face into a key. Founded in 2014 by Stanford engineer Jerming Gu and famous for a 2015 Kickstarter that raised about $1.4M, the company built an open ecosystem around SesameOS - locks, touch and face readers, a coin-sized Matter hub, sensors and finger robots - aimed at making smart-home access affordable, rental-friendly and developer-open.
Jerming Gu
Jerming Gu is the Taiwanese founder and CEO of CANDY HOUSE, the company behind SESAME, the smart lock that clamps onto an existing deadbolt and turns a smartphone into a key. He started the company as a Stanford mechanical engineering master's student in 2014 with co-founder Jongho Shin, then turned a 3D-printed dorm-room prototype into a Kickstarter phenomenon that raised roughly $1.4 million in 2015. After a decade building a dominant smart-lock business in Japan - including funding from ITOCHU and a strategic alliance with lock maker MIWA - he relaunched CANDY HOUSE in the US and Canada in 2025 with a lineup spanning SESAME 5, face recognition, palm-vein biometrics and Matter-compatible hubs.
John Martin
John Martin co-founded Level Home in 2016 with the idea that the best technology is invisible - literally. After a snowstorm stranded him and his family at Lake Tahoe without keys, he set out to reinvent the deadbolt from scratch. The result: Level Lock, a smart lock engineered to hide entirely inside the door, preserving home aesthetics while adding full smartphone control. Martin spent decades across Microsoft, Starbucks, Apple, and Nokia before building Level into a $171M-funded company that was ultimately acquired by ASSA ABLOY in 2024 - a hardware giant recognizing that the future of the lock is invisible.
The Bot Company
The Bot Company is a San Francisco robotics startup building a helpful home robot for everyday chores. Founded in 2024 by former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt with Paril Jain (ex-Tesla AI) and Luke Holoubek (ex-Cruise), the team is creating a non-humanoid robot designed to give people their time back from household drudgery.
Lisa Petrucci
Lisa Petrucci is the CEO of Brilliant NextGen Inc., the San Mateo-based company behind the leading in-wall smart home touchscreen control panels trusted by builders and property managers across North America. A veteran of Dun & Bradstreet, Joyent, and Six Apart, she joined Brilliant in 2018 as VP of Business Development before stepping up to lead the company through a pivotal acquisition in 2024 and a $9.7M funding round in 2025. Under her leadership, Brilliant has launched a second-generation AI-ready control platform and a Power over Ethernet professional line, cementing its position at the intersection of smart home hardware, multifamily real estate, and connected living.