Tricking out homes to fit more seamlessly into our increasingly digital lives promises to be big business, as the cost of connecting devices to the Internet goes down.
Forbes Magazine, one of the nation’s leaders in identifying and sharing business trends, believes Todd Pedersen is going to be one of the big names to lead this emerging industry. Pedersen is the founder and CEO of Vivint, one of the largest and fastest-growing home automation companies in the world. We wrote about its offerings for pet owners earlier this month.
Vivint is listed 46th on Forbes’ annual Most Promising Businesses list, and MountainWest Capital Network earlier this week named Pedersen Utah’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year.
A Forbes.com contributor’s profile of Pedersen discusses how he and Vivint got where they are today.
More than 20 years ago, Pedersen hired 10 employees to help him sell pesticides, basically door-to-door. In 1992, the company whose product he sold contacted him directly, asking if he could expand his team to 80 people. One year later he was offered a $1 million buyout while still in college, and he turned it down.
In 2006 he had grown and diversified the company to a $50-million worth. That year he got backing from Goldman Sachs to continue growing. Today Vivint is worth more than $2 billion.
The company has moved from killing pests to home automation and renewable energy for individual homes.
Vivint’s solar division employed 10 people one year ago. By the end of this year, Pedersen told Forbes.com, he anticipates a team of 400 working on solar.
Another Forbes contributor and president of the MWCN, Devin Thorpe, explained why he feels the next few years will be even more exciting for the 44-year-old entrepreneur, as his industry takes off.
“Vivint is just now beginning to deliver on its full potential in home automation,” Thorpe said. “I believe Pedersen’s future is destined to be even more interesting than his past.”
