When Kevin Hertz's security system failed to alert him late one night when an intruder rang his doorbell and tried to enter his San Francisco home, serial entrepreneur Kevin Hertz decided existing solutions weren't enough. His co-founder, Jack Abraham, experienced a similar setback at his home in Miami Beach.
In 2024, they launched Sauron, named after the evil, all-seeing eye from “The Lord of the Rings,” to build what they envisioned as a military-grade home security system for the technological elite. The concept resonated in Bay Area neighborhoods, where crime has been a constant topic of conversation during and after the pandemic, even though San Francisco Police Department statistics show a decline in real estate crime and homicide rates last year.
The startup has raised $18 million from management teams from Flock Safety and Palantir, defense technology investors including 8VC, Abraham's startup lab Atomic, and Hertz's investment firm A*. It came out of stealth exactly a year ago, promising to launch a system in the first quarter of 2025 that combines AI-driven intelligence, advanced sensors such as LiDAR and thermal imaging, and 24/7 human monitoring by former military and law enforcement personnel.
But a year later, Sauron is still in development mode. New CEO Maxime “Max” Bouvat-Merlin candidly acknowledged that reality in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
Bouvat-Merlin took the helm of Sauron last month after nearly nine years at Sonos, including a stint as chief product officer. He spends his first days on the job finalizing basic questions, such as which sensors to use, how exactly the deterrent system will work, and when the company can realistically get the product to customers' homes.
The answer to the last question? Late 2026 at the earliest – significantly behind the original schedule.
“We are in the development stage,” Bouva-Marlin said. “You'll see a step-by-step approach to bringing our solution to market as a stepping stone. Our concierge services, AI software running on our servers, smart cameras, and other various components are all building blocks in the plan we just recently laid out.”
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Still, Bouva-Marlin sees striking similarities between Sauron and Sonos, in that both companies target wealthy customers first, rely on word-of-mouth growth, and combine complex hardware with sophisticated software. “A few weeks ago, I had lunch with John McFarlane, the founder of Sonos,” Bouva Merlin said. “All the topics he had in mind when launching Sonos were the exact same topics we're discussing at Sauron.”
Both companies faced the same strategic challenges. Do you start with super-premium customers or mass-premium customers? Professional installation or DIY? Do you build everything in-house or partner with an ecosystem? “We may make different decisions, but the problems are very similar,” he said.
security issues
Bouva-Merlin said he was drawn to Sauron both by its mission and opportunity to solve real problems for customers. “Ensuring people's homes are safe is important, but I also like the deterrence aspect: that people change their minds before they make the wrong decision and get into trouble,” he said.
His research shows that market leaders in premium home security have small market shares and negative Net Promoter Scores. “People are not satisfied with today's solutions,” he said. “There are so many false positives that when you call the police, they think it's a false alarm and don't take action.”
The company is targeting customers like Hertz, where “safety and security are major concerns.” The plan is to start with this premium segment, establish a reputation for supporting demanding customers, and then expand into what Bouva Merlant calls “mass premium.”
Problem (still taking shape)
So what exactly is Sauron making? The answer is still evolving. The product starts with a camera pod with multiple sensors. “40 cameras and different types of sensors, potentially LiDAR and radar, potentially thermal,” Bouva-Marlin said. These pods are connected to servers running machine learning software for computer vision, and all are linked to a 24/7 concierge service staffed by former military and law enforcement personnel.
“These people understand patterns,” he says. “They help mature machine learning solutions and train systems to detect strange behavior.”
Deterrence systems remain somewhat vague. Options being considered include speakers, flashing lights, and other methods. But Bouva-Marlin stressed the need to start deterring before someone enters your property, detect when your home is being monitored, notice a car circling your neighborhood multiple times, and identify threats at each stage.
“The more outspoken we are about deterrence, the more we can convince people that this is the wrong house to rob and the wrong decision to make,” he said.
Bouva-Merlin declined to say much about the drones, which were mentioned when Sauron first revealed his plans last year. “These are roadmap discussions. I don't want to get into too much detail at this point because there's a lot that can be done, but we're a very small company,” he said. He added that the broader focus is on growing the ecosystem through partnerships rather than reinventing the wheel.
Timeline and business model
Sauron, which has fewer than 40 employees, plans to hire an additional 10 to 12 people in 2026. The company will also begin working with early adopters in late 2026, with Series A funding expected in mid-year.
“Raising Series A funding is not about raising money because you have to, but because you want to,” Bouva-Marlin said. “We want to confirm that we are showing progress and explain how we will use the additional funding to accelerate growth. [including to] Launching our first end-to-end product, driving customer adoption and accelerating our roadmap. ”
He said the company has already attracted a sizable list of potential customers, thanks to the work of Sauron's three founders, including roboticist and engineer Vasmati Raman. “We expect this strategy to start by word of mouth and grow differently over time.”
But Bouva Merlin is cautious about growth. “We want to grow sustainably and maintain a premium in experience and service over the long term,” he said. “We want to manage growing pains as much as possible while increasing profitability.”
The problem of the surveillance state
Facial recognition and privacy concerns loom large in surveillance-focused products. Bouvat-Merlin outlined one approach: a trust-based system, where homeowners grant access to specific people. “I gave you access to my house, so now you're part of a trusted group. When you come, I know it's you and you're allowed in. Everyone else is a stranger,” he said, painting a picture of a likely scenario.
License plate detection is also being considered to identify cars that repeatedly circle a neighborhood. “How do we assess whether it's a threat? Our teams of ex-military and ex-law enforcement are really good at maturing our machine learning solutions,” he said.
Either way, Bouva-Marlin is confident about the opportunities ahead. The home security market is fragmented. ADT leads with about 18% market share, while competitors have smaller shares. “A lot of companies start out as traditional security companies and are trying to add technology,” Bouvat Merlin said. “We're looking at it from the opposite angle. We're a San Francisco tech startup bringing technology to this market.”
Sauron also appears as concerns about crime increase among the wealthy. Recent high-profile cases include the November armed robbery at the home of tech investors Laci Groom and Joshua Buckley in San Francisco's Mission District, where $11 million in cryptocurrency was stolen during a 90-minute ordeal involving torture and intimidation.
“We see wealthy people attracting criminals,” Bouva-Marlin said. “San Francisco and other major U.S. cities are experiencing a rash of robberies, sometimes at gunpoint. I don't think the world is getting any safer. Perhaps the gap between the rich and the bottom is getting wider. I can see the anxiety in prospective buyers who want to feel safe in their homes.”
Still, there is still much uncertainty about Sauron's future path. Companies need to finalize everything from sensor configuration to manufacturing location. (Bouvat-Merlin said they may start in the U.S. for proximity and control, then move to more affordable locations as volumes increase.)
You must also decide how to serve customers in a variety of environments, from bordered properties to dense urban housing, while maintaining the highest quality of service.
For now, Bouva-Marlin is focused on listening to his team, building trust and finalizing the strategy he is developing. “I'm not asking people to trust me. I want to show them why they should trust me.”
The company plans to announce further details about the product late next year.