When Kevin Hartz’s security system failed to alert him when an intruder rang his doorbell late one night and tried to enter his San Francisco home, the serial entrepreneur decided that existing solutions weren’t good enough. His co-founder Jack Abraham had experienced similar frustrations at his Miami Beach residence.
They started in 2024 Sauron – named after the sinister, all-seeing eye of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ – to build what they envisioned as a military-grade home security system for the tech elites. The concept resonated in Bay Area circles, where crime had become a constant topic during and after the pandemic, despite San Francisco Police Department statistics showing property crime and homicide rates fell last year.
The startup raised $18 million from executives behind Flock Safety and Palantir, defense technology investors including 8VC, Abraham’s startup lab Atomic and Hartz’s investment firm A*. It emerged from stealth exactly a year ago and promised to launch in the first quarter of 2025 with a system 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 very much in development mode – a reality that its new CEO, Maxime “Max” Bouvat-Merlin, candidly acknowledged in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
After nearly nine years at Sonos, including a stint as Chief Product Officer, Bouvat-Merlin took over at Sauron last month. He’s spending his first days on the job finalizing basic questions: which sensors to use, how exactly the deterrent system will work and when the company can realistically get products into customers’ homes.
The answer to that last question? Later in 2026 at the earliest – a significant delay from the original timeline.
“We are in the development phase,” said Bouvat-Merlin. “You’ll see a phased approach where we bring our solution to market as a stepping stone. All the different components – our concierge service, our AI software running on servers, our smart cameras – are building blocks that come together in a plan that we recently put in place.”
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
Still, Bouvat-Merlin sees striking parallels between Sauron and Sonos, both of which focus on wealthy customers first, rely on word of mouth and combine complex hardware with advanced software. “I had lunch with John MacFarlane, the founder of Sonos, a few weeks ago,” Bouvat-Merlin said. “All the topics he was thinking about when he started Sonos were exactly the same topics we discuss at Sauron.”
Both companies faced the same strategic questions: start with super premium customers or mass premium? Professional installation or DIY? Build everything in-house or collaborate with an ecosystem? “We may be making different decisions, but the questions are very similar,” he said.
The security problem
Bouvat-Merlin says he was attracted to Sauron by both the mission and the opportunity to solve a real customer problem. “Securing people’s homes is important, but I also like the deterrent aspect of changing people’s minds before they make a bad decision and get into trouble,” he said.
His research found that market leaders in premium home security have small market shares and a negative Net Promoter Score. “People today are not happy with their solutions,” he said. “There are so many false positives that when the police are called, they don’t respond because they assume it’s a false alarm.”
The company focuses on customers “where safety and security is a major concern” – people like Hartz. The plan is to start with this premium segment, build a reputation for supporting demanding customers and then expand into what Bouvat-Merlin calls ‘mass premium’.
The product (still taking shape)
So what exactly is Sauron building? The answer is still evolving. The offering starts with multi-sensor camera pods – “40 cameras and different types of sensors, possibly LiDAR and radar, possibly thermal,” Bouvat-Merlin said. These pods connect to servers running machine learning software for computer vision, all linked to a 24/7 concierge service staffed by former military and law enforcement personnel.
“Those people understand patterns,” he said. “They are good at helping us mature our machine learning solution and train our system to detect strange behavior.”
The deterrence system remains somewhat vague. Options being considered include loudspeakers, flashing lights and other methods. But Bouvat-Merlin stressed that deterrence must start before anyone enters a property, by detecting when houses are being checked, circling the area several times and identifying threats at each stage.
“The more honest we are in terms of deterrence, the more we can convince people that this is the wrong house to rob and the wrong decision to make,” he said.
As for the drones mentioned when Sauron first finalized his plans last year, Bouvat-Merlin declined to say much. “These are roadmap conversations. I don’t want to get too deep at this point because there are so many things we could do, but we’re such a small company,” he said. He added that, in the bigger picture, the focus is on growing the ecosystem through partnerships, rather than reinventing the wheel.
Timeline and business model
With fewer than 40 employees, Sauron plans to hire another 10 to 12 by 2026. The company will also begin working with early adopters later in 2026, with a Series A fundraising planned for mid-year.
“Raising a Series A isn’t about raising because we have to – it’s because we want to,” Bouvat-Merlin said. “I want to make sure we show progress and explain how we will use additional money to accelerate growth. [including to] launch our first end-to-end product, drive customer adoption and accelerate the roadmap.”
The company has already attracted a significant list of potential customers, he said, thanks to the work of Sauron’s three founders, who include roboticists and engineers. Vasumathi Raman. “We expect the strategy will initially be word of mouth, but will grow differently over time.”
But Bouvat-Merlin is cautious about growth. “I want to ensure we grow sustainably and maintain the premium experience and service over time,” he said. “I want to control the growing pains as much as possible while increasing profitability.”
The issue of the surveillance state
Concerns about facial recognition and privacy play a major role in a product that involves a lot of surveillance. Bouvat-Merlin outlined one approach: a trust-based system where homeowners grant access to specific people. “I’ve granted you access to my house, so now you’re in the trusted group. When you come, I’ll see it’s you and you’ll be allowed in. Everyone else is an unknown person,” he said, painting a picture of a likely scenario.
License plate detection is also being considered for identifying cars that drive multiple times in the area. “How do we assess whether that is a threat? The ex-military and ex-law enforcement team will be very good at helping mature our machine learning solution,” he said.
Regardless, Bouvat-Merlin is confident in the opportunities ahead because of Sauron’s approach. “Many companies started as traditional security companies and are trying to add technology,” says Bouvat-Merlin. “We look at it from the opposite angle: we are a technology startup in San Francisco bringing technology to this market.”
Sauron also appears on the scene as concerns about crime among the wealthiest grow. Recent high-profile incidents include a November armed robbery of the home of tech investors Lachy 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 threats.
“We see that people who are rich attract criminals,” Bouvat-Merlin said. “We’ve seen a lot of robberies in San Francisco and other major US cities, sometimes at gunpoint. I don’t think the world is getting safer – there are probably more differences between people at the top and bottom of the wealth spectrum. We’re seeing anxiety among potential customers who are eager to secure their homes.”
Yet much remains uncertain about Sauron’s path. The company needs to finalize everything from sensor configurations to manufacturing locations. (Bouvat-Merlin mentioned possibly starting in the US for proximity and control, then moving to more affordable locations as volume grows.)
It must also determine how to serve customers in different environments, from estates with perimeters to dense urban housing, while maintaining quality of service.
For now, Bouvat-Merlin says he is focused on listening to his team, building credibility and finalizing the strategy he is implementing. “I don’t demand that people trust me – I want to show them why they should.”
The company expects to share more details about its products later next year.
#Sauron #highend #home #security #startup #super #premium #customers #plucks #CEO #Sonos #TechCrunch