It’s definitely a very crowded and competitive industry.
I’m surprised that Scout isn’t enhancing their relationship with SmartThings, for example, but possibly they are focused on the reliability / supportability of their own equipment packages first.
At $19.99 (+ equipment) Scout includes cellular and battery backup (not possible with SmartThings except via complicated custom routers and external UPS), and cloud storage for one camera.
https://www.scoutalarm.com/shop/monitoring-plans
Equipment cost (whether Scout, ADT or others) is certainly non-trivial, but it is one time expense. The important factor is reliability, since why bother paying the fees for a monitored security service otherwise?
ADT originally planned to offer monitoring of SmartThings homes via the same integration as Scout, but dropped that option to build the “ADT Security Hub” instead. While the second option adds revenue up front for the custom hub (panel) and proprietary sensors, that cost includes benefits to customers (traditional arm/disarm/panic panel, battery backup & cellular) and the reputation of the largest home security company in the country. The “story” is that ADT would not risk their reputation by relying on the SmartThings sensors and hub; i.e., that the incremental hardware cost is for essential reliability, not immediate revenue capture.
Every new business needs to start somewhere, but it seems to me that monitoring of SmartThings based security is already “well covered” at both low and high ends —Scout and ADT — both of which have established reviews and reputation, and both of which are officially sanctioned integrations by SmartThings.
I look forward to seeing exactly how SafeMonit will be able to distinguish itself. To me, unfortunately, your value proposition isn’t distinctive and compelling at this point.
Do you integrate with any other platforms besides SmartThings? I can’t find any background information in your company - not even your address…