It seems that the smarter your home gets, the smarter you have to be to keep up with it. Add up all the maintenance you have to do, the bills you have to pay, the supplies you have to buy, and everything that can go wrong and you've got the raging ball of mess that is the glory of home ownership.
OK, many people muddle through without seeing the whole effort collapse. They're the ones we like to refer to as "organized". Meanwhile, the rest of us forget a few of those tasks and wind up with grass up to our knees, a colony of dust bunnies that multiply like rabbits, and some putrid smell in the kitchen that we can't source.
There's a startup for that: BrightNest is a giant, cloud-based to-do list, customized to your home.
"We built a recommendation engine that delivers customized content to each user," says cofounder and president Justin Anthony. That is, instead of just keeping track of what you may have forgotten, BrightNest actually incorporates data like climate and time of year to help curate the tasks you'll need to do. Users input information about location, house type, even family and pets.
"We're basically leveraging technology to make it easier for people to take care of their homes," he says.
BrightNest also incorporated a healthy dose of how-tos and DIY instructions from experts like realtors, builders, and inspectors. The editorial content, kind of like Lifehacker for your home, was an additional strategy and a new and growing facet to the company.
"That's really increased our engagement and activation numbers so dramatically, it's been the biggest change the company has undergone," says Anthony. "Homeowners need more than a system to remind them what to do; they also need to know what their home needs and why."
The service and the content are free, thanks to investors and because BrightNest leases the service to real estate agents and companies, who can stick their brand on the service, thus helping their clients stay on top of their new home and maintaining a relationship with them.
