When Kevin Hartz’s security system failed to alert him when an intruder rang his doorbell and tried to enter his San Francisco home late one night, the serial entrepreneur decided that existing solutions weren’t good enough. Its co-founder Jack Abraham experienced similar frustrations at his Miami Beach residence.
In 2024, they launched Sauron — named after the all-seeing evil eye from the movie “The Lord of the Rings” — to build what they envisioned as a military-grade home security system for tech elites. The concept has resonated in Bay Area circles, where crime has become a consistent topic during and after the pandemic, even though San Francisco Police Department statistics show property crime and homicide rates declined last year.
The startup has raised $18 million from the executives behind Flock Safety and Palantir, and from defense technology investors including 8VC, Abraham Atomic’s startup lab, and Hartz’s investment firm A*. It came out of stealth exactly a year ago, promising to launch in the first quarter of 2025 with a system that combines AI-based intelligence, advanced sensors like 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 fact that its new CEO, Maxime “Max” Bouvat-Merlin, candidly admitted in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
After nearly nine years at Sonos, including a stint as chief product officer, Buffat-Merlin took the helm of Sauron just last month. He spends his first days on the job finalizing key questions: what sensors to use, exactly how the deterrent system will work, and when the company can realistically deliver products to customers’ homes.
The answer to this last question? Later in 2026 at the earliest, which is a significant delay from the original timeline.
“We are in the development stage,” Boffat-Merlin said. “You’ll see a step-by-step approach where we get our solution to market as a starting point. All the different components — our concierge service, our AI software running on the servers, our smart cameras — are building blocks that come together in a plan that we just created.”
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However, Buffat-Merlin sees striking similarities between Sauron and Sonos, which target wealthy customers first, rely on word-of-mouth growth, and combine complex hardware with cutting-edge software. “I had lunch with John MacFarlane, the founder of Sonos, a few weeks ago,” Buffat-Merlin said. “All the topics he was thinking about when starting Sonos were exactly the same topics we discuss at Sauron.”
The two companies faced the same strategic questions: start with premium customers or universal premiums? Professional or DIY installation? Build everything in-house or partner with the ecosystem? “We may make different decisions, but the questions are very similar,” he added.
Security problem
Buffat-Merlin says he was drawn to Sauron because of the mission and the opportunity to solve a real problem for customers. “Securing people’s homes is important, but I also like the deterrence aspect — changing people’s minds before they make a bad decision and get into trouble,” he said.
His research showed that market leaders in premium home security have small market shares and negative net promoter scores. “People are not satisfied with their solutions today,” he said. “There are so many false positives that when law enforcement is called, they don’t respond because they assume it’s a false alarm.”
The company targets customers “where safety and security are a major concern” – people like Hartz. The plan is to start with this premium segment, establish a reputation for supporting demanding customers, and then expand into what Buffat Merlin calls “all-in-one premium”.
The product (which is still in development)
So what exactly is Sauron’s construction? The answer is still evolving. The display begins with camera pods containing multiple sensors — “40 cameras and different types of sensors, likely LiDAR and radar, possibly thermal,” Boffat-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 employees.
“These people understand patterns,” he said. “They are good at helping us develop our machine learning solutions and training our system to detect strange behaviors.”
The deterrence system remains somewhat ambiguous. Options being considered include speakers, flashing lights, and other methods. But Buffat-Merlin stressed that deterrence must begin before anyone enters the property, detecting when homes are being monitored, noticing cars driving around neighborhoods multiple times, and identifying threats at each stage.
“The more explicit we are in 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 that were mentioned when Sauron first revealed his plans last year, Bovat Merlin declined to say much. “These are roadmap conversations,” he said. “I don’t want to get too deep at this point because there are a lot of things we can do, but we are a small company.” He added that the bigger picture is that 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 just 10 to 12 more in 2026. The company will also start 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,” said Buffat-Merlin. “I want to make sure we show progress and explain how we will use the additional funds to accelerate growth,” he said. [including to] Launching our first comprehensive product, enhancing customer adoption, and accelerating our roadmap.”
He said the company has already attracted a large list of potential customers, thanks to the work done by Sauron’s three founders, who include a roboticist and an engineer. Vasumathi Raman. “We expect the strategy to initially be word of mouth, and then grow differently over time.”
But Povat Merlin is cautious about growth. “I want to make sure we grow sustainably and maintain the expertise and service excellence over time,” he said. “I want to manage growing pains as much as possible while increasing profitability.”
Question of the surveillance state
Facial recognition and privacy concerns loom large for a surveillance-heavy product. Buffat-Merlin identified one approach: a trust-based system in which homeowners grant access to specific people. “I gave you access to my house, so now you’re in the trusted group. When you come, I find out it’s you and you’re let in. The others are anonymous,” he said, painting a picture of a possible scenario.
License plate detection is also being considered to identify cars that drive around neighborhoods multiple times. “How do we assess whether this is a threat? The ex-military team and the ex-law enforcement team will be really good at helping develop our machine learning solution,” he said.
Either way, Merlin is confident of his opportunity because of Sauron’s approach. “A lot of companies started out as traditional security companies and are trying to add technology,” Boffat-Merlin said. “We look at it from the opposite angle — we’re a San Francisco tech startup bringing technology to this market.”
Sauron also appears on the scene as concerns about crime among the wealthy grow. Recent high-profile incidents include an armed robbery in November of 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 that included torture and threats.
“We see the wealthy attracting criminals,” Boffatt-Merlin said. “We’ve seen a lot of robberies in San Francisco and other major American cities, sometimes at gunpoint. I don’t think the world is any safer – there are probably more disparities between people at the top and bottom of the wealth spectrum. We see anxiety from potential customers who are eager to secure their homes.”
However, there is still much uncertainty about Sauron’s path. The company must finalize everything from sensor configurations to manufacturing locations. (Bova-Merlin mentioned the possibility of starting in the US for proximity and control, then moving to less expensive locations as size grows.)
They must also determine how to serve customers in different environments, from perimeter properties to dense urban housing, while maintaining outstanding service quality.
For now, Buffat-Merlin says he is focused on listening to his team, building credibility, and finalizing the strategy he has in place. “I’m not asking people to trust me, I want to show them why they should.”
The company expects to share more details about its products later next year.
