SmartRent

SmartRent was a small startup betting that apartment living could run from the phone in a resident’s pocket. They hired me to help build that app, the product the whole company stood on.

For a resident, the app was SmartRent. It was how they set the thermostat, locked the front door and turned on the lights. The hardware could be excellent, but if the app felt slow, confusing or untrustworthy, none of that mattered.

So I made it feel immediate. Every control responds the moment you touch it, and the interface design is fluid and deliberate. The everyday jobs, like nudging the temperature, locking up on the way out and putting the lights on a schedule, are obvious the first time, with no manual. It should feel like your home, not a dashboard of devices.

And it had to be secure. This is the app that opens someone’s front door. Security was never a feature on the roadmap; it was the floor every screen stood on.

The app became the face of the company. SmartRent grew from a small startup into a public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2021 as SMRT.