Professional Smart Home, Without the Complexity
We believe professional home automation shouldn't require technical expertise or endless troubleshooting.
YOUR AUTOMATION PARTNER
Your Home Deserves Better Than a Call Center
My first smart home project was a door sensor I built from scratch: a magnetic reed switch, an ESP8266, and an Arduino wired together on a breadboard. It cost about four dollars and took a weekend. It also worked better than anything I could buy off a shelf, because I understood every part of it.
That was ten years ago. Since then I've gone from breadboards to production Kubernetes infrastructure, from one Arduino sketch to 18 custom Home Assistant components running across 5 properties in Chicagoland. I'm a data scientist by training, which means I approach automation the same way I approach any system: figure out what actually matters, cut what doesn't, and build something that holds up over time.
Most smart home companies sell you hardware and a subscription. I manage infrastructure. There's a real difference. After years of running this in my own home, friends started asking me to build the same for them. Somni Labs grew out of that, and it's stayed small on purpose.
What This Means for You
When you work with Somni Labs, you work with me. Directly. I keep a limited client roster because I'd rather know your system cold than juggle dozens of properties I can barely remember. No call centers. No explaining your setup to a different technician every time something needs attention.
Nine years in the Army Reserve taught me that reliability isn't a feature, it's a baseline. I show up, I follow through, and if something breaks at an inconvenient hour, I fix it.
We're currently managing 5 properties across Chicagoland. If that number ever gets too big to do the work right, I'll stop taking clients before I start cutting corners.
Gerardo Palacios · Founder, Somni Labs
The Problem We're Solving
Somni Labs started from direct experience managing a small HOA building and implementing smart home automation across multiple properties. We quickly noticed two gaps in the market:
1. Homeowners who want professional-grade smart homes have to DIY everything or deal with fragmented cloud services.
2. Small property owners can't find affordable tools that integrate property management with building automation.
Option 1: Traditional Property Management Software
Tools like AppFolio and Buildium are great for managing tenants and leases. But they don't include building automation. No smart locks, no energy monitoring, no environmental sensors. Just software.
Option 2: Enterprise Building Management Systems
Major corporations use these for their office towers. They're sophisticated and powerful, but they cost $100-300 per unit per month. Way too expensive for a 10-unit building.
Option 3: DIY Smart Home
Home Assistant is powerful, but it's not a solution for most people. It requires technical knowledge, constant maintenance, troubleshooting integration issues, and doesn't include property management features for landlords.
The gap: Homeowners want professional smart home automation without DIY complexity. Small property owners need that PLUS integrated property management. Nobody was building either solution affordably.
So we built it ourselves.
What Makes Somni Different
1. Local-First, Always
Your home, your data, your hardware.
We don't believe in cloud vendor lock-in. When your smart home or property data lives on someone else's servers, you're at their mercy. Prices go up, features get removed, or the company gets acquired and everything changes.
Somni runs on hardware you own, at your location. Everything stays local. You're not trapped.
2. Open-Source Foundation
No black boxes. Full transparency.
Every Somni component is built on open-source technology. No backdoors, no hidden behaviors, no vendor lock-in.
If you ever want to leave Somni's managed service, you can. Hire another integrator or manage it yourself. The technology isn't proprietary.
3. Integrated by Design
Smart home automation + optional property management that actually work together.
For homeowners: Professional smart home automation without DIY complexity. For property owners: Add property management features that integrate seamlessly with building automation.
Somni was designed from the ground up to integrate them: work orders trigger building automation, building sensors inform property management, energy monitoring ties to unit billing.
Proven, Battle-Tested Infrastructure
The technology powering Somni has been running in production for years—not in a lab, but in real homes and buildings:
- • Real properties with real families and tenants
- • Real failures—power outages, network issues, device malfunctions—all handled
- • Real improvements refined over thousands of hours of actual use
This isn't a startup MVP. The core platform has been managing real homes and properties for years before we ever offered it as a service.
Why this matters: You're getting infrastructure that's already been through the growing pains. We know what breaks and how to prevent it.
Why We Grow Slowly
We're currently managing 5 properties across Chicagoland. We could probably handle more technically. But we don't want to—yet.
Here's why we grow intentionally:
- Quality over growth: We'd rather do this right than fast. With a limited roster, we personally oversee every deployment, respond promptly to issues, and ensure you're actually happy with the service.
- Every home is different: Different layouts, different needs, different challenges. Each new property teaches us something that makes the next one better.
- Reputation matters: Our reputation is everything. If we overpromise and underdeliver, we've failed. We'd rather serve fewer clients exceptionally than many clients adequately.
- Sustainable growth: We're not raising VC money and chasing growth metrics. We're building a sustainable service business. As we bring on support staff, we'll scale thoughtfully.
You benefit: Every client gets direct founder involvement, faster responses, and genuine input on product direction. That's worth more than being customer #47 at a fast-growing startup.
What We Believe
Transparency
We're honest about what works, what doesn't, and what's still in development. No marketing spin, no hiding issues.
Privacy
Your data belongs to you. Local-first architecture isn't just a feature - it's a principle. No hidden cloud dependencies.
Quality
We'd rather take longer to build something right than rush something out. If it's not reliable, it doesn't ship.
Open Source
All core technology is open source. No proprietary lock-in, full transparency, community-driven development.
Service
We're building a service business, not a software startup. Your success is our success. If you're not happy, we haven't done our job.
Where This Is Going
Now:
5 properties under management. 18 custom Home Assistant components, 15 web applications, and production Kubernetes infrastructure. Refining the platform based on real-world feedback.
Near term (1-2 years):
Scale to 15-25 clients across Chicagoland. Document ROI and operational improvements. Build a small support team for installations and customer success.
Medium term (3-5 years):
100+ clients across Chicagoland. Established partnerships with local contractors. Reputation as the go-to professional smart home service.
Long term (5+ years):
Expand beyond Chicagoland through partnerships with local integrators. Continue innovating on open-source foundations.
What won't change:
- Local-first architecture
- Open-source core technology
- No vendor lock-in
- Sustainable, service-focused business model
- Personal involvement in customer success
Get In Touch
Have questions? Want to discuss your specific situation?
Email: contact@somni-labs.io
Service Area: Chicagoland
Response Time: Within 24 hours (usually faster)