RWW

There were only about 15 people at the Smart Homes Meetup at SXSW, which took place in a meeting room at the Hilton Austin. Ironically, the air conditioning didn't seem to be working. Not much smart technology in this room, I thought, mopping my brow and pouring myself a glass of iced water. But as I began working my way around the room, I discovered plenty of human smarts among the handful of Smart Home companies in attendance. I also found out that many of these startups are focused on home security. Turns out that's where a lot of the initial commercial activity is happening around the Internet of Things - where real world objects are connected to the Internet.

Adam Beguelin was one of the smart startup founders I met. He already has a successful track record in Web...