A tech-savvy homeowner in Seattle has 47 smart devices: Philips Hue lights, Nest thermostats, August locks, Sonos speakers, Ring cameras. Each has its own app. To set a 'leaving home' scene, he opens four apps and taps through 12 screens. He tried Home Assistant — spent a weekend configuring YAML files before his wife demanded he stop. Now the smart home mostly runs on individual schedules and hope.
Smart home platforms are either too simple (Apple Home, Google Home) with limited device support and no real customization, or too complex (Home Assistant) requiring technical expertise to configure. The promise of the smart home — unified control, intelligent automation — remains unfulfilled for most users. 70+ million US homes have smart devices; few have smart 'systems.'
The opportunity is a minimalist smart home dashboard at $6.99-12.99/mo: works with everything (Hue, Nest, Ring, Sonos, SmartThings), beautiful single-pane dashboard (not 47 app icons), simple automation builder (visual, not YAML), and family-friendly (anyone can use it, not just the tech person). Not trying to replace Home Assistant for power users — serving the vast middle market that wants smart home simplicity without the configuration nightmare. Target homeowners with 10-50 smart devices who've tried and failed to unify them.
📊 Market Evidence
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Home Assistant | Free / $6.50/mo cloud | Open source, highly customizable |
| Hubitat | $149 hub + free software | Local processing, no subscription |
| Apple Home | Free | Apple ecosystem only |
| Google Home | Free | Google ecosystem |
| SmartThings | Free (hub $50-130) | Samsung ecosystem |
Open source, highly customizable
Local processing, no subscription
Apple ecosystem only
Google ecosystem
Samsung ecosystem
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
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Build a SaaS product called "Minimalist Smart Home Dashboard". ## Product Overview Simple visualization for all your IoT devices ## Problem Simple visualization for all your IoT devices ## Solution Build Minimalist Smart Home Dashboard ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors Home Assistant, Hubitat, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.