Derek Richardson knows his way around the junction box. In the late Nineties, he obtained an electrical engineering degree and then worked for a company producing Blackberry devices.
But about 15 years later, he and his wife bought a recent house and began painting the partitions white. He realized that every one the light switches were beige.
Richardson tried to rent an electrician to put in matching white switches but couldn’t find one. So he spent six weeks doing it himself, while his children ran around and his wife begged him to maneuver as fast as he could paint.
“I was shocked a few times and several times I went to the switch and thought: man, there’s a connector where the light bulb was,” he recalls. “Anyone can change a light bulb. Why didn’t someone make a connector for the switches?”
His company, Deacon companyz o. o. began its operations in April 2015, selling modular intelligent lighting control systems. Once the backplate is installed – which may be kept away from a skilled electrician – homeowners can replace switches as easily as a light bulb.
Individual homeowners should purchase Deako products, but the real boom in Richardson’s business got here from working with builders like Toll Brothers and Meritage Homes. DR Horton, the largest home builder in the United States, conducted a test: it placed five Deako switches in half of its homes and only one in the other half to see if it will affect sales.
“After about 100,000 homes, we found that people were buying homes about 20 days faster if they had our smart lighting,” says Richardson.
In 2023, Deako saw gross revenue increase by 52% in comparison with 2022, and the company is forecast to grow by 81% by the end of 2024. All of this made Richardson a finalist on our Entrepreneur 2024 list of progressive leaders.
How recent is the concept of smart lighting systems?
For the super-rich, it is already 20 to 30 years. The company quoted me $20,000 to put in a smart lighting system. What we have done is that the average person can now do it themselves at a tenth of the cost. You should purchase a whole-house system for $1,000 to $2,000. The average price of a home equipped with Deako is $350,000.
Is smart lighting something that homebuyers want today?
For younger recent home buyers, expectations have really modified. It was, give me a smart thermostat like Nest or a Ring doorbell. Now they wish to have the ability to regulate their lighting using voice or an app.
How does a builder incorporate Deako switches into a recent design?
Often, one builder is situated across from one other builder in the same community. Everyone has access to the same materials, but they need to be different and stand out. The home builder installs it with the most cost-effective, easy on/off switch and then asks the homeowner: Do you would like smart switches? Dimmers? Motion sensors? Each family can make their very own decision.
And when DR Horton did this, they found that their homes sold 20 days faster?
Yes. Our partners were able to avoid wasting roughly $4,000 in home bank loan fees by avoiding the interest costs that typically accrue while waiting for homes to be sold. A few hundred dollars is a small investment for these builders, saving them 20 days on the market.
And for the homeowner, regardless of what sort of lighting is invented next, can Deako create a slide-in switch that matches into the same connector?
Normal. When Edison invented the light bulb and released a connector for it, he didn’t predict that in 100 years there could be LED bulbs and light bulbs with speakers and motion sensors. But they future-proofed these homes by putting in connectors.
Can owners of older homes also install Deako switches?
Yes. If you are renovating your house, you may save 20% to 25% on your lighting bills by simply installing dimmers.
One of the biggest energy-saving advantages is setting timers on exhaust fans in bathrooms. I have three daughters. Two of them are teenagers. They will take a shower, turn on the fan and go to high school. It could possibly be dollars a day spent on electricity and the fans in my house wearing out. Thanks to the intelligent switch with a 45-minute timer, it routinely turns off.