????2011年2月，亞歷克斯?霍金森和家人抵達位于科羅拉多州的住處，想要來一場滑雪之旅，但眼前所見卻讓他們大吃一驚。那年冬天的早些時候，管道爆裂，水淹沒了地下室，房子有一部分已經開始腐爛。

????40歲的霍金森說：“我甚至都不知道發生了這件事，這一點讓我難以忍受。”因此，他開始著手研發一種感應器，能夠在類似事件再次發生時通知他。幾個月后，他有了更強烈的感受：市面上涌現出越來越多的聯網設備——比如最近流行的Nest恒溫器——但這些設備都沒有集中連接起來。一個想法在他心中應運而生：開發一個平臺，讓所有設備能夠互相連接。

????早在2012年，霍金森就在華盛頓成立了多達41位員工的初創公司SmartThings。迄今為止，它已經從一次成功的Kickstarter募捐中籌得了1,000萬美元，還獲得了羅恩?康威的天使投資公司SV Angel和貝寶（Paypal）共同創始人馬克思?萊文奇恩等贊助者的種子資金支持。根據霍金森的說法，只要花上10分鐘和200美金就能安裝入門套件，也就是一個能將設備與控制排水、開關、門鎖等三個感應器聯系起來的樞紐，非常簡單便捷。谷歌（Google）合伙人和Digg創始人凱文?羅斯曾說它是“最酷的Kickstarter募捐項目”。

????后來，First Round Capital的合伙人菲尼亞斯?巴恩斯偶然看見SmartThings在Kickstarter 上120萬美元的募捐活動，被它“解決連接設備的難題”這個基本理念所打動。他說：“這種開放式的方法吸引了我。”他指的是人人都能獲得讓自己的設備兼容所需的開發工具。SmartThings的樞紐目前能夠與大約1,000種設備良好兼容。

????When Alex Hawkinson and his family arrived at their Colorado home in February 2011 for a ski trip, they were shocked at the sight. Earlier that winter, the pipes had burst, water had flooded the basement, and parts of their home were rotting.

????"I couldn't stand that I didn't know that had happened," the 40-year-old Hawkinson relates. So he went about building a sensor that notified him if something similar happened again. Months later, he had a bigger epiphany: More and more Internet connected devices were hitting the market -- the stylish Nest thermostat being a more recent example -- but none of these devices were connected in a centralized way. That's when he hatched the idea to invent one platform that would let all these devices talk to one another.

????Early in 2012, Hawkinson founded the 41-strong Washington D.C.-based startup SmartThings. To date, it's raised nearly $10 million from a successful Kickstarter campaign and seed funding from backers like Ron Conway's SV Angel and PayPal (EBAY) co-founder Max Levchin. According to Hawkinson, anyone with 10 minutes and $200 can get the starter kit -- a hub that communicates with devices and three sensors that control outlets, switches, door locks, and the like -- up-and-running. Google Ventures (GOOG) partner and Digg founder Kevin Rose once called it the "coolest Kickstarter project."

????When First Round Capital partner Phineas Barnes stumbled across SmartThings's $1.2 million Kickstarter campaign, the basic premise of SmartThings -- taking the difficulty out of connecting devices -- made a lot of sense to him. "The open approach is what captured me," says Barnes, referring to the fact that now anyone can access the development tools needed to make their devices compatible. That dovetails nicely with the 1,000 or so objects SmartThings currently recognizes.