BYU computer science alumnus Wade Anderson had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, so when he got to college he didn’t waste any time.
Anderson and his business partners had started their own company, Novi Security, by the time they graduated in 2014. The company sells a do-it-yourself home security system that alerts renters and homeowners to unusual activity by sending photos of the home to the owner’s smartphone.
“We were at the mall one day just watching people come in and out, and we had the idea for a car alarm,” Anderson said. “When your car alarm went off, it would send you a text. Then we adapted that to the home.”
The summer after they graduated, the Novi team began a Kickstarter project that earned just over $175,000 in sales. Now potential customers can visit the Novi website and order their own systems.
The system includes what Anderson called a “smoke detector-looking device” that surveys the home. In the event of suspicious or unusual activity, this device alerts a centralized mechanism called the “hub,” which in turn sends an alert and photos to the owner’s phone.
Anderson started out as the CEO of Novi and is now the chief technology officer (CTO). This position allows him to use the skills he developed in the computer science department at BYU as he leads design and architecture of the product.
While Anderson was at BYU, he and his colleagues were part of the Crocker Innovation Fellowship program, a year-long program run by BYU’s Marriott School of Management. The fellowship gives students from diverse majors access to meaningful mentoring, experience working with innovative businesses, and seed money.
“We won a few of the competitions at BYU and started our business over the summer,” Anderson said of the team he formed within the Crocker fellowship.
Anderson also practiced his leadership skills as the president of the BYU chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. As part of his duties, he organized seminars, recruiting events, and an intercollegiate programming competition. Anderson said his computer science experience and the Crocker fellowship experience were important in preparing him for his career.