Latch Opens the Door to the Future
Your front door is old news. The lock certainly is at least, according to the team at Latch. Founded in 2013 by two Apple employees with an interest in infrastructure, Latch strives to bring digital access to physical space. Fueled by 20 real estate investors in the New York City area, the company possesses both the thought and financial capital to make this futuristic vision a reality by reimagining one old school lock and key at a time.
At its core, Latch provides a single integrated hardware and software system for easy access to every door in your building. This allows the resident to move seamlessly and flexibly through every door—from amenity doors to unit and front doors—with any of three credentials: a phone, a card, or a passcode. The company offers different hardware for different doors, all with the same user interface.
“This allows building managers to digitally and remotely manage all doors in a building,” Scott Andersen, VP of Sales at Latch told Mann Report Management. “All a manager needs is a computer, tablet, or phone connected to the internet to add authorized users to a door, remove authorized users from doors, and see all of the activity that’s happening in a building.”
So what constitutes an authorized user of a building, and how exactly does gaining access work? It’s not nearly as daunting or techy as it sounds—in fact, crossing a threshold has never been easier. Say, for instance, you have a friend, family member, or service provider visiting. All a resident has to do is send a temporary passcode to the visitor. From there, the visitor need only enter the code at the door, at which point a photo will be taken of them with Latch’s camera feature to create a visual audit trail for security purposes. But don’t worry—if you’re a permanent resident you won’t have to smile for your close up every time you come home from work—photos are only snapped of temporary users and guests. “Our top priority at Latch is the security and privacy of tenants,” said Andersen. “We want to give them the tools to not only live a more convenient life, but also feel safer in their home.”
It’s a boon for brokers as well. “For example, say you’re a building owner in New York that has 38 buildings in its portfolio,” said Andersen. “Before Latch, that owner would have to distribute physical keys to brokers, and brokers would have to come from all over the city to get a key in order to show a unit. Now, with Latch’s technology, when a unit is vacant building owners can grant temporary access to a broker via a mobile credential or a guest passcode—that way the broker doesn’t have to keep coming back to get new keys.”
So not only does Latch look much cooler than your run-of-the-mill lock and key system, but it’s much more functional as well. The technology even allows interested parties to show themselves vacant units, as owners need only send them a temporary passcode to see the space.
This creates both value and security. With Latch’s aforementioned photo-snapping, an audit trail is created, one that allows managers to see who is entering their building, when and what credential or passcode they used, and even what they look like.
And with two former Apple employees on board, Latch prides itself on its seamless, user-friendly nature. Residents can use the mobile app to easily open any door by holding their phone in front of the door in question, and managers can access the Latch Manager web application to easily track the goings-on of their building.
“It’s clean, simple drag and drop,” added Andersen. “Exactly what you would expect of a modern day technology product.”
Another of Latch’s many strengths is its partnerships. Collaborating with companies like UPS allows Latch to provide its residents with packages of all shapes and sizes more safely, securely, and efficiently by ensuring their delivery inside a building’s lobby or package room. And that’s just the beginning—Latch has plans to partner with many other services in the cleaning, pet care, and laundry spaces moving forward.
The future for Latch, then, is driven by its residents. The biggest driver of Latch’s current business comes via resident demand as their expectations of convenient living pushes real estate developers and managers to invest in technology that enables those experiences. . “Despite not being a consumer smart lock company, we recognize that demand for our products will ultimately come from residents. Because of that, we see Latch as a B2B2C company.” The company concentrates most of its energy on these demands within the New York area, as that’s where it is headquartered, but it won’t be long before Latch expands beyond the confines of the tri-state area.
“One of our main values is to keep moving onwards,” said Andersen. “We want to advance into uncertainty without letting old constraints and old thinking hold us back, we want to seize the fundamental opportunity and responsibility to design the future, and we want to acknowledge that success is not merely a moment in time, but when people come together to build great things.”
The team at Latch will only continue to build these great things—unlocking the potential of its technology and the many doors of the residents it serves in the process.
For more information, please visit www.latch.com.
Add Comment