Vivint Solar and Vivint Smart Home Founder, Todd Pedersen, has Apparently Acquired Controlling Interest in Utah-based Deploy Surveillance. This Development Potentially Puts Deploy and Pedersen on a Collision Course with Utah-based LiveView Technologies.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Back in the days before the Internet and cable television, baseball fanatics knew that if you really wanted to stay on top of a game, you needed a scorecard to do just that.

Often, the same adage also applies in the world of finance, money, and business. Why?

Because if you don't have a scorecard, it's often hard (if not impossible) to actually

1. Keep track of all of the different players and their performance in each given game, and
2. Stay up-to-the-minute in the nuances of the game as it progresses.

For me, the news shared in this story is an example of this truism: You need a scorecard.

Todd Petersen, Utah Tech OG, and Deploy Surveillance

On the surface the headline in yesterday's news release was fairly straightforward, if a bit awkward language-wise:

"Deploy Surveillance Announces Todd Pedersen, Founder of Vivint Smart Home and Vivint Solar, as Owner"

Few specifics were included in the Deploy Surveillance news release except that it stated that the firm "formally announces" Pedersen "... as Owner and Executive Board Member."

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SIDEBAR: For any reader not aware of who Todd Pedersen is, here's a bit of contextual background.

As outlined in Wikipedia here, after completing a two-year proselyting mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pedersen launched a door-to-door sales company (D2D) in 1992 that sold pest control services, a firm that Pedersen explained in a 2011 Utah Valley BusinessQ article eventually grew to selling contracted services to "... 30,000 customers annually."

Several years later Pedersen and a childhood friend launched a new firm in 1999 pushing security alarm systems called APX Alarm Security Solutions, one that utilized the same D2D sales approach of knocking doors throughout neighborhoods looking for APX Alarm "converts" (aka, customers), much as Pedersen had done as a young proselyting missionary.

In 2011, APX Alarm was renamed Vivint. That was the same year Vivint Solar was launched as a subsidiary.

Additionally, 2011 was also the year that Blackstone Group acquired a controlling interest in Vivint and its subsidiaries for over $2.0 billion, with Vivint Solar becoming a standalone company shortly thereafter.

Along the way, however, Vivint Solar went public on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2014, raising roughly $330 million in the process.

Six years later, Vivint Solar was acquired by SunRun in October 2020 for $3.2 billion.

Nine months later, Pedersen stepped down as Vivint CEO in July 2021.

During his career Pedersen was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by different organizations on three separate occasions:

— By Ernst & Young in 2010,
— By the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum in 2012, and
— By the MountainWest Capital Network in 2013.

Additionally, Utah-based nonprofit Silicon Slopes inducted Pedersen into its "Hall of Fame" in February 2022.

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... Returning now to yesterday's news release from Deploy Surveillance ...

When/how Pedersen became owner of Deploy Surveillance is not explained in the release nor on the company website.

Nor does it appear that any info is available stating how much money, if any at all, Pedersen spent to purchase outright ownership of Deploy or gain control of the firm.

But, by extension, I surmise that Pedersen has invested some amount of money into Deploy to either gain an ownership stake of over 50% in the firm, if not outright control, enough so to have the company name him as "Owner" in the press release.

For individuals not familiar with Deploy, it's a West Jordan, Utah-based company that was formed in 2016 and makes solar-powered mobile surveillance trailers that implement artificial intelligence to provide round-the-clock, cloud-based digital security video/still photography systems.

According to the company website, Deploy claims its surveillance systems are currently working in settings ranging from:

• The Construction industry to Retail settings, and
• From Solar Farms to Government locations,

and more.

To get a sense of how Deploy Surveillance solutions work, here's a link to a relatively short video on YouTube showing how Deploy's remote monitoring systems function.

In other words, Deploy Surveillance seems fairly straightforward ... until it's not.

The Older and more Entrenched Competitor, LiveView Technologies, Right Here in Deploy's Backyard

While working as Publisher and VP of Editorial Content for Silicon Slopes, I interviewed and wrote an in-depth story nearly two years back about Ryan Porter and the company he co-founded some 20 years ago: LiveView Technologies.

{See "From Bootstrapped To Market Leader: The LiveView Technologies Story" for the full rundown.}

Today, Porter serves as President and CEO of LVT, and as the company explains on its website, LiveView's systems provide real-time monitoring and security surveillance across industries ranging from

• Car Dealerships to Healthcare, and from
• Construction to Restaurants.

When you look at LVT's mobile solutions, it becomes clear to even the most jaundiced reader that the Deploy Surveillance and LiveView Technologies security platforms look remarkably similar. {See below.}

That said, besides the difference between the two firms and their respective mobile security systems, there are two primary distinctions one can draw between the two companies:

1. LiveView is more than twice the age of Deploy, and
2. LiveView has apparently raised more money than Deploy (at least based upon publicly available data).

Specifically, in September 2023, LVT closed a $215 million line of senior secured credit facilities from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

This was on top of a September 2022 $85M debt financing led by KeyBanc Capital Markets and MUFG Bank, which itself was announced just a few months after LVT reported that it had closed a $50 million B Round of venture capital funding in June 2022.

Conversely, how much money has Deploy Surveillance raised? I have ...

No. Idea. Whatsoever.

By my calculations, however, LVT has raised close to $400 million in equity and debt instruments, and it's growing quite rapidly on a year-over-year basis.

Nevertheless, Deploy is now led by one of Utah's tech industry OG's, Todd Pedersen, an individual who has shown himself as someone who knows how to dig in and fight for / grow marketshare.

That said, which Utah-HQ'd firm will come out on top in this race to build/create marketshare dominance?

I have zero idea.

But I do think it could be an interesting bar fight to watch.

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