BuLogics: Malvern smart home firm relocating to city, hires hacker Far McKon

If it’s in your heart to make an automatic door for your dog, BuLogics wants to help you make that happen.

The Malvern-based company has spent 10 years developing products for what people call the “smart home,” like wireless locks and thermostats, and now it wants to encourage others to do the same, said CTO and cofounder Ryan Buchert.

As part of this push to make wireless development more accessible, BuLogics has hired former MakerBot staffer Far McKon, whom you may know as an Ignite Philly and Hive76 cofounder,as Chief Innovator to help the company engage the local tech community. McKon recently finished his stint at Brooklyn’s 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot because the company was “going in a direction that didn’t fit [his] style/interests” and he was growing tired of the commute, according to a recent blog post.

(One way to be sure the BuLogics team is excited to hire McKon? It said so in its press release announcing it.)

BuLogics also plans on selling DIY kits for people to make their own wireless home products, holding hackathons and, in an especially exciting move, relocating its office inside the city.

BuLogics wants to be part of the Philly tech community, Buchert said, and in order to do that, the 11-person team has to be closer to it. It’s unclear where in Philly BuLogics will relocate but it will happen this year, said 37-year-old Buchert, a Drexel graduate who lives in Malvern but plans on moving into the city as well.

The company is closely related to Zonoff, another local “smart home” company that offers a platform to control your home using mobile devices. Zonoff spun out of BuLogics in 2011 because it required venture funding, Buchert said, whereas BuLogics could operate off its own revenue.