Zonoff wants to make your iPad the remote control for your entire home

A screenshot from Zonoff’s iPad remote control software.

Mike Harris has been down this road before.

The former CEO of AnySource Media has been laying low after his last company exited to Divx in 2009. The company helped make software to connectt TVs to the Internet, a precursor to the long-rumored Apple TV set. But now, he’s taking that idea to the next level.

“Zonoff is the next frontier of that, connecting everything else in the house to the Internet,” says Harris. And he means everything. “Thermostats, blinds, refrigerators .. you name we want to connect it.”

Zonoff CEO Mike Harris

Zonoff (named for connectivity protocols that often start with “z” combined with “on and off”) is a platform based on Drexel University technology to create a network of all of your household objects so they can interact with the Internet and each other. This means blinds that automatically adjust to the sun’s position when the TV is turned on or a security system that is smart enough to text you when someone enters your front door.

The concept of connecting our homes to the web, often called the “Internet of Things,” is a growing trend says Harris. Yet there’s not a system to make it easy on hardware makers.

Zonoff debuted its latest “Intuitive Home” product at CES that Harris calls the company’s “coming out party.” The company set up a small model home to demonstrate its iPad home remote control, among other products, the result of nine months of tinkering with the platform, designing a UI and tinkering with a business model that relies on licensing fees, web service fees and sales commissions. Eventually, we won’t need remote controls or iPads. Our home will just know what to do.

The company is now trying to raise a $5 million Series A round and is actively hiring in its Malvern offices that are down the street from the fast-growing search engine DuckDuckGo.

“The plan is to grow rapidly,” says Harris. “We need product and project management, engineers, software development, UI and web development expertise. Everything.”

Even in the company’s infancy, Harris says he feels good and hopes to bring another success story to Philadelphia.

“I think we’re building another big winner in the Philadelphia area,” he says.

Edit, 12:48 p.m.: added context, corrected Drexel note.