Featured Pitch: SightMind
Web Site: www.sightmind.com
Headquarters: Fremont, California
Year Founded: 2006
Founder: Angie Wong
Employees: 4
By Kim Rubin, CEO
SightMind is a national Internet Protocol-based (IP) video surveillance, networking and security company. We utilize IP-based digital video technology to provide local government agencies, educational institutions and large industrial facilities with the most technologically advanced service in its industry. We have distinguished ourselves among more than 16,000 vendors and installers in the U.S. market today through the recent launch of our new SightMind franchise opportunity.
The company is a one-of-a-kind business opportunity in a highly fragmented market. For independents, others in related industries or even newcomers to the field, the SightMind business investment comes with a proven business model, processes and necessary support tools to gain a significant competitive advantage.
As a seasoned entrepreneur with four prior technology businesses under my belt, I plan to grow the business from its home market in Northern California eastward across the country through franchising.
With the networked video surveillance industry reaching a sustained 44-percent annual growth rate, the switch from ageing analog cameras to sophisticated networked security systems will further propel the segment’s growth to new heights. The sophisticated, reliable IP-based digital surveillance systems are proven to reduce theft, vandalism and injury claims. System software delivers core business values such as locating parking spaces and reading license plates automatically, using a resolution 32-times greater than that of an average analog camera.
The sophisticated capabilities of our networked video systems not only provide direct cost-savings to many of our business-to-business customers, but also improve customer service and can help organizations focus on running and growing their business. Every system we install has network monitoring, redundant storage and a system maintenance contract with up to a five-year service agreement. Today’s systems deliver proven business benefits, which is what is driving the extreme industry growth.
Zooming in on experienced business investors including electricians, information technology (IT) resellers and existing security professionals, the SightMind franchise opportunity gives investors the ability to work directly with high-end, business-to-business clientele. Plus, SightMind has distinguished itself from competitors in the low-end residential and small commercial market by offering a suite of open standards-based hardware and software that are the most reliable, manageable and effective in the industry.
SightMind is one of the most advanced technology businesses in the franchise arena today. We are offering an opportunity for experienced and existing business owners to get into business at the ground level in the rapidly growing IP video surveillance (IPVS) industry.
As part of the SightMind franchise model, franchisees receive four weeks of comprehensive training in technology, institutional sales, project management, and proven, proprietary tools to assure that every system works properly. Unique franchise services provided by SightMind include unlimited support, a web site, back-office productivity software, all product R&D, and a promise to franchisees that every system they install works properly or SightMind will fix it for free. Two options available to SightMind investors include a single operating unit starting at $60,000 or an add-on profit center to an existing business with startup fees beginning at $40,000.
SightMind was founded in 2006 with the goal of bringing highly reliable IP-based video surveillance systems to major institutions and organizations in North America, including high schools, colleges, natural resources, utilities, transportation, public safety, shopping centers, industrial facilities and large commercial sites. SightMind’s IP-based systems include expanded storage, higher reliability, and high resolution sufficient to provide clear identification of people and vehicles, easier administration, cost savings and customer service benefits far beyond the original security motivations.
SightMind currently has eight outside Angel investors who either currently own, or do own businesses within this space. As for plans for the future, is more likely after SightMind achieves a significant amount of headway domestically, we may look towards institutional money for global expansion.
