Z-Wave Alliance offers its own brand of 'Shark Tank'

The Z-Wave Alliance, the consortium of companies deploying Z-Wave's wireless control products and services, has launched Z-Wave Labs, a competition to support and provide incentive for IofT innovation on the Z-Wave platform.

Winners—one chosen each month for 12 months—will receive alliance membership and IofT development kits.

“We've all watched 'Shark Tank,' ” Avi Rosenthal, an alliance board member and VP of security and control for Nortek, said in an interview with Security Systems News. The logical question was “how do we do a Shark Tank for Z-Wave,” Rosenthal said.

The group wants to hear from “passionate” start-ups and entrepreneurs who want to bring Z-Wave products to market, he said.

“The beauty of this is that there are no bounds. People have wonderful imaginations,” Rosenthal said.

The alliance will provide no financial help, but “we will assist them, we will mentor them. It's a great opportunity for them within the alliance. We will recognize them and give them guidance. It's like when your little brother starts college,” Rosenthal said.

According to the alliance, the competition is open to private companies of any size and to individuals 18 and older as of March 1 of this year who submit their Z-Wave product innovation through an online application. Each entrant must submit an application before the 15th of each month in order be considered for that month's contest. Applications can be for products in any IoT related industry, including residential, commercial, automotive, healthcare, energy, security and aging-in-place.

Judges will choose winners based on innovation, functionality, engineering and design style, ingenuity, breadth of applicability marketability and ease of use. Winners will be notified and announced at the end of every month and featured on the Z-Wave Labs  website and on social media.

Each winner will receive access to the Z-Wave IoT 500 series development kits from Sigma Designs and a year of alliance membership, which provides the opportunity to

participate in alliance trade shows, working groups, PR and marketing opportunities and other related activities. Winners will be paired with mentors from the Z-Wave community in their related industry to provide technical and marketing and business development support.

Go here to learn more about Z-Wave Labs, apply for the competition and read frequently asked questions.