This Serial Entrepreneur Raised $70 Million To Pioneer Bluetooth Smart Locks And Is Now Building His Next Intelligent Home Venture
Jason Johnson’s entrepreneurial journey is the kind that lives at the intersection of tech history and personal resilience. He witnessed Apple transforming the computing world in the early ’90s and stared down the bursting dot-com bubble.
Eventually, Jason built August Home into one of the most iconic consumer IoT brands of its era in a riveting story of cycles, reinvention, and timing. This blog post traces his journey, from his early business dreams in Portland to his record-setting exit with August.
Founders can learn essential lessons from the highs and lows of Jason’s experiences. He talks about building, scaling, and exiting, as well as navigating the different cycles of company building. Jason’s latest venture is Doma Home, which is transforming smart homes into infrastructure-first living spaces.
Oregon Roots and Big Tech Aspirations
Jason grew up in Portland, Oregon, in what he calls a “granola” environment with hippie parents, community-oriented living, and a love for nature. But what truly caught his imagination was watching his father travel to Japan for business, as he worked for a Japanese trading company.
Those trips planted the seed: someday, Jason himself, wanted to be part of the global tech world. When Jason graduated from Pepperdine with a business degree, he had two dream employers: Apple or Sony, the titans of consumer electronics in the early ’90s.
Alternatively, Jason wanted to work for one of the big Japanese electronics companies. Sony was making all kinds of awesome gadgets and marketing them out of a showroom in Tokyo that even today, rivals the best showrooms anywhere.
Jason visited Sony several times, but Apple won out. In 1993, before the first Apple retail stores ever existed, he joined the company to help oversee its distribution business. It was his first taste of working at the center of a technology giant.
First Startup Whirlwind: InterQuest and the Dot-Com Bust
After Apple, Jason joined his first venture capital-backed startup, Tut Systems, which made internet routers and modems for homes. There, he came up with the idea for InterQuest, a company delivering broadband DSL service to apartment buildings across 17 states.
This was a bold move in the early days of consumer internet. InterQuest raised capital from friends and mentors, scaled quickly, and merged with two other startups to form Darwin Networks. One of the startups was working with hotels, while the other provided services to office buildings.
Ultimately, the company came to be known as BLEC--a building, local exchange carrier. Backed by Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers, Darwin was on track to become one of the biggest IPOs of 2000 with a peak valuation.
Jason looks back at the time when they were getting ready for the roadshow, having booked their flights. They had also hired a highly qualified CEO and raised a tremendous amount of capital. Then came April 2000. The IPO window slammed shut as the dot-com bubble burst.
Darwin went from a future unicorn to one of the most publicized casualties of the crash. “I went from being potentially this huge successful entrepreneur to needing to find a job,” Jason recalls. “But I was still young. I saw it as a chance to retool.”
Rebuilding Confidence: Dolby Labs Years
Jason took mentor Craig Johnson’s (a famous lawyer in Silicon Valley) advice and returned to a big company, Dolby Laboratories. Over 12 years, he rose through the ranks, became a top executive, and was even in the pipeline for CEO training.
As Jason reveals, the company had gone public and was identifying different people to groom as a potential future CEO. He was sent to participate in Harvard and Stanford executive programs and also received coaching sessions. He also received RSUs and a big salary.
In short, it was everything that looked like “success” on paper. But it didn’t feel like building. One day, after proposing an acquisition strategy, his boss told him, “Jason, you’re very ambitious. I love your vision and energy. Just don’t try so hard. Go back to your office and read the Wall Street Journal.”
The message was that the company was very successful and didn’t need to do acquisitions. They could sit back and enjoy the large offices. That moment changed everything. Jason went home, told his wife, and soon after quit his job.
Founders Den: Where Ideas Ignite
Together with friends Jonathan Abrams (founder of Friendster), Zachary Bogue (attorney), and Michael Levitt (entrepreneur), Jason rented a shared office space in San Francisco.
A coffee with Tim Chang (venture capitalist at Northwest Ventures) turned that idea into Founders Den, an invite-only coworking hub for pedigreed founders and Y Combinator alumni. Tim offered them capital to lease a bigger space and get started.
Being surrounded by builders again re-ignited Jason’s entrepreneurial fire. He’d always dreamed of creating something in consumer electronics. Now he had the network, the background, the inspiration, and the timing. That spark became August Home.
One of the earliest and most notable desk-renters? Gavin Newsom, then lieutenant governor of California. At the time, he wanted to be in San Francisco and was open to working at a 44-inch desk. Gavin spent the next three-and-a-half years using that desk as his day-to-day office.
Jason looks back at this association fondly as he learned a great deal about how to run a giant economy. He also reveals how Founders Den was probably the most secure co-working slash incubator space in San Francisco.
Birth of August Home: A Lock That Redefined Access
The idea for August came from a water cooler conversation at Founders Den. There, they were doing demo days and bringing in venture capitalists to interact with entrepreneurs. The energy and excitement of people building and creating was palpable, and spurred ideas.
While working at Dolby, Jason had learned about licensing various technologies, including audio, video, and a broad range of technology standards. Now, he created the NFC licensing consortium.
NFC technology is the technology that phones use for authentication and making payments. Jason had the idea of using NFC for authentication for access for smart door locks. That’s when Kanishk, a fellow founder, suggested something better—Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the non-pairing version.
“That conversation made August Lock possible. It let us issue digital keys remotely—like for Airbnbs and guest access—without pairing.”
With industrial design by Yves Béhar, August launched its smart lock at $249. Yves had designed the locks using top-notch, no-expense-spared materials and craftsmanship.
Although inexpensive Bluetooth locks are now widely available, at the time, August Locks was a premium device, much like Apple. It landed in every Apple Store in North America, as well as in Best Buy, Home Depot, and Target.
August became the #1 smart lock in the U.S., pioneering a product category before it was mainstream. Next, Jason and his team experimented with video doorbells, though the idea did not have the same volume of sales.
Raising Funding and Executing a Strategic Exit: Turning Competitors into Buyers
Jason reveals how they raised around $70M for the company. August hit market saturation in North America. The way the locks were designed--with a robot installed inside doors--they were compatible only with locks in North America. Jason was unsure about how much of a market share they’d have.
Rather than just pushing more devices, Jason built relationships with competitors like Schlage, Yale, and Kwikset by offering them August’s access control software stack for free.
“They asked, ‘Why give us your crown jewels?’” Jason explains that August wanted to own the access control layer. He wanted to partner with vacation rentals, in-home delivery services, and other businesses using the access control technology.
That strategy worked. Multiple companies bid against each other to acquire August. Jason personally ran the M&A process with Bharat Hassan, his CFO (a brilliant former investment banker), driving up competitive offers.
Ultimately, August was acquired by Assa Abloi (the Swedish parent company of Yale), in what became the largest smart lock acquisition to date.
From Startup to Public Service
Jason has an interesting story about his transition to becoming a commissioner. When Newsom became governor, he visited Founders Den, where Jason met with him in one of the conference rooms. As they chatted, Gavin commented on having to make hundreds of appointments.
Jason casually said, “I’d be open to serving the state.” That moment led to his appointment to the Little Hoover Commission, giving him a new way to contribute to public policy while staying close to innovation.
Doma: The Next Chapter
After a successful earn-out at Yale, Jason took time off--building a house in Napa, cycling, playing pickleball, and reflecting on the smart home’s next frontier. He also helped expand the August platform. It now powers locks worldwide and is used by hundreds of millions of people.
Jason’s newest venture, Doma, is rethinking how smart homes work. He is learning from what succeeded and what didn’t in the August years, charting a bold new path in the smart home space.
Jason has already raised a seed round led by Uncork Capital and Modern Ventures; the company is gearing up for a Series A.
Storytelling is everything that Jason Johnson was able to master. The key is capturing the essence of what you are doing in 15 to 20 slides. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley legend (see it here) where the most critical slides are highlighted.
Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that founders worldwide are using to raise millions below.
What sets Doma apart isn’t just another layer of connectivity; it’s a complete rethinking of what a truly intelligent home should be.
Rather than simply connecting devices to an app, Doma is designed to make them work together seamlessly and intelligently. Johnson believes most smart homes today aren’t truly “smart” at all.
“We’re adding intelligence, not just connectivity,” he explains. “The goal is to have these devices communicate with each other and respond to human needs in real time.”
Addressing the Industry’s Key Failure Points
One of Doma’s core principles addresses a common failure point in the industry: power. Traditional smart devices rely on batteries or wall plugs, both of which are prone to failure. Batteries die, and devices can be unplugged, making them unreliable
Doma’s vision eliminates that risk entirely by integrating deeply into the home's infrastructure, embedding intelligence into existing systems and appliances rather than adding more fragile, standalone gadgets.
Jason envisions a future where homes resemble the Jetsons-like experience people have imagined for decades--responsive, intuitive, and reliable. Devices should work without the need to open apps, press buttons and speak, or switch, slide, and press control switches.
A home that monitors health, ensures safety, solves problems quietly in the background, and operates without the need to constantly create schedules, automations, and scenes manually. “People don’t want to manage automations,” he notes. “They just want it to work.”
Lessons Learnt Through the Entrepreneurship Journey
Reflecting on his own journey as a founder, Johnson shared what he would tell his younger self before launching a company. Known for his intense focus and disciplined leadership style, he admits he would have encouraged himself to breathe more and embrace imperfection.
“You don’t have to get everything right,” Jason says. “You can let your team make mistakes. If the product is good, people will buy and appreciate it. If it’s not, intensity won’t fix it.” He also emphasizes the importance of adaptability.
For Jason, pivoting is about balance, not panic. He likens building a startup to a three-legged stool made up of team, product, and distribution. To stand firm, each leg must be solid.
“You don’t need to over-optimize one leg at the expense of the others,” he explains. “Make sure all three are stable. That’s how you survive and grow.”
Jason also learned how to make tough decisions early on during his first DSL company, which tried to simultaneously tackle apartment buildings, office buildings, and hotels. He had hired a professional to help him with the business aspect because they were bringing broadband using DSL modems.
The seasoned advisor told Jason to focus, and he was right. By narrowing in on one market, Jason was able to build stronger relationships and a more resilient business. Today, with Doma, those lessons are being applied with precision.
Instead of chasing hype, Johnson is building for longevity, focusing on infrastructure over gadgets, intelligence over connectivity, and balance over intensity. It’s a playbook forged from decades of experience, and one that just might redefine what “smart home” truly means.
In Conclusion
Jason Johnson’s journey from Apple and the dot-com whiplash to August’s category-defining exit, and now to Doma’s “intelligent home,” demonstrates how great companies are built through timing, resilience, and relentless learning.
Jason’s playbook is complex and straightforward: balance team, product, and distribution; focus when it counts; and design for reliability, not gimmicks. If Doma delivers on that ethos, he may end up rewriting what “smart home” really means.
Jason Johnson’s journey shows how resilience and timing can turn early setbacks into defining successes. · Founders Den reignited his entrepreneurial spark, proving the power of surrounding yourself with builders. · August Home pioneered smart locks by focusing on user experience and elegant design. · Strategic partnerships and competitor relationships can be a powerful path to acquisition. · His leadership philosophy evolved from intensity to embracing imperfection and team trust. · Doma represents a shift from “smart” homes to truly intelligent, infrastructure-first living spaces. · Balancing team, product, and distribution remains his core framework for building durable companies.
Original Version
Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Dealmaker Show. So today we have an amazing founder, a founder that has done it many, many many times, actually. you know We're going to be talking about all the good stuff that we like to hear, the building, the scaling, the exiting, the you know the crazy times to different cycles, you know whether it was during the dot-com bust, even you know now, you know and how things have changed over time. But Again, I think that you guys are all going to find this episode quite inspiring. So without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Jason Johnson. Welcome to the show.
Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in Portland, Oregon, give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up over there?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, you know, polands Portland's a great great town. it's ah you know It's great growing up, for very granola. my you know My parents were hippies, and and so you know it was a very nice place to grow up. But I'll be honest with you, I moved to California for college, and I live in California ever since. And the weather down here is a little bit better. So I love being an Oregonian, but I also love being California.
Alejandro Cremades: And then in your case, you know, actually you studied business out of all things. So what what got you into into the whole business, you know, ah world?
Jason Johnson: Yeah. So so my my dad my dad worked for a Japanese trading company and he got to do business trips over to Japan. i got to see you know what it's like to to do big business. And so I dreamed of of someday working maybe for a big Japanese electronics company or something. and And the you know the the business degree was sort of the the path towards that.
Alejandro Cremades: And obviously that first company, you know, had to do with Apple Computer. You know, in 93, you know, I'm sure it was a different type of Apple.
Jason Johnson: Yeah, for sure. so So there's two companies I wanted to work for out of college. It was either Apple or Sony. And it's, you know, back then Sony was the biggest consumer electronics company in the world. They made all kinds of awesome gadgets. there was this There was this showroom in in Tokyo that but even to this day rivals, you know, the best showroom showing the most gadgets of anything, anywhere. And I i i got to go multiple times.
Jason Johnson: um And yeah, so I ended up at Apple, which you know was was pretty was pretty special. um I got to oversee their their distribution business, which this is before there was Apple retail stores. And that was it's quite an experience for for a young person in their twenty s
Alejandro Cremades: So you did Apple, then you did Toot Systems. how do you How do you evolve ah all the way to, let's say, Interquest, which was your first company that you you know really venture into the world of entrepreneurship?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, so so the the jump is I joined Tutt Systems, which was the first venture capital-backed startup that I i was an employee of. And Tutt made these ah these internet routers, these ah like modems for the home.
Jason Johnson: And while I was working there, I got the idea for Interquest. And that was to actually take these modems and put them into people's homes and and create one of the first broadband DSL services that was really focused on apartment buildings. That was our niche. We operated in 17 states.
Jason Johnson: doing high-speed internet service to apartment buildings.
Alejandro Cremades: That's incredible. So then tell us how did Interquest, you know, come together?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, so so Interquest was was funded by some some some some friends, about one of my mentors from college, from Pepperdine University, the vice chancellor. He was one of the first checks in there. and And we built up Interquest and ended up rolling it together with two other similarly sized startups doing broadband.
Jason Johnson: um One was doing hotels, one was doing office buildings. So it was It was literally called ah a BLEC, a building, local exchange carrier. and And that roll-up of those three companies was going to be the biggest IPO of 2000. It was called Darwin Networks. We we wrote the S1. We had credit suites and Lehman Brothers as underwriters.
Jason Johnson: and And on paper, you know Jason Johnson was going to be ah was going to be it's going to be extremely wealthy. But we all know what happened in April of 2000, just after we filed that S1. Yeah.
Alejandro Cremades: Wow. Because, I mean, the valuation at the peak, what was the valuation at the peak?
Alejandro Cremades: and And obviously we know what happened at the end.
Jason Johnson: I mean, i mean the the underwriters were expecting this you know to be to be one of the biggest dot-com IPOs. right it was going to be It was going to be huge. I can't remember what the but price they were aiming for, um but but we we were literally just getting ready to go do the roadshow.
Jason Johnson: right They were going run a jet. we were going to fly around the country. We hired a CEO that had like the best pedigree you could imagine, raised tremendous amount of capital. um and And, yeah, long story short, Darwin darwin is dead. Darwin networks were from being the potential biggest IPO of 2000 to probably the one of the biggest failures of 2000.
Alejandro Cremades: What do you think that whole experience i had told you about him essentially you know cycles you know and to and to weather the storm and the cycles as an entrepreneur?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, so i'm I'm lucky that I was still in my 20s at the time. And so i I still felt like I had a lot of my future ahead of me. And so I didn't, I actually, it's it's very strange to say this, but i I really wasn't that upset, which I know sounds crazy, because I'm not,
Jason Johnson: I went from being potentially you know this huge successful entrepreneur to to needing to to find a job. And I literally had to go find a job. And ah fortunately, one of my mentors, a famous ah famous um lawyer in Silicon Valley, Craig Johnson, unrelated to my last name, um he was a mentor of mine. And he said, he said, Jason, you're still young. you still have ah you know You still have a lot of energy behind you.
Jason Johnson: What I suggest is you go get a job, um go back to a big company like an Apple and spend a few more years kind of retooling and getting your confidence back and and thinking about what you would do next.
Jason Johnson: And that's exactly what I did. I went and got a job at Dolby Labs and um and worked there for for a whole bunch of years. and and um And I did exactly that. I learned a lot and and and i and I retooled to get ready to to take another swing of the fences.
Alejandro Cremades: I mean, that was 12 years. and So that's say quite an amount of time because, I mean, once an entrepreneur entrepreneur, you're always an entrepreneur. So what do you think needed to click for you to really feel good about the idea of going at it again you know with August Home?
Jason Johnson: Yeah, so so so so honestly, i had I had some friends that were kind of giving me a hard time because now I was an executive. i was but i was I was a candidate to be a potentially to be the CEO of Dolby Labs. It had it gone public, and and they were kind of picking different people to to groom as potentially a future CEO.
Jason Johnson: And they they sent me to do the Harvard programs and the Stanford program, had an executive coach and all that. Um, and, and I kind was enjoying that path, right. You know, um, had a giant salary, right. And and big, you know, big RSU stock grant, uh, making lots of money. Um, um, but one of my friends said to me one day, um, Hey, you've been there Dolby for a while now. I thought you were an entrepreneur. Are you ever going to take another swing at it? You're going to have to start another company.
Jason Johnson: And, uh, and that, once the, once the gear started to thinking, know, spinning on that, I started thinking, boy, I have to, I might have to do something to make myself, you know, um, take another risk.
Alejandro Cremades: So then tell us about the sequence of events that needed to happen for you to have the exposure to, hey, I think that this may be a risk worth taking.
Jason Johnson: So, so this is, this is a true story. This is, this sounds kind of wacky, but it's actually true. So, um, I went to my, went to my boss's office one day. were, we were, we were working on acquisitions for Dolby and, um,
Jason Johnson: and i And I had an acquisition thought was very, very, yeah should you should be recommended to the committee. And I was going be the champion. and I presented it to my boss in his office. And I said, I think this is a really good one. I want to i want to champion driving this one.
Jason Johnson: And he said to me, and and I'll never forget, he said, hey Jason, you know, you're you're very ambitious. I love your vision. I love your energy here. But i I think you should just, you know, just don't try so hard.
Jason Johnson: Like he i could he said, go back to your office. And I might point out our offices were really nice. Like I had i had an amazing, huge office with a table and chairs and a couch and a nice view.
Jason Johnson: It was just a beautiful office. He said, go back to your office and just, read the Wall Street Journal. Just just relax. And he was dead serious. He was like, just don't try so hard.
Jason Johnson: We're a very successful company. We don't have to do these acquisitions. Just kind of, just enjoy, enjoy, you know, how great it is. We don't have to work this hard. And um I say that because I'm very grateful he said that to me because I went home and told my wife that story that night.
Jason Johnson: And she said, it's time for you to go. It's time, it's not for you. You need to move on. And i and so I thought I quit. ah just I just quit.
Jason Johnson: Yeah, so I quit and then I had a couple of friends um that we talked about getting a shared office together. One was Jonathan Abrams, the founder of Friendster, right? The first social network. Zach Bogue, who who was an attorney doing a bunch of different things. This is before he started Data Collective Ventures with Matt Oko.
Jason Johnson: um And Michael Levitt, a longtime friend, also a big corporate guy, but also an entrepreneur. And the three of us decided to get an office together. And um we started looking at little offices to just share a space together, to just just be in the same room together.
Maybe it’s monitoring our health. It’s taking care of problems that I don’t have to think about. I know my home infrastructure is doing what it’s supposed to do without me having to worry about it or maintain it or create schedules and automations and scenes that people don’t enjoy doing. They want it to just work.
Alejandro Cremades: Let’s say I’m able to put you into a time machine right now and bring you back to that moment where you were at Todd Systems, thinking about launching something of your own. That moment where you and your wife were like, “Hey, maybe you should go do something else.” Let’s say you have the opportunity to give that younger self one piece of advice before launching a company. What would that be and why, given what you know now?
Jason Johnson: I think it’s safe to say if you were to interview many of my employees over the years at my different startups—and there have been a couple we haven’t talked about that are not as fun to talk about, the ones that didn’t go as far—you’d hear I’ve always been a very intense person. I’ve always been very focused and intense, and I run a pretty tight ship.
If I could give younger Jason some advice, I’d say take more deep breaths and recognize that you don’t have to get everything right. You don’t have to be that intense. You can make mistakes, and you can let your people make mistakes. It will be okay. If it’s a good product or service, people are going to buy it, enjoy it, and appreciate it. If it’s not, then frankly, being more intense isn’t going to solve that. You probably need to be more reflective and more comfortable with change and pivoting.
Alejandro Cremades: When we think about pivots, I’m sure you’ve seen a few of those. What has been your biggest lesson around pivoting or adjusting to what the market is asking for?
Jason Johnson: I’ve always believed that building a startup is a three-legged stool. It’s team, product, and distribution. You have to have all three. Ideally, you have an unfair advantage in at least one of those. We can talk about unfair advantages.
What I’ve seen, in my own companies and in some I’ve been involved with, is that sometimes we get too focused on trying to overly optimize one of those legs when the truth is you just need that leg to be firm. It doesn’t need to be perfect. What you need is all three legs to be firm and not over-index on one at the risk of the other two.
That’s where pivoting and making tough decisions come in. I remember the first tough decision I ever had to make, with that first DSL company. We started doing not just apartment buildings but also office buildings and hotels. We were bringing broadband to the building and then using these little DSL modems. I hired a professional to come in and help me with the business because I was still very young.
He said, “You’ve got to give up two of the three. You can’t be a master of all three of those. Those are three different markets.” He was right. Working in one of those industries and really knowing the people and the relationships was very important, as opposed to trying to do all three at once.
Alejandro Cremades: I love that. Well, Jason, for the people that are listening who would love to reach out and say hi, what is the best way for them to do so?
Jason Johnson: On Instagram, I’m @NapaJasonJ. On X, I’m @JCJohnson. I’m happy to get messages on either of those.
Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well, Jason, thank you so much for being on The DealMaker Show today. It has been an absolute honor to have you with us.
