Crowd-Funded Garage Door Opener Works with Smartphone

Crowdfunding is allowing everyday people to raise money to fund their inventions and start-up businesses. Case in point: a new garage door opener that can be accessed with a smartphone or a smart keypad, which is being presented to citizen-investors on Indiegogo.

Developed by California inventors Anne Sutardji and Brian Rockermann, the Sesame garage door opener promises to bring the standard garage door opener up to date by utilizing smartphone applications and standard WiFi.

According to the company, Sesame provides remote control and monitoring of two garage doors using an iPhone or Android phone, as well as a web browser. The unit can be programmed with as many as 100 unique codes, and can send messages to a smartphone if the garage door is opened.

Sutardji and Rockermann say that Sesame will work with nearly all existing garage door openers, so long as the homeowner has access to an electrical outlet and WiFi.

This pair of eager entrepreneurs have launched a campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo in an effort to raise capital for their new venture. Crowdfunding has become a growing trend, since it allows people with cool ideas to rapidly connect with small investors.

Crowdfunding began as a quirky, idealistic Internet-based way for people to make an appeal to a global audience — for everything from rent money to support for a charity or business. It has grown into a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon in recent years, with entrepreneurs now viewing popular crowdfunding sites as a good way to find capital to launch new businesses.

Perhaps there will one day be Fortune 500 companies that began as crowdfunded startups using services like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Entrepreneurs like Sutardji and Rockermann are betting on it.