It seems as though quite a few custom home technology integration firms have national aspirations these days, and Bravas is one of them.
The company, based in Austin, Texas with 15 locations scattered around the continental U.S., wants to reposition itself as a “home experience designer” working closely with homeowners, architects, builders and interior designers to help create luxury residential experiences to help clients live in harmony with their homes.
Bravas emphasizes the need for specialized expertise in integrating advanced technologies like smart lighting, climate control, and security systems. This gap in knowledge among traditional builders and architects often results in suboptimal smart home integration. Bravas wants to change this by ensuring that home technology is part of the design from the outset, helping clients live harmoniously with their smart homes.
During a sit down interview at a busy coffee shop just outside the CEDIA Expo 2024 show floor, Bravas executives told CE Pro that the company sees itself as an essential partner in modern luxury home construction, filling a crucial role in creating integrated and harmonious living environments.
“We want to make a statement that our business is not just about putting technology in homes,” says CEO Mark Goldman. “We’re creating these incredibly intuitive, life-altering experiences.”
Bravas Wants to Start Delivering Luxury Experiences, Not Technology
Goldman and Kevin Roach, director of super luxury home experience design, say Bravas wants to achieve what the industry at large has been chasing for a number of years – delivering experiences as the end product rather than simply installing technology. The technology, however, is a means of accomplishing the desired experiences.
To do this, integrators need to become involved much earlier in the home-building process.
“When we got to the house, it was framed and mechanicals were going in, then we would get engaged in the project,” Roach says. “Oftentimes, it was a little too late for us.”
The company is now focusing on getting involved earlier in the project, which includes earlier planning with different trades.
“When we’re designing the house and thinking about the clients actually living in it at the end, we want to make sure all of that is put into place at the very beginning,” Roach says.
One way to do that is to consider the lifespan of the house and how its occupants will evolve alongside technology and install flexible and upgradeable foundational infrastructure to be able to support that vision.
The term “custom integrator” doesn’t exactly communicate that idea, Goldman says.
“This isn’t off the shelf technology that you’re just sticking in a in a corner somewhere. This is super sophisticated stuff, and that’s really the role that we play,” Goldman says. “It’s really about experiences, and designing those experiences, both for what you want to live today and where the future is going.”
Becoming Hyper-Focused on the Luxury Home Markets
By focusing solely on the luxury market, Bravas aims to develop a level of expertise and resources that sets it apart from smaller, more generalized integrators. The company is investing heavily in training programs for its technicians, as well as building a “world class design and engineering team” to stay at the forefront of the rapidly evolving industry.
To deliver on its vision, Bravas is taking a multi-faceted approach that emphasizes seamless integration, hidden technologies, and outdoor living experiences. The company recognizes that its luxury clients want indoor and outdoor spaces to blend with technology that respects that design and architecture.
Bravas is focusing on technologies that are designed to do exactly that. Solutions like Samsung Frame TVs and similar displays from competing brands, invisible speakers, and solutions that help expand living spaces to the outdoors now make up a big chunk of the core products Bravas is installing.
In addition, the company wants its clients to not only be reliant upon the power grid. As evidenced by recent energy issues in the Southern U.S. due to poor power grid management or natural disasters, luxury homeowners want to be protected. This comes in the form of energy-efficient products, battery backup power, and other energy storage solutions.
“We’re taking what technology can do, and we’re fitting it in in a way that still respects the design, it still respects the architecture, and yet it gives them that family or that individual experience that they’re looking for,” Roach says.
However, getting a national company with locations around the U.S. to deliver the same experiences can be challenging, but Bravas aims to solve this with a new national management structure designed to unify and align its branches.
This also included hiring national leaders in sales, operations, finance, human resources and more. The end goal is to align all of these business around a shared vision and mission, which is delivering these highly automated and luxury entertainment experiences, exclusively to the luxury market.
“We very tightly defined the market we’re going after,” Golman says. “We’re looking to be the biggest in that market and the most successful.”
