Alarm.com began as a side project inside MicroStrategy, a business software company better known today for buying bitcoin. In 2000 the unit set out to change a sleepy industry: home security, where alarms dialed a monitoring center over a landline and owners knew nothing. Alarm.com put the alarm on a wireless connection and the controls on the owner's phone. By its June 2015 IPO, it sold that service through local security dealers across the country.

Spun Out of MicroStrategy

Alarm.com started in 2000 as a business unit of MicroStrategy and launched its first product in 2003. It became a majority-owned MicroStrategy subsidiary that year. MicroStrategy sold all of its interest in 2009, and Alarm.com Holdings was formed for the sale. The bet was to sell software through the dealers who already installed alarms. Dealers paid Alarm.com a monthly fee for each home, then added cameras, smart locks and thermostats to the same app.

A Steady Climb From $14

Alarm.com priced its IPO at $14 a share on June 26, 2015, and listed on Nasdaq as ALRM. Its business ran on recurring fees, and dealers kept adding customers as smart-home devices spread. The company bought makers of video, energy and commercial security products to widen what its platform could control. As of October 2026, Alarm.com is still public on Nasdaq and based in Tysons, Virginia.

Cover: The Dog's Watch, Charles François Daubigny. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a watchdog (home security).