Company overview
Barn Owl deploys a solar-powered cellular camera at a customer site, captures motion-triggered HD images plus livestream video, and pushes the feed to the customer's phone through the company's own cellular plan and web portal, with no WiFi, no grid power, and no on-site networking gear. The hardware comes in two variants: the RangeCam 2 for motion-triggered photos and short clips, and the RangeCam Live for continuous HD video with audio. Both ship as a single weatherproof enclosure with a multi-carrier modem that auto-selects the strongest signal across major US networks, paired with a solar panel and antenna for off-grid operation. The image feed and camera management flow into Barn Owl HQ on the web and the Barn Owl App on mobile: live view, alert configuration, multi-camera fleet view, and customer-drawn Detection Zones that filter alerts to specific regions of the frame instead of pinging every time a branch sways or a vehicle drives past the gate.
Barn Owl's commercial model is hybrid recurring: the customer buys the camera outright, then carries a per-camera monthly plan against the deployed fleet for the life of the camera. Plans start at $7 per camera per month and scale up by data allowance and feature set, with annual billing earning a one-month discount. The plans are contract-free, so a customer can pause or downgrade between grazing seasons or shut a tier off when a construction job wraps up. Recurring revenue carries the cellular data, image storage, alert delivery, AI filtering, and access to Barn Owl HQ and the mobile app; on the higher tiers, Barn Owl Care is bundled and covers theft, vandalism, and accidental damage for the life of the subscription.
Customers and target markets
- The Nature Conservancy; National Park Service; McPhee Family Farms; St. Louis County
- Missouri
Company metrics
- Headquarters:
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Company size:
- 11-50
- Founded:
- 2016
- Industries:
"The people we built this for are watching animals and assets that are way outside of normal power sources,” explains Josh Phifer, Founder and CEO of Barn Owl Tech. “They're securing barns, fence lines, stock tanks, equipment yards, remote properties, and critical infrastructure where there's no power or WiFi. We keep it simple: you buy the camera, and choose a low monthly plan for the data, the storage, and the smart alerts that keep you in control of your properties from anywhere. And because there's no contract, a rancher can pause between seasons and a builder can switch it off when the job is done."