The Internet of Things is slowly working its way into our lives, to the point where we'll just call them Things. With so many software projects, open source tools, and hardware devices out there, it can be tough to even make the distinction between a modern sprinkler system and one that is Internet enabled: non-Internet enabled devices are becoming increasingly less common from hardware vendors across many verticals, from farming to utilities, to transport.

Zach Supalla, CEO of Particle, has built a company around redefining what it means to be an IoT platform. While many companies offer a software management layer, or a set of hardware platforms upon which to build, Particle offers the entire retinue of needed assets, from microcontrollers with wireless chipsets, to a device operating system, to a cloud service provider, to development tools.