Ring’s inventor was ‘completely broke’ before pitching his US$1bil idea to ‘Shark Tank’ and Amazon

Before doorbell company Ring was acquired by Amazon in a reported US$1bil (RM4.70bil) deal and became a fixture in over 10 million American homes, the company was the tinkering project in the garage of founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff.

A doorbell that could connect to your phone, Ring – originally called Doorbot – was supposed to be cheap to produce, but instead became an undertaking that far exceeded what Siminoff had imagined.

“It turns out we were way over our skis,” he told Fortune at its 2019 Brainstorm Tech conference.

The desire to turn his garage invention into a viable business took him to reality show Shark Tank in 2013. Desperate for funds, he used the company’s last US$20,000 (RM94,180) to build an elaborate set to pitch the product. “I was completely broke when I went on the show,” Siminoff said.

Valuing Doorbot at US$7mil (RM32.96mil) and asking for US$700,000 (RM3.29mil) for a 10% stake, Siminoff touted the budding company’s impressive online sales and a strong mission to make neighbourhoods safer through increased surveillance as reasons to take a chance on it.

The fish didn’t bite, and Siminoff’s appearance on the show would foreshadow the less-than-straightforward path to Ring becoming a blockbuster product. The show’s sharks weren’t confident in the product’s ability to sell, and billionaire investor Mark Cuban believed the company to be worth only US$40mil (RM188.36mil). He would become one of hundreds of investors to say no to Siminoff.

The CEO recalled the sting of his drive home after the show, where his three dogs awaited him in his garage that doubled as his company’s headquarters. With so much energy sunk into the project – as well as a heavily blurred boundary between his personal and work life given where he was operating his business – Siminoff slogged forward, eventually gaining clarity on what went wrong.

“We were at the point where we had sales, we had a good product, but we had such a complex business,” Siminoff told Inc. in 2018. “We couldn’t show how we were going to get to the next step. We were at that awkward adolescent phase.”

Five years later, after Siminoff announced the deal with Amazon, another shark, Kevin O’Leary, changed his tune on the product, calling it “probably the biggest miss” in the show’s history until that point.

Investors come ringing

So how did a Shark Tank reject manage to build a billion-dollar company in five years? Though his time with the show’s investors wasn’t fruitful, Siminoff’s 10-minute Shark Tank appearance did give him exposure and opportunities, including the chance to sell his product on QVC in 2016.

“QVC is amazing,” Siminoff said. “It teaches you what your product is, who your customer is, and how to sell it.”

The CEO recalled finding his footing after over 100 “gruelling” hours of marketing the product on the network, including bringing in a record US$22.6mil (RM106.42mil) in sales in one day.

But the increased visibility also caught the attention of an unlikely bunch of investors, including basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal and Virgin Group cofounder Richard Branson. Having originally met Branson in 2001 in an airport hotel elevator in Brussels but failing to leave a message with a hotel concierge for the business magnate, Siminoff later found out Branson was among the investors who gave US$28mil (RM131.85mil) in the company’s 2015 funding round.

“What excites me about Ring is its efficient, convenient approach to crime prevention and home monitoring and also its entrepreneurial leadership team,” Branson said in 2015. “I’m speaking as both an investor and a very happy customer.”

Branson took a reported 5% stake in the company.

“When Richard Branson asks if he can invest in your company, I think there’s only one answer you can give,” Siminoff said in 2015.

Ring also attracted the attention of O’Neal, who purchased a Ring in 2016. The basketball star lived in a gateless home in Atlanta, and the camera within the doorbell allowed him to see the kids who approached his home. Not only did O’Neal take a stake in the company, he became a spokesperson, appearing alongside Siminoff in television commercials.

In 2017, the company raised US$109mil (RM513.28mil) in its Series D funding round and secured its blockbuster deal with Amazon a year later. The catapult into success was something Siminoff was still incredulous of years later.

“I was just a kid who grew up in New Jersey who worked in his garage and built a doorbell,” he said. “And all of a sudden I’m on TV with Shaq.” – Fortune.com/The New York Times