Amazon currently owns Ring LLC, a home security and smart home company. Ring creates home security products that include outdoor surveillance cameras, such as the Ring Video Doorbell smart doorbell, and hosts the Neighbors app, which allows users to share captured footage online socially. On request, Ring also provides law enforcement agencies with video footage from its cameras and data from its Neighbors app. Civil rights organizations have accused it of establishing an invasive private surveillance network through its police partnerships. But did you know how Amazon Ring started?
Jamie Siminoff, 36, founded the company Doorbot in 2013 and raised $700,000 on Shark Tank. Jamie turned down Kevin’s offer, rebranded the company as Ring, hired Shaquille O’Neal as an investor and spokesperson, and sold Ring to Amazon for $1.2-1.8 billion in 2018.
Jamie Siminoff and the Shark Tank Rejection
Jamie was 35 during his midlife entrepreneurial crisis in 2011. Then it all began while he was tinkering in his garage. That concept led to Ring founder Siminoff being named the inventor of the world’s first Wi-Fi video doorbell.
The ring began as a way for him to see if there was a delivery person at the front door while he was in his garage.
Jamie was broke when he went on Shark Tank in 2013. He competed by pitching his startup Doorbot, which makes a doorbell with a camera that sends video to users’ smartphones.
Even though the Sharks liked the idea and said nice things, such as Mark Cuban:
I think it’s a great business. I think you’ll be successful. It will be worth $20 million. I just can’t invest in something that’s not going to be $70 million someday.
Mark Cuban
Jamie Siminoff and the Amazon Deal
Siminoff’s appearance on Shark Tank provided his company with much-needed exposure and drew the attention of Richard Branson, who went on to invest in it. And, after years of Siminoff’s hard work and rebranding of the startup under the new name Ring, a new chapter, i.e., Amazon’s agreement. Amazon purchased Ring in February 2018 in a deal reported to be worth more than $1 billion. (Source: India Times)
The Comeback Shark
Siminoff received a phone call from a Shark Tank producer in 2018, inviting him to appear as a guest Shark in the 2018 season.
That was a quick yes for me. Ring would never have survived or been where we’ve been if it hadn’t been for that exposure.
Jamie Siminoff
Even though he didn’t get a deal, appearing on the show allowed him to live his dream, so he was eager to help others do the same. Siminoff says that now that he is a shark himself, he understands how the Sharks failed to recognize the potential in Doorbot, given the speed with which information circulates on the show. (Source: India Times)
Image from Monster and Critics