The Richest looks at the entrepreneur that created the Ring doorbell and its acquisition by Amazon.
He emptied his savings account to order the first batch of 5,000 doorbells from a factory in Taiwan, despite his fears that consumers would view his product as a $200 toy.
Then, in May of 2013, he had lunch with a fellow entrepreneur who encouraged him to apply for Shark Tank and offered him the email address of a producer working on the popular business pitch show. As Siminoff was driving home, the producer called, and he promptly responded with a message.
He recorded his bit in April, which aired in November of that same year. They all turned him down. A month after appearing on Shark Tank, revenues increased by almost $1 million. Poor video and audio quality and a flaky WiFi connection meant that marketing and sales efforts fell short.
Siminoff spent the following nine months visiting 50 clients in their homes and responding to every email sent to his business. He definitely impressed prospects and clients as he took home some business. There is still his email address printed on every box. Up until around six months ago, he visited at least once each month to assist clients in fixing issues such as weak WiFi connections.Angela Natividad – The Ring Story: From A Rejected Shark Tank Pitch To A $1 Billion Deal With Amazon
Amazon acquired Ring at a reported $1 billion in 2018. Due to the agreement with Amazon, Ring will relocate its Los Angeles operations to a new facility. In Santa Monica, California, 250 of the company’s 2,000 workers are housed in four adjacent, one-story concrete structures: a converted warehouse and a former art gallery. Because of the lack of available desk space in Santa Monica, Siminoff has to share an office with an assistant and prop his computer on top of a filing cabinet.
