Founder of Ring, the smart-doorbell company he pitched (as DoorBot) on Shark Tank and later sold to Amazon for roughly $1B.
Jamie Siminoff says Ring did $480 million in revenue in 2017, the year of the Amazon acquisition.
“so that was 2017. So we, that year we did $480 million.”
Jamie Siminoff explains that even with great per-customer unit economics, Ring lit money on fire because growing 500% a year forced them to over-hire far ahead of need just to keep service from collapsing.
“It was growing so fast that like money was just being lit on fire everywhere. And it's not that we were like, we, we had crappy offices. Like, it's just, you have to hire so fast to get ahead. Just think about like customer service when you're growing at like 500% a year. And if customer service takes 3 to 6 months, like a person you hire to get up to speed. That means you're hiring like 2 to 3x what you need at that exact time.”
Mid-negotiation, Jamie Siminoff got hit with an ADT injunction one hour after Amazon promised a term sheet; when he disclosed it, Amazon walked, nearly killing the deal.
“Nick calls me and he's, you know, I'm going to send you a term sheet over, you know, tomorrow morning, just FYI. Great. An hour later, the injunction hits us. I have to call Nick back and be like, hey, just FYI, like, not a big deal at all. Doesn't, you know, shouldn't matter. Like, shouldn't matter at all. But like, just like as an FYI, we did get an injunction from ADT on this lawsuit. And he's like, Dude, we're out.”
After settling the ADT lawsuit around December 9th, Ring signed to sell to Amazon for $1.15 billion on December 31st.
“December 31st, we signed for $1.15 billion to sell it.”
Siminoff was on about $150K and prided himself on being the least-paid executive, which he now calls a real mistake. With no nest egg, his entire financial future rode on Ring not dying.
“It was like $150,000, I think at that point. And I prided myself, and this was, if I'm looking back, a real mistake. I prided myself on being like the least paid executive.”
Siminoff says the mistake founders make is starting from a cool new chip or technology hunting for a problem; he starts from a real problem and lets whatever technology exists assist it. Ring stayed a make-neighborhoods-safer company, not a camera company.
“I think the pro— the issue is most, a lot of founders will say, I found this new chip that's out there. What can we do with this? And so they don't find a real problem. They just like, you know, it is a technology looking for a problem. I like to start with like actually something that is a true problem and then it doesn't matter what the tech is.”
Steal thisStart from a real problem you personally have, then let existing technology assist it; never start from a cool new technology hunting for a use.
Siminoff argues the best opportunities look small and uncool up front: a $200 doorbell sounded dumb next to $10 doorbells, but zoom out and every home on earth has a doorbell. Non-obvious-but-huge is the target.
“it's, if they were obvious that they were huge problems, someone would be doing it. So it's like, you have to find these problems that are sort of not obviously huge, but sort of have that, have, again, I look at it as like, what is the, what could it be?”
Steal thisHunt for problems that look small and uncool today but apply to nearly everyone; if the upside were obvious, it would already be taken.
Siminoff pitches bugs as a massive unsolved problem: we can land rockets on barges but cannot get rid of flies. He imagines a non-toxic, solar-powered approach instead of spraying toxins everywhere.
“Bugs. Like, I just hate bugs. Like, I've never found anyone that likes bugs. And it's amazing that there's like no one has actually created— with all the technology, like, we can launch rockets up in the air and land them on like a little barge. We can like do all this stuff, but we can't get rid of freaking flies at my house in Missouri.”
Steal thisBuild a non-toxic, solar-powered bug-control product and brand it as safe-for-your-home rather than as a toxin.
Siminoffs invention process is to physically immerse in the problem, use first principles and ChatGPT to understand the mechanism, then start building with a soldering iron. He explicitly wont do market research or ask friends if it will be a big business.
“But I would just, and I just literally, I'd just be like building this stuff. Like I would start, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do research. I wouldn't ask friends if it's going to be a big business. I wouldn't spend time on any of that stuff. I would be out there like with solar panels and Dyson vacuum cleaners hooked up to lights and, you know, tubes.”
Steal thisImmerse yourself in the problem and start building a crude prototype immediately instead of running market research or polling friends.
Siminoffs idea engine: start with a hated problem, keep soldering and gathering mass like a snowball rolling downhill; some hit a tree and explode. If you can see the finish line at the start, you are probably not changing the world.
“If you can see the finish line when you start, it's usually not a big good thing. Like it's, it's like, that's usually, you're, you're not like, you're not inventing or you're not changing the world typically if it's like that clear how to get from start to finish.”
Steal thisPick problems where you cannot see the path from start to finish; clarity end-to-end means the idea is too small to matter.
Asked what shaped his mindset, Siminoff names the Walt Disney biography as the book that stands out most, warning the audiobook is around 24 hours long.
“I think the book that stands out the most for me is the Walt Disney biography. If you want to read this, like, get ready, like, you better clear your calendar because this thing is like, I think the audiobook's like 24 hours.”
Siminoff notes Tom Brady was the 199th draft pick that every team passed on repeatedly. In business the equivalent overlooked superstar is available to everyone; chasing the big-name #1 pick means overpaying for someone who may be irrelevant in 10 years.
“He was the 199th draft pick. Like, everybody had the chance to get Tom Brady. And so while everyone's focused on like whatever the, the number one draft pick of that year, I don't know, the number top 10, I probably are unknown to us today. Um, but Tom Brady is one of the greatest athletes of all time. And so to me, as a, as a business, you have to find the Tom Bradys.”
Steal thisRecruit overlooked, hungry talent instead of overpaying for the famous big-name hire who may not even matter in a decade.
Siminoff illustrates hire-fast: Mimi cold-emailed saying she was in the neighborhood, sat down to chat, and he and his sales head hired her on the spot. She is Rings chief revenue officer today.
“She starts talking. I look at Don, Don looks at me. I said, we should just hire her, right? He goes, yeah. I said, okay, you're hired. And she's like, she's kind of like, like, are you two jokers serious? Like, this is like She's like, I was just coming to talk to you.”
Siminoff says marketing a brand-new-to-world product is hugely expensive because you must teach everything; instead add a small invention to something with existing pre-awareness. Putting a camera on a doorbell rode 100 years of free doorbell awareness, like Liquid Death is just water.
“So if you can, if you can try to like give a little bit of invention, a little bit of differentiation to something that has pre-awareness. You, it's incredible because if you look at the, there's a cost, just look at like the cost, like a new to world product, you have the cost to tell someone about it is incredibly expensive.”
Steal thisAttach your innovation to a product category people already understand so the marketing is 90% done; avoid new-to-world products that require expensive market education.
Siminoff bought a farm in La Belle, Missouri (700 people) and revived the town by fixing sidewalks, opening a coffee shop and tavern, and attracting a health clinic; once momentum built, locals started building apartments themselves. A snowball / flywheel of small fixes.
“And so we started fixing up the sidewalks and like kind of the broken windows theory of like, if you kind of start fixing some stuff up, you know, would other people join in? There was a lot of like kind of trash on some lots and like kind of that kind of stuff. And so people started cleaning up their stuff. We cleaned up the streets and the, and the sidewalks.”