![]() Richard Branson declined to comment on the Amazon deal to CNBC Make It through a spokesperson.īefore his doorbell idea, Siminoff built and sold a handful of other companies, one for a price tag as high as $17 million in 2009, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Today we're over 1,300 people, 10 core products, 16,000 stores." Ring even landed Virgin Group billionaire Richard Branson as an investor after he saw one of the company's products. "It has now been four years since 'Shark Tank,' and the business is now valued at $1 billion," Siminoff said on an update for "Shark Tank" that aired Nov. "I don't think Excel could hold the number of records for it."Īfter Siminoff appeared on Season 5 of "Shark Tank," the business saw immense growth. "I can't count the number of people who didn't invest in this, who said 'no,' the number of people who said it was going to fail," Siminoff said. The critiques from investors like Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner about the product's ability to sell were fresh objections mirroring others' doubts about his idea. After leaving without an investor, it seemed the effort may have been a waste they couldn't afford.īut Siminoff wasn't just upset about the money. He'd sunk $10,000 into building props for the pitch, and the company's staff of eight had spent a month preparing for the show, according to his blog. "I needed the money, we were out of money at the time." "I remember after that 'Shark Tank' episode literally being in tears," Siminoff told CNBC Make It in a previous interview. All of the investors but Kevin O'Leary passed, and he made what Siminoff considered an unacceptable offer. It sold a WiFi-enabled doorbell that allowed users to see video of and talk to people as they arrived at the front door. Siminoff went on "Shark Tank" in 2013, pitching a business that was then called Doorbot. In fact, there was a time when he thought his company might go broke. So it's been really kind of cool."Īmazon did not respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.īut before he was rubbing elbows with Bezos, Siminoff struggled. "So all of my interactions with him so far have been very fun.we've been sort of talking about these things that we can do.brainstorming with him on it, and he's been very valuable at that. a very real person who also you can tell has this like insatiable appetite for invention and learning and seeing what's out there and doing that, and like very curious," Siminoff told CNBC Make It. ![]() Siminoff has met personally with the world's richest man, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and while he admits his interaction with Bezos has been limited, he says he's learned a lot and been impressed by the famous entrepreneur. "Now at Amazon, I have the ability to focus on that and not focus as much on the things of the business, like the funding of it." At the end of the day, I called myself a 'chief inventor' at Ring, I didn't call myself a CEO for a very specific reason, which is that I like inventing and building product much more than building a business. "It's a great place for an inventor to go who wants to continue to invent and impact the world," Siminoff said. As for working with Amazon, Siminoff told CNBC Make It in October that the experience has been incredibly positive. Founder Jamie Siminoff landed a coveted spot on "Shark Tank" (yes, the show where he was rejected) as a guest judge for season 10.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |