How a $200 Doorbell Became a $4B Company
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff shares the remarkable story of building a billion-dollar company from a simple garage problem—not being able to hear his doorbell. (02:47) The episode dives deep into the dramatic negotiation process, including a lawsuit from ADT that nearly killed Amazon's $1.15 billion acquisition deal, and how Siminoff's relentless "snowball approach" to business building ultimately led to success. (06:48) Beyond the Ring story, Siminoff reveals his methodology for spotting billion-dollar opportunities hiding in boring problems and shares fascinating insights about his current project: revitalizing a small Missouri town.
- Main themes: Problem-first entrepreneurship, the power of persistence through crisis, finding massive opportunities in small markets, and using success to create meaningful community impact
Speakers
Jamie Siminoff
Jamie Siminoff is the founder of Ring, which he sold to Amazon for $1.15 billion in 2018. After being rejected on Shark Tank, he built Ring into a company that transformed home security and neighborhood safety, growing from $400 million to over $4 billion in revenue during his tenure at Amazon. He's also an active investor who appeared as a shark on Shark Tank and is currently working on revitalizing small towns in Missouri while continuing his role in product development at Amazon.
Sam Parr
Sam Parr is the co-host of My First Million podcast and founder of Hampton, a community for high-growth entrepreneurs. He previously founded and sold The Hustle, a business newsletter, and now focuses on helping entrepreneurs scale their companies and connect with like-minded peers.
Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri is the co-host of My First Million podcast and a serial entrepreneur. He previously co-founded Blab and served in various executive roles at companies like Twitch and Monkey Inferno, bringing extensive experience in product development and startup scaling to the show.
Key Takeaways
Start with Problems, Not Solutions
Siminoff emphasizes the critical importance of identifying real problems before developing technology solutions. (28:29) With Ring, he started with a simple problem—not being able to hear his doorbell from the garage—rather than looking for applications for new technology. This problem-first approach ensures you're solving something people actually need, rather than creating a solution in search of a problem. Many founders fail because they start with cool technology and try to find applications, but sustainable businesses emerge from addressing genuine pain points that people experience daily.
Find Small Problems with Massive Markets
The key to discovering billion-dollar opportunities is identifying problems that seem small but exist everywhere. (30:02) Siminoff notes that if a problem were obviously huge, someone would already be solving it. The doorbell seemed like a $10 product in a tiny market, but when you realize every home globally has a doorbell, the addressable market becomes enormous. This "little solution, massive market" approach helps entrepreneurs find opportunities that others overlook because they appear too niche or insignificant at first glance.
Use the Snowball Approach to Build Momentum
Siminoff's "snowball method" involves starting small and gathering momentum as you roll downhill, accepting that you might hit trees and explode along the way. (40:35) This approach recognizes that if you can see the finish line clearly when you start, you're probably not inventing something truly innovative. The snowball method requires persistence through uncertainty—you begin with a small idea, test and iterate rapidly, and let the momentum build naturally. Some snowballs will hit obstacles and fail, but the ones that make it to the bottom of the hill become much larger than when they started.
Practice "Last Mile Marketing" with Pre-Awareness
Look for products where 90% of the marketing is already done through existing market awareness. (58:16) Siminoff explains that educating a market from scratch is extremely expensive—it's much more efficient to add innovation to something people already understand. Everyone knew what a doorbell was, where it goes, and what it does. By simply adding a camera, Ring leveraged decades of existing consumer understanding. This pre-awareness strategy, seen in examples like Liquid Death (water with different packaging), allows entrepreneurs to focus resources on differentiation rather than market education.
Hire Fast, Fire Faster with Mission Alignment
Siminoff's hiring philosophy centers on three criteria: minimum skill set, passion for the problem, and genuine desire to work on the mission. (48:19) He believes in giving people massive autonomy and the ability to succeed or fail quickly, rather than wrapping them in processes that prevent both success and failure. His "3-6 months" rule for firing recognizes that most leaders wish they had acted sooner when letting people go. The key is finding people who are genuinely excited about solving the specific problem your company addresses, not just looking for any job.
Statistics & Facts
- Ring grew from $400 million to over $4 billion in revenue during Siminoff's tenure at Amazon after the acquisition. (19:48) This represents a nearly 10x growth in just a few years, demonstrating the massive scalability of the home security market once the right product-market fit was achieved.
- Ring was sold to Amazon for exactly $1.15 billion in 2018, with the final deal signed on December 31st, just 22 days after settling the ADT lawsuit on December 9th. (16:50) The speed of this turnaround shows how quickly major acquisition deals can move once legal obstacles are cleared.
- Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the NFL draft, meaning every team had multiple opportunities to select him but chose other players who are now largely unknown. (47:06) This statistic illustrates Siminoff's hiring philosophy that exceptional talent is often overlooked and available to any organization willing to recognize it.
