Shark Tank’s Ring founder was a guest Shark in the latest season

“It’s just so overwhelmingly insane,” said Jamie
Siminoff, pictured.
Jordan
Stead/Amazon

• Jamie Siminoff appeared on “Shark
  Tank” in 2013, pitching his startup, Doorbot.
• In the months leading up to the taping, Siminoff
  practiced constantly, using the mock set he’d built in his
  backyard and fielding potential questions from
  friends.
• Ultimately, Siminoff rejected an offer from Kevin
  O’Leary and left without making a deal.
• Doorbot subsequently became Ring and, in 2018, the
  company was acquired by Amazon for $1 billion.
• Siminoff returned to the tank as a guest Shark in the
  season 10 premiere and could barely believe it was real. He
  remembered how nervous he’d felt the first time he appeared on
  the show.

Jamie Siminoff knew that a spot on “Shark Tank” could have the
same impact as a Super Bowl commercial.

So in the weeks leading up to his appearance on the show, in
2013, he practiced relentlessly. He built a set in his backyard
and had friends come over to watch him present his pitch and ask
potential questions.

Siminoff is the CEO of Ring; at
the time of his appearance on “Shark Tank,” the company was
called Doorbot. Ultimately, he was turned down by every Shark but
Kevin O’Leary, who offered him $700,000 with royalties. Siminoff
rejected the deal.

Months passed and Siminoff still had no idea if the episode would
air. (Not every “Shark Tank” episode filmed makes it to TV.) The
business was strapped for cash, Siminoff was going broke, and he
started to have some regrets about not taking the deal with
O’Leary. “I would have gone back and taken the devil’s money at
that point,” he said.

In November, the episode aired and Siminoff said Ring saw an
immediate uptick in interest, with $100,000 in sales that night
alone.

Fast forward a few years, and Ring had received investments from
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Goldman Sachs. Then, in
2018, Ring was
acquired by Amazon for $1 billion. On the first episode of
the show’s tenth season, Siminoff returned to the tank as a guest
Shark.

“If you had a heart rate sensor on me,” Siminoff told Business
Insider, “I would have looked like I was about to explode.” He
remembered vividly how anxious he’d been the first time he walked
through those double doors.

As one entrepreneur after another took the stage to pitch their
business, Siminoff couldn’t help but see reflections of his
younger self.

He ended up investing $100,000 in Bear Minimum, which makes
camping cookware, at least partly because he could tell that
“these people are putting their lives into this thing and that’s
the type of entrepreneur that will be successful.” One of the
founders talked about working as a Lyft driver at night to help
support his business.

Still, Siminoff found it mind boggling to be in the position of
power. “It’s just so overwhelmingly insane that that is what I’ve
been able to get to,” he said, “that it really is hard to think
that it’s real.”