In 2011, James Siminoff created the first Wi-Fi video doorbell in his garage. He worked on perfecting this technology, the DoorBot, for two years before going onto Shark Tank, looking for $700,000 and 1% of the company. In his pitch he stated that he wanted to change the doorbell since it has not changed since 1880. At the end of his pitch he only had one offer from Kevin O’Leary, which he declined and left.
James, however, never gave up on his idea, it has now turned into a company called Ring. Ring offers different types of home protection services and products, including the Video Doorbell that he had pitched on Shark Tank. James has stated that the thing that keeps him going is that he knows that he is helping to reduce crimes in neighborhoods and make them safer.
In 2018 Amazon bought Ring for $1 billion and Amazon and James keep working to create innovative hoe security products for Ring.
I feel as though James Siminoff was just a little bit too ahead for his time. Had the idea of video doorbells not existed until two, maybe three years and then he pitched his idea, he surely would’ve been able to have one of the members of Shark Tank give him a good offer. Great writing!