I don’t know about you. But if someone in my industry told me I wasn’t fit to do something, I’d probably listen to them.

Let alone four times.

But Jamie Siminoff didn’t take it heart. You might not know his name from first glance, but he was the man who invented the DoorBot, or now commonly known as the Ring Doorbell.

It originally started out as an idea where he could keep an eye out for missed deliveries to his front door. Over time, he found himself with a prototype that could connect to the internet and stream video directly to anyones phone. He didn’t have something for just him, he had something that everyone could use.

And so, he decided to go out into the world and try to get funding for DoorBot. And in 2013, he walked onto the stage of Shark Tank looking for a lifeline.

He went on the show asking for $700,000. And in exchange, he would give the investor 10% of his company which means he valued his company right about $7 million.

One by one, they passed. Kevin O’Leary was intrigued and even offered a deal, but not without a bunch of strings and royalties that Jamie just couldn’t see being worth it. They all said it would most likely fail and isn’t something they could see homeowners putting on their front door.

So here Jamie was, standing in front of four multi-millionaires who do nothing but invest in companies—who have a history of knowing who can be successful and who can’t—and here they are, saying Jamie’s business won’t be successful.

It was a pretty big blow to him.

But after he walked off the set rejected, he decided to go back to his garage and rebrand. He changed the original design to something sleeker and renamed it Ring for a clearer vision.

Once he had a better product, he went back out into the world and started pitching investors again—this time with more confidence and grit.

It wasn’t until Richard Branson heard about Ring and liked his mission behind keeping homes safe and secure for everyone. And so, he invested.

By 2017, Jamie also created similar products under the Ring name like motion-sensing floodlights, indoor cameras, and alarms.

At this point, he had raised over $200 million. A far stretch from the $700,000 he was initially looking for.

A year later, he got a call from Amazon with an offer to buy his company for $1 billion. A $993 million jump from what he originally thought his company was worth just five years ago.

I think at this point you know Amazon would go on to acquire Ring and turn it into a direct competitor of Google Nest and turn it into a multi-billion dollar product.

And to put the cherry on top, Shark Tank invited Jamie back as a guest shark alongside the very people who once turned him down.

From a rejected founder to one of the most successful startup entrepreneurs of our time, his story his something to take note of. That even if someone more experienced than you, if someone smarter than you tells you “no,” but you still know deep down you have something real, then don’t listen to them.

Follow in Jamie’s footsteps and prove them wrong. Yeah, you might be seen as wrong or even a little crazy. But as Steve Jobs once said,

“The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m still in the middle of reading the Zen In The Art Of Writing by Ray Bradbury. A memoir slash guide that contains the wisdom and experience of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Quote Of The Week - “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried” — Stephen McCranie