625: From $70M in Debt to $1B Amazon Deal in 45 Days | Jamie Siminoff

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 664 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One billion dollars. That’s what today’s guest built — after being rejected on Shark Tank, nearly going bankrupt multiple times, and spending millions before making a single sale. In this video, Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, breaks down the real story behind building one of the most successful hardware startups of all time and selling it to Amazon for over $1B. What you’ll learn in this video: • How to validate and pre-sell a hardware product before manufacturing • The real cost of R&D when building a physical product business • How Shark Tank rejection can accelerate growth, not kill it • Why domain names matter more than founders realise • How Ring survived massive supplier debt and cash pressure • The risks of scaling too fast and hiring ahead of systems • How constraint and pressure forced breakthrough growth • What founders get wrong about raising capital vs bootstrapping By the end of this video, you’ll understand what it truly takes to build a billion-dollar hardware or eCommerce company — and how to avoid the mistakes that silently kill most physical product startups. If you’re serious about building something real, durable, and valuable, this episode will change how you think about product, money, and scale. SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://your.omnisend.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get started. HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING? → Starting from scratch? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ → Already have a store? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN Instagram → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH JAMIE Website → https://ring.com/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-siminoff-aaa44238a/ FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES YouTube → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/foundr/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com/podcast⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Founder Fam, I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omniscend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce founders. We've been recommending OmnisCent to Founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling the seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results.
0:24.0	Did you know on average, Omnysend customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return on investment.
0:32.6	And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code Founder 50.
0:39.3	Just head to Omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started.
0:45.0	All right. Now let's jump back into the show.
0:49.1	$1 billion. That's what today's guest business was acquired for by Amazon in 2018.
0:55.0	And he probably recognized him as Shark Tank's most notorious rejection, where every shark passed,
1:01.0	a deal that today would have been worth hundreds of millions.
1:04.0	His name's Jamie Siminoff, the founder and the inventor of Ring.
1:07.0	So in this episode, you're going to hear how Jamie spent two to three million in R&D before his first sale by pre-selling products he hadn't built yet. How we negotiated
1:16.0	the ring.com domain for one million with only 187,000 in the bank. How he went from 70 million
1:22.2	in supplier debt to a billion dollar acquisition in just 45 days. Plus Jamie reveals while scaling from 75 to 1,000 employees in 18 months was actually
1:32.1	a complete disaster and how generating 23.6 million in sales in a single day on QBC
1:38.8	actually saved the company from bankruptcy.
1:41.8	This is one of the most raw and honest conversations I've had about
1:45.5	what it takes to build a billion dollar hardware company when the odds are truly stacked
1:51.8	against you.
1:56.8	Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship.
2:04.8	Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
2:10.7	Jamie, welcome to the show. We're really excited about our conversation.
2:16.0	You famously launched DoorBbot in your garage because you
2:20.3	kept missing deliveries. Can you take us back to that 2011 moment that led you to know,
	...

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