How Did Ring Survive Nearly Going Bankrupt?

Jamie Siminoff says Ring came to the verge of bankruptcy about four main times, and that a hardware business like theirs was nearly always that close. The cash went into inventory. Turner Novak describes it as taking all the money and buying inventory, so if the units did not sell, the company died. Jamie says that is exactly right.

He says the speed is what made the cash so thin. Growing slower would have left them less top-heavy, with profit coming in and more cash flow. Growing as fast as they were made cash flow upside down. If growth had fallen from about 300 percent to about 200 percent, he says that gap in cash flow would have killed the company. They stayed fully at that edge.

He compares the run to the shuttle coming through the atmosphere with the tiles falling off. They barely made it through without blowing up.