Why Did Jamie Siminoff Spend Ring's Last Million on TV Ads?

Jamie Siminoff spent about the last million dollars Ring had on TV because he thought a venture-backed company in their spot should go for a big outcome. His view is that de-risking would have been worse for everyone. A venture investor, he says, needs more than a 5 million dollar a year doorbell business that is barely making it. They had about a million dollars left, with competitors showing up.

In January 2015, at CES, at least 30 rival products launched. Ring had launched in October 2014. Revenue was heading toward about 500,000 to 600,000 dollars a month. A GoodRx founder, whose son played soccer with Jamie's son, had just tried TV and described results Jamie calls unbelievable. That Saturday he told his wife he was going to the office to do TV, then told the board he wanted to blow a million dollars on it. One board member said you cannot do TV until sales hit 100 million. Jamie disagreed, and the rest of the board let him try.

Sales barely moved at first, then climbed. He doubled the spend, then tripled it. Ring went from about 500,000 dollars a month in January to about a million. The B round opened in late spring or early summer of 2015, with Richard Branson as one of the big investors. By the close, at the end of July or early August, monthly sales had doubled again to about 2 million. Jamie says that was about twice the size the round had been priced on.