Jamie Siminoff Didn't Let His 'Shark Tank' Failure Stop Him From Building a Billion-Dollar Business With a Big Mission

Here's why he thinks success is a little bit like playing the lottery.

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ByKristen Aldridge

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Ringfounder Jamie Siminoff's very public failure eventually landed his company a$1 billionsale to Amazon.

A lifelong inventor, Siminoff often tinkered with new ideas in his garage. Frustrated by his inability to hear the doorbell while working, he wondered if there was a way to connect it to his phone.

Sensing that he had stumbled onto something big, Siminoff began building a Wi-Fi-connected doorbell that would use video surveillance to screen visitors. His goal was to make homes safer and rid neighborhoods of crime.

Hoping to take his budding business to the next level, Siminoff landed an appearance onShark Tank. With his bank accounts drained, he laid it all on the line for a shot with the Sharks.

But when the day finally came, he went home without an offer.

"Driving home fromShark Tankwithout the money, as much as I was almost in tears in the car, still dead broke … I only had one thing to do the next day," Siminoff says. "[I had] to try to keep going, because stopping was death."

Siminoff now believes his appearance onShark Tankwas his best marketing technique. Within a month of the episode airing, he had raised$1 millionin seed funding en route to his billion-dollar sale and has since gone on to be a guest investor onthe show.

"I think the secret is luck, a lot of hard work and more luck," Siminoff says. "Every hour of hard work you put in is like buying another lottery ticket."

In this episode ofHow Brands Are Born, learn how Siminoff is working to make communities safer and smarter.

How Brands Are Bornis presented byCardone Ventures, in partnership withOriginal Stories Media. Learn howGrant CardoneandBrandon Dawsoncan help your business transform and scale to 10X levelsHERE.

Kristen Aldridge

Founder of Original Stories Media, Journalist, Producer and Storyteller

Emmy-winning journalist and brand storytelling expertKristen Aldridgeis founder and CEO ofOriginal Stories Media, a production company that specializes in capturing the origin stories behind the world’s most impactful brands. With over two decades of experience in the media industry, she has created content garnering millions of views for hugely successful platforms including Entrepreneur, ESPN, ABC, CBS, Yahoo!, and SHAPE.

Passionate about all things entrepreneurship, Aldridge created the original digital seriesHow Brands Are Bornto shine a light on all the remarkable people changing the world one big, bold dream at a time. Her mission is to help leaders reveal their most authentic selves so they can more effectively unleash their vision, inspire their culture, and bring deep value to the marketplace.

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