Amazon buys ‘Shark Tank’ reject for $1B

Sometimes a shark doesn’t know a good thing.

Ring, the video-doorbell company that Amazon.com Inc. bought Tuesday for more than $1 billion, was rejected by a panel of investors on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2013.

Jamie Siminoff, the founder and chief executive of Ring — then called DoorBot — went on the show seeking investors for his nascent business. Pitching it as “caller ID for your door,” Siminoff was seeking $700,000 for a 10 percent stake in the company — a $7 million valuation.

No one bit, except for investor Kevin O’Leary, who offered a $700,000 loan, 10 percent of all sales until the loan was paid off, 7 percent royalties on all future sales and a 5 percent stake in the company.

Those terms didn’t work for Siminoff, who walked away from the offer.

“I remember after that ‘Shark Tank’ episode literally being in tears,” Siminoff told CNBC last year. “I needed the money, we were out of money at the time.”

But sales picked up after the show aired, and four years and a new name later, Ring had 1,300 employees, was sold in 16,000 stores and had a billion-dollar valuation.

One prominent investor did latch on early, however — Virgin Group billionaire Richard Branson, who participated in a $28 million funding round in 2015.

“I couldn’t quite work out why the sharks turned him down, it just seemed to be a wonderful idea,” Branson later said during a guest appearance on “Shark Tank.”