Before you open the front door, whip out your smartphone and check to see who is on the other side.
Santa Monica-based Ring, the smart doorbell, is bringing their operations to Scottsdale and filling about a 9,000-square-foot space with 200 jobs.
Since the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show where we first saw the product as DoorBot then re-released as RING in 2014 with more features and functionality, the company has continued to expand its reach and turn this doorbell into an additional security tool for homeowners.
CEO and chief inventor Jamie Siminoff created the product out of his family’s need to know when someone was at the door and who was on the other side.
“When I worked in my garage [and home alone], I never knew when someone was at the door,” Siminoff said. With crime on the rise in his neighborhood, he believed this product would help homeowners “feel more secure.” His company’s ultimate mission is to help create safer neighborhoods with Ring.
The company has raised $39 million in capital from American Family Insurance, Shea Ventures, even Richard Branson, and more.
The magic behind the growth is that “we’ve created a product that solves a problem,” Siminoff said. “[RING] keeps people attached to their home and monitoring your home with convenience. You’re always home with RING.”
Through a home’s WIFI connection the product allows for a two-way talk with the person at the door through ones’ smartphone anywhere in the world.
Aside from being a doorbell, it has a multi-zone customizable motion detection system, a 180 degree HD camera, night vision with 6 infrared LEDs, it can be hard-wired or battery operated, and users can opt-in for cloud service for $3 a month to capture the recordings instantly.
The company also built the Ring Chime, an extended Wi-Fi speaker that sounds within the home when the Ring Doorbell is activated. The user can even upload their own sound files and adjust the volume of the speaker or set it to do not disturb.
When choosing Arizona, Siminoff said the large trained labor force, cost of living for their employees and short flight from Santa Monica were big selling points for the expansion.
Out of the 200 jobs, the majority will be customer support with a technical focus.
“Our customer support is fairly technical and require technical expertise, it’s mixed between engineer and customer support – we can’t hire fast enough,” he said. As for future positions, “We’d love to build the office up and add more jobs and keep going up the channel. Hopefully we will have engineering courses and classes, and an extension of our company.”
Why Scottsdale? “We looked everywhere. We wanted a place to scale efficiently and get a lot of people fast. Arizona has a good employment base and we want our employees to have a great lifestyle,” Siminoff said.
The next goal for the company is to create products that provide a “3-Ring” home security system. We want to build a “ring of security around the front door, the home [and] your community,” Siminoff said.
The offices will go live November 1. Siminoff is looking forward to the sunshine and sharing his culture with employees who share his mission to help create safer neighborhoods.
“There is an amazing overall residence of the Phoenix area with an incredibly nice group of people with a life/work balance. I’m excited to expand and have them be team members who want to work on that mission. Together we can make a difference,” he said.
Read all of our extended coverage about Ring from the Gadgets for the Guru here.
Graphics courtesy of Ring
