The Exchanges

Q To what extent do you let customers guide your product roadmap? Hey, we need this, we need that. How do you determine between, hey, there's enough weight that we should do car cams?

A So this is a great, so, so mission, so if you, like, mission allows you to stay focused, because one of the problems is, like, you don't want to build everything, like, I'm not trying to build, um, I don't know, like, like, whatever, some other product that, like, it just sells, like a TV, I don't know, like, I mean, maybe Amazon does, but, like, I'm talking about, like, the ring, so staying super focused on what we do. Our mission is to make neighborhoods safer. So everything now is, like, now you have a mission, everyone's focused on it, like, our teams are focused on it, And now, like, listen to customers, listen to what they're really saying, and then you, when you understand your technology, your capabilities, and then you see what's happening, I think that magic, again, our drone, like, the drone happened because I, I, people were saying, I want indoor cameras, I don't want indoor cameras. And I'm like, god, that's, that's a weird, like, do you want an indoor camera? Like, when I'm away, I want indoor cameras all over my house.

AI assessment note: “mission allows you to stay focused... listen to what they're really saying”

Q I have Brian Armstrong on the show from Coinbase, and he said that the best CEOs insert risk into the business, which I thought was a really interesting perspective. Do you agree with that? And if you reflect, do you think you inserted enough risk?

A I would say it's, it's constrained. I would use the word constraint. It's probably, it might be the same exact thing what he's talking about, but to me, it's, it's these artificial constraints. It might be deadlines to get something out by that are too early. It might be when you get, when we do product development, Everyone wants to do like, like we're going to build this product in two years and it does everything we know today. And I'm like, oh, that's fun that technology for two years hasn't evolved. I'm like, no, we're going to like push it to stuff that we can't, we can just imagine being done, but is like sort of hard to imagine how it'll get there and force ourselves to invent. So I think you, you have to keep putting yourself in the box. The problem is that I do this well, I do, I think I do a good job at this in the company. And then I also do it in my own personal life, and that becomes, you know, like, like, I kind of always realize I'm always kind of, like, pushing myself deeper, whether it's my time into something, like, I can't, so it is like learning how to, like, balance those constraints, and whether they're business or personal, so that they don't go too far, because to the grape example of the wine, if you give the grapes zero water and zero fertilizer, they're dead grapes, and dead grapes don't make any wine.

AI assessment note: “I think I do a good job at this in the company.”

Q trust. I don't hire people, and my one criticism from my investors is, you don't hire people, and you just kind of a whole, like, you're the dependency. It's because I don't trust people. You meet me, do you trust me? You don't know me. Like, to hire me in a position of great responsibility, and so, How do you build trust and accelerate trust building processes when you're hiring?

A One of the important things for me is that no matter how many people have, have done things for me to lose trust, I've never lost believing in people. And so I'm always willing to take another risk because you have to earn trust. You have to take risk. And so I'm always willing to take a risk on someone and then let them either earn trust or if they don't then deal with that. And so I think it's a little bit like just like taking, you know, just, just literally it is like, you know, team is taking risks. Everything is team. So like the leverage you get in life is from team. And so, you know, I, I think it's just, you have to take the leap. And then if someone burns the trust, you know, get them out. But I think the one thing I'd say is, and I think this is where people go wrong is they, they learn, learn from that. Like, like someone burns them and they learn from it. And I would rather, I'd rather keep getting hurt and find a few great people than never be with great people. And I think those are the choices we have. I don't think we have a third choice there.

AI assessment note: “I'm always willing to take a risk on someone and then let them either earn trust”

Q What does it mean? They were sorry. I'm, I'm really naive here. Do they like put in Amazon execs and say like, here's your CFO and here's, you know, how does it work?

A You know, and over time, that's been five years. Like we have done a lot of integration just naturally, which would be like stupid. Imagine like you go to the, it's like, you go to the best university and you don't use any of the instructors, you know, it's like, or the library. It's like, so Yeah, but, but they let me do it on, like, they let me lead that. Like, they let the team, like, my team lead that. They, they respected that. And so, it allowed it to happen naturally versus, yeah, like you said, like, here's the, like, like, here's the playbook, and here's this. Now, the one thing, and again, this is where it made it easy, is like, the culture. It's like, here's kind of our culture at Amazon. I was like, wow, that's our culture at Ring. So, we don't need to relearn that. It's kind of like, we are who you are.

AI assessment note: “they let me lead that... allowed it to happen naturally versus... here's the playbook”

Q You mentioned not being necessarily cool as a kid. I wasn't either, and I'm a people pleaser as a result. I desperately seek other people's approval, and always try and please other people. Are you a people pleaser as a result? And I guess, what advice would you have for me, always looking for people's affirmation?

A I always say I don't have an ego, but I certainly like People seeing me be successful. Looking back, it's not terrible that people had to send me emails saying, wow, I can't believe where you've gotten to. Again, I don't think it's the reason you should do it, but it doesn't hurt. A lot of entrepreneurship is like reality distortion. You have to believe in something that's much bigger and crazier than what can actually be accomplished. When you're a kid and you're in that position, like one thing I learned is I moved schools because I was like literally ostracized from my high school. My parents were very nice because they were middle-class and I went to the private school They paid for me to go. It was a little bit of a hardship. When I got there, I was just like, I'm gonna be the cool kid now, and I just made up this life, because by the way, screw it, why not? I think that's part of entrepreneurship, is you just, you gotta make it up, because when you're in your garage building a doorbell, if you really told people what you really felt and where you were at, you probably would never make it, and so you have to say, yeah, I'm gonna build the biggest security company ever in the history of the world. You gotta be a little crazy, so maybe that's what taught me that.

AI assessment note: “I don't have an ego, but I certainly like People seeing me be successful.”

Q competition right? You said about burn the boats. I, I, People are like, oh, you should never, you know, you shouldn't compare yourself to others. I want to. I, you know, people say kill them with kindness. You know, David Goggin says, no, like, strangle them with your success. Like, every run, I'm like, ha, the girlfriends that dump me, I'm getting fitter. Like, do you know what I mean?

A Yeah, I would say, like, I think you want to not, I think you want to be focused on, like, that you have to exist for your customer. Like, you have to be, like, The customer needs you so much that, like, that's, like, so I, I, you see competition, like, yeah, like Tony with Nest, like, I mean, it was, like, he was at Google, and he bought Dropcam, like, I mean, I, I'm like, I'm a human being, like, I, yeah, you see this, but I did get, like, the mission, again, like, that's where mission, mission to me is of one thing, it's probably the strongest North Star, because if you have that, if you're, if you're missionary, it's amazing if you look at, like, how missionary people are able to, like, defy gravity When they shouldn't be, because you believe in something that's sort of bigger than this, like, tactical business. Because on the tactical business side, if you said, like, oh yeah, we're gonna, out of our garage in Santa Monica, we should be fine going after nests in Google, like, in Dropcam. Like, this shouldn't be a problem. Like, we're totally fine.

AI assessment note: “I think you want to be focused on, like, that you have to exist for your customer.”

Q I think the question everyone will be asking is like two things, uh, why now one and then two, like, what are you going to do now? Like, obviously you're still there with ring, but you'll have more time. I take it. So how do you think about those two?

A So I think to like the great story of Amazon, it's not why now I talked to Amazon a year ago and I said, I think. That my, like, where my passion is, where I am, like, I, I'm, I think I'm a good business leader, but this thing's gotten so big that there's probably a better person now to, like, it's a, it is a real, like, company, and, like, I still want to help on the product. I still want to get the emails, but, like, I don't think I'm the best person to be the CEO anymore, and as the, like, there is a CEO, and, Putting your title as CEO does prevent people from doing other, like to being empowered to do other things. And so a year ago we started the process of looking and figuring that out and like working with my boss, who's Dave Limp, who runs all the devices. And so it's been, we told that I actually told the team this summer that we were doing this and that we were in the process of it and that we would take some time. And so it's been like, I'd say a, a very sort of. Like, the right way to do this, which is, like, no one, you know, no one felt like it was gonna be immediate. We're trying to make the right decisions for the business, and I do look at Ring. I have, I have one kid. You know, most people have two. I think the average is two. The second one is Ring, and so I do look at, like, no matter what, Ring is my child. Like, it always will be. I'll always care for it, …

AI assessment note: “a year ago we started the process of looking and figuring that out”

Q Does it change your relationship to risk when you have Amazon in the background as your bluntly owner and parent?

A Which is why the constraints thing, you have to figure out ways to still create those constraints, and I think my internal furnace, and this is what, I mean, this is what's interesting, you know, people always say, like, money doesn't matter, you know, like, I think any entrepreneur will say, oh, money doesn't matter, I just want to build this This company like bullshit. Um, but, but once I sold, I did realize like money didn't matter to me in the sense of driving ring. Like I'm still like a, you can ask people here. Like I still get just as emotional on calls when we screw something up because I like, I'm angry about what we're doing for. We call our customers neighbors. Like I'm angry what we're not supplying to our neighbors. I'm angry at like, like, and so it's not. And money was a good part of this, but I still have that, like that drive. And I think that's the, that's the difference is like, who still has that drive? Like who really cares? Like if you care about that mission, it doesn't matter. And so yes, money was great because now we're not going to go out of business tomorrow, but we still, that doesn't make it easier to build a great product.

AI assessment note: “money was great because now we're not going to go out of business tomorrow”

Q I think the question everyone will be asking is like two things, uh, why now one and then two, like, what are you going to do now? Like, obviously you're still there with ring, but you'll have more time. I take it. So how do you think about those two?

A So I think to like the great story of Amazon, it's not why now I talked to Amazon a year ago and I said, I think. That my, like, where my passion is, where I am, like, I, I'm, I think I'm a good business leader, but this thing's gotten so big that there's probably a better person now to, like, it's a, it is a real, like, company, and, like, I still want to help on the product. I still want to get the emails, but, like, I don't think I'm the best person to be the CEO anymore, and as the, like, there is a CEO, and, Putting your title as CEO does prevent people from doing other, like to being empowered to do other things. And so a year ago we started the process of looking and figuring that out and like working with my boss, who's Dave Limp, who runs all the devices. And so it's been, we told that I actually told the team this summer that we were doing this and that we were in the process of it and that we would take some time. And so it's been like, I'd say a, a very sort of. Like, the right way to do this, which is, like, no one, you know, no one felt like it was gonna be immediate. We're trying to make the right decisions for the business, and I do look at Ring. I have, I have one kid. You know, most people have two. I think the average is two. The second one is Ring, and so I do look at, like, no matter what, Ring is my child. Like, it always will be. I'll always care for it, …

AI assessment note: “it's not why now I talked to Amazon a year ago”

Q What's the hardest thing about parenting, Jamie? I didn't have kids. If you were like, Harry, this is, this is hard. What would you tell me?

A I mean, the, the worst thing for me would be having an asshole as a kid. Like, like a kid is just not, like, you know, like there are kids that are just, And I, you know, and so like, and I think a lot of times it's parents that don't spend time with the kids or are busy or are whatever. And so it's like, I would just, I hated my son wasn't, wasn't empathetic to people, didn't care about things. Like it would just, that would, it would literally kill me. And my son is like, he is, he is sweet and empathetic and passionate and about his own things. Like he doesn't like the things I like, which I kind of almost like, I, I like, I love skiing. He doesn't really like skiing. I kind of love that. Like, it's like, he loves basketball. Like, great. Like, you love basketball? Go be the best basketball player in the world.

AI assessment note: “the worst thing for me would be having an asshole as a kid.”

Q competition right? You said about burn the boats. I, I, People are like, oh, you should never, you know, you shouldn't compare yourself to others. I want to. I, you know, people say kill them with kindness. You know, David Goggin says, no, like, strangle them with your success. Like, every run, I'm like, ha, the girlfriends that dump me, I'm getting fitter. Like, do you know what I mean?

A Yeah, I would say, like, I think you want to not, I think you want to be focused on, like, that you have to exist for your customer. Like, you have to be, like, The customer needs you so much that, like, that's, like, so I, I, you see competition, like, yeah, like Tony with Nest, like, I mean, it was, like, he was at Google, and he bought Dropcam, like, I mean, I, I'm like, I'm a human being, like, I, yeah, you see this, but I did get, like, the mission, again, like, that's where mission, mission to me is of one thing, it's probably the strongest North Star, because if you have that, if you're, if you're missionary, it's amazing if you look at, like, how missionary people are able to, like, defy gravity When they shouldn't be, because you believe in something that's sort of bigger than this, like, tactical business. Because on the tactical business side, if you said, like, oh yeah, we're gonna, out of our garage in Santa Monica, we should be fine going after nests in Google, like, in Dropcam. Like, this shouldn't be a problem. Like, we're totally fine.

AI assessment note: “you see this, but I did get, like, the mission, again, like, that's where mission”

Q I have Brian Armstrong on the show from Coinbase, and he said that the best CEOs insert risk into the business, which I thought was a really interesting perspective. Do you agree with that? And if you reflect, do you think you inserted enough risk?

A I would say it's, it's constrained. I would use the word constraint. It's probably, it might be the same exact thing what he's talking about, but to me, it's, it's these artificial constraints. It might be deadlines to get something out by that are too early. It might be when you get, when we do product development, Everyone wants to do like, like we're going to build this product in two years and it does everything we know today. And I'm like, oh, that's fun that technology for two years hasn't evolved. I'm like, no, we're going to like push it to stuff that we can't, we can just imagine being done, but is like sort of hard to imagine how it'll get there and force ourselves to invent. So I think you, you have to keep putting yourself in the box. The problem is that I do this well, I do, I think I do a good job at this in the company. And then I also do it in my own personal life, and that becomes, you know, like, like, I kind of always realize I'm always kind of, like, pushing myself deeper, whether it's my time into something, like, I can't, so it is like learning how to, like, balance those constraints, and whether they're business or personal, so that they don't go too far, because to the grape example of the wine, if you give the grapes zero water and zero fertilizer, they're dead grapes, and dead grapes don't make any wine.

AI assessment note: “I think I do a good job at this in the company.”

Q You mentioned not being necessarily cool as a kid. I wasn't either, and I'm a people pleaser as a result. I desperately seek other people's approval, and always try and please other people. Are you a people pleaser as a result? And I guess, what advice would you have for me, always looking for people's affirmation?

A I always say I don't have an ego, but I certainly like People seeing me be successful. Looking back, it's not terrible that people had to send me emails saying, wow, I can't believe where you've gotten to. Again, I don't think it's the reason you should do it, but it doesn't hurt. A lot of entrepreneurship is like reality distortion. You have to believe in something that's much bigger and crazier than what can actually be accomplished. When you're a kid and you're in that position, like one thing I learned is I moved schools because I was like literally ostracized from my high school. My parents were very nice because they were middle-class and I went to the private school They paid for me to go. It was a little bit of a hardship. When I got there, I was just like, I'm gonna be the cool kid now, and I just made up this life, because by the way, screw it, why not? I think that's part of entrepreneurship, is you just, you gotta make it up, because when you're in your garage building a doorbell, if you really told people what you really felt and where you were at, you probably would never make it, and so you have to say, yeah, I'm gonna build the biggest security company ever in the history of the world. You gotta be a little crazy, so maybe that's what taught me that.

AI assessment note: “I certainly like People seeing me be successful.”

Q What does that mean? Like, just like as an example.

A It's just, it's like, it's like going from thinking in millions to billions and then trillions. Like, it's just everything there is so big that it just changes the way you look at stuff. I just look at like how you look at the world, how you look at size. And I do think we can strain ourselves by our own surroundings and our own sort of thoughts. And I, and, and there are great entrepreneurs that can do this without sort of seeing it. I was someone who probably needed to work my way up to it, but now it's like, it's like once that's released, it's hard to go back to like, and it's not about like, I still have my email on every box. So it's not about not doing things that are small. It's just how that comes into like the consideration of big.

AI assessment note: “it's like going from thinking in millions to billions and then trillions”

Q Not a good trade. Are you a people pleaser as a result? And I guess what advice would you have for me, always looking for people's affirmation?

A You know, I, I, I think I, I certainly do. I probably, I always say I don't have an ego, but I certainly like people seeing me successful. Um, You know, that was, that was certainly a way to, I would say, you know, looking back, it's not terrible that people had to send me emails saying like, wow, I can't believe where you've gotten to. Like that's, that's, again, I don't think it's the reason you should do it, but it, it doesn't hurt. Um, but I think also, you know, like I, you know, a lot of entrepreneurship is like reality distortion. You have to believe in something that's so much bigger and crazier than what can actually be accomplished that You, I think when you're a kid and you're in that position, like, one thing I learned is I moved schools because I was, like, literally, like, ostracized from my, my high school, and I, like, moved to, my parents were, like, very nice, because they were middle class, and I went to the private school, and, like, they paid for me, you know, to go, and it was, like, it was a little bit of a hardship, and so, but I, like, when I got there, I was just, like, I'm gonna be the cool kid now, and, like, I just made up this, like, this sort of, like, this life, because, by the way, screw it, like, why not? And I think that's part of entrepreneurship is like, you're just, you gotta like a little bit, You gotta make it up because when you're in yo…

AI assessment note: “I think I, I certainly do. I probably, I always say I don't have”

Q To what extent do you let customers guide your product roadmap? Hey, we need this, we need that. How do you determine between, hey, there's enough weight that we should do car cams?

A So this is a great, so, so mission, so if you, like, mission allows you to stay focused, because one of the problems is, like, you don't want to build everything, like, I'm not trying to build, um, I don't know, like, like, whatever, some other product that, like, it just sells, like a TV, I don't know, like, I mean, maybe Amazon does, but, like, I'm talking about, like, the ring, so staying super focused on what we do. Our mission is to make neighborhoods safer. So everything now is, like, now you have a mission, everyone's focused on it, like, our teams are focused on it, And now, like, listen to customers, listen to what they're really saying, and then you, when you understand your technology, your capabilities, and then you see what's happening, I think that magic, again, our drone, like, the drone happened because I, I, people were saying, I want indoor cameras, I don't want indoor cameras. And I'm like, god, that's, that's a weird, like, do you want an indoor camera? Like, when I'm away, I want indoor cameras all over my house.

AI assessment note: “listen to customers, listen to what they're really saying, and then you”

Q What's the hardest thing about parenting, Jamie? I didn't have kids. If you were like, Harry, this is, this is hard. What would you tell me?

A I mean, the, the worst thing for me would be having an asshole as a kid. Like, like a kid is just not, like, you know, like there are kids that are just, And I, you know, and so like, and I think a lot of times it's parents that don't spend time with the kids or are busy or are whatever. And so it's like, I would just, I hated my son wasn't, wasn't empathetic to people, didn't care about things. Like it would just, that would, it would literally kill me. And my son is like, he is, he is sweet and empathetic and passionate and about his own things. Like he doesn't like the things I like, which I kind of almost like, I, I like, I love skiing. He doesn't really like skiing. I kind of love that. Like, it's like, he loves basketball. Like, great. Like, you love basketball? Go be the best basketball player in the world.

AI assessment note: “the worst thing for me would be having an asshole as a kid”

Q Can I ask, is that storytelling? What's the difference between brand and storytelling?

A I think it's, it's authenticity, it's like, I think it's like literally, it is like a thousand things, and I think, now, when you have a North Star, you then, everything drives to that, so it's how, like, how you build the product, how you build the service, how you, my email's on every box, how you, like, it's, it's like, the sound of it, the, like, it's like literally, like, every thing you do, because it's, It's like, not that easy to build a brand. Like if it was like, there'd be lots of brands. And I think, you know, iconic brands come initially from authenticity though, too. Like you have to be, like the team has to be authentic behind it. You can't just make up a brand. Like I, I don't, I mean, maybe you can, but I, I don't, I don't know how you do it.

AI assessment note: “You can't just make up a brand.”

Q Can I ask, is that storytelling? What's the difference between brand and storytelling?

A I think it's, it's authenticity, it's like, I think it's like literally, it is like a thousand things, and I think, now, when you have a North Star, you then, everything drives to that, so it's how, like, how you build the product, how you build the service, how you, my email's on every box, how you, like, it's, it's like, the sound of it, the, like, it's like literally, like, every thing you do, because it's, It's like, not that easy to build a brand. Like if it was like, there'd be lots of brands. And I think, you know, iconic brands come initially from authenticity though, too. Like you have to be, like the team has to be authentic behind it. You can't just make up a brand. Like I, I don't, I mean, maybe you can, but I, I don't, I don't know how you do it.

AI assessment note: “I think it's, it's authenticity, it's like, I think it's like literally”