Siminoff's vision: turn Ring from a video doorbell company into an AI-powered "intelligent assistant" for the entire home and beyond. A handful of new features that advance that goal shipped just ahead of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, including fire alerts, alerts about "unusual events," conversational AI, facial recognition features, and more. Some of these additions have not been without controversy, as consumers have to grapple with how much privacy they're giving up in favor of convenience and security.
When Sam, the founder of a fast-growing tech company, came to see me, he was exhausted. For over a dozen years, he had poured everything into his startup, building it up to hundreds of employees and revenues nearing a hundred million. But as market shifts and new technologies gave rise to fierce competitors, growth had stalled... and so had Sam. In our sessions, Sam vacillated between two poles. At times, he would slump in his chair, shoulders collapsed, voice flat: "I'm thinking of just quitting."