CEO Secrets: Ring boss on a video call

This week's CEO Secrets episode featured Jamie Siminoff, creator (and CEO) of Ring video doorbells. He started work on his product in 2011 and sold his company to Amazon for more than $1bn seven years later.

He is based in Los Angeles. In fact, he devised his video doorbell in his garage there. I spoke to him by Zoom video call and that is how I recorded this particular interview (much as I would have loved a trip to LA).

Usually I film my interviews on my iPhone and collect all the footage this way. But this one was made purely by recorded video call, with some still images added in the edit .

I originally had in mind a creative edit where we could make it seem like the audience was hearing from Jamie through a 'doorbell video call' interaction, like has visiting a house - but in the end I couldn't make this look good in the edit, so I abandoned the idea! I think keeping it simple lets you focus on his advice anyway, which you can see here .

The video ended up being so successful on the BBC News website, attracting more than half a million clicks, that it pulled up a lot of older CEO Secrets videos with it (because you can click on these from the main video as 'related content'). It's a bit like Kate Bush getting to Number 1 again after many years, because she was featured in Stranger Things on Netflix - well, kind of similar....

Coming up on CEO Secrets in the next few weeks we have Manya Klempner, a woman who left a successful career in banking to set up a network of boxing clubs in London; Krept, a rapper from south London who also runs several businesses including a baby skincare range; and Greg Becker, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank.

There will also be a CEO Secrets written feature about the issue of clothing, coming out shortly. Dress has got a lot more informal in the office since Covid-19, with a lot more people working from home. But how does this affect the CEO's wardrobe - they set the tone for the company have more attention on them? I've caught up with some former guests and some experts to get their thoughts on this.

One other thing - looking ahead to future episodes I'm keen to hear from more businesses based in Northern Ireland, as we have only had few of those featured in the series so far. We could either do a visit there, or maybe it's time for another recorded Zoom call...

Thanks for reading...

Dougal