How PopSockets broke the VC-backed consumer hardware mold
PopSockets founder and former CEO David Barnett tell Equity how he scaled the consumer hardware brand, their $10–20M Amazon fight, and why he stepped down as CEO.
Full Story
Does a consumer hardware company need to get on the VC treadmill to succeed? Eleven years and 290 million products sold across 115 countries later, PopSockets has proven that the bootstrapped, low-dilution path more viable than the industry gives it credit for. The global consumer hardware brand was built on less than $500k, no institutional capital, and a philosophy professor’s determination.
On this episode of ’s Equity podcast, Dominic-Madori Davis caught up with founder and former CEO of PopSockets David Barnett to talk about how he scaled from a Boulder garage, stood up to Amazon at a $10–20 million cost, and eventually handed off the CEO role to someone who’d grown up inside the company.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
- How a house fire and some insurance money became the unlikely seed funding for a global brand
- What nearly sinking the company in manufacturing defects actually taught him about building one that lasts
- How ignoring his investors’ advice turned out to be the right call
- What he looked for in a successor CEO (and why culture was non-negotiable)
- What he’d do completely differently if he launched PopSockets today
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.