David Barnett
Founder and former CEO of PopSockets, the consumer hardware brand known for its expandable phone grips; built the company largely without institutional VC and scaled it to global distribution and hundreds of millions of units sold.
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Mar 4, 2026 • 29min
How PopSockets broke the VC-backed consumer hardware mold
David Barnett, founder and former CEO of PopSockets and a former philosophy professor, built a global phone-grip brand without institutional VC. He talks about funding the company from unexpected sources, surviving manufacturing crises, standing up to Amazon at huge cost, beating counterfeits through brand power, and choosing a successor who fit the company culture.
