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His house burned down. He used the insurance money to build PopSockets. | Equity Podcast

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…

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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 TechCrunch’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.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:15 From philosophy professor to phone grip inventor

05:17 How a house fire funded PopSockets

07:33 Manufacturing nightmares nearly killed the business

10:08 The local toy store that proved it could work

13:14 The $20M Amazon standoff

16:09 Growing too fast?

18:20 Beating counterfeits in China through brand building

19:11 Why David never wanted to be CEO

23:07 The worst advice received, and what to do instead

26:35 Outro

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26 Comments

26 Comments

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CNET

Visiting the World’s Largest Artificial Sun Gave Me Hope

Take a look inside ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor, to see how scientists from around the world are working tirelessly to re-create the sun’s superpower on Earth and fuel a clean energy revolution. Read more about the Fusion Reactor on CNET.com Inside the World’s Biggest Bet on Fusion Energy 0:00 Welcome to ITER 1:21…

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Take a look inside ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor, to see how scientists from around the world are working tirelessly to re-create the sun’s superpower on Earth and fuel a clean energy revolution.

Read more about the Fusion Reactor on CNET.com
Inside the World’s Biggest Bet on Fusion Energy

0:00 Welcome to ITER
1:21 Meet Plasma
1:38 ITER’s Magnets
2:28 ITER’s Goals
3:31 Hotter than the sun
3:57 Setbacks
4:46 International collaboration
5:18 ITER’s Tokamak Hall
5:38 The heart of ITER
6:08 ITER’s fuel
6:38 The walls of the tokamak
7:00 Tritium breeding
7:20 “The knowledge of the world”

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#Fusion #Energy #WTF

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Why Humans Should Merge with AI | D. Scott Phoenix | TED

Deep tech entrepreneur D. Scott Phoenix spent years building AI — now, he believes we’re on the cusp of a profound merger between humans and machines. Reframing the AI debate through the lens of evolutionary biology, he shifts the question from whether we should fear or embrace AI to whether we understand what’s at stake…

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Deep tech entrepreneur D. Scott Phoenix spent years building AI — now, he believes we’re on the cusp of a profound merger between humans and machines. Reframing the AI debate through the lens of evolutionary biology, he shifts the question from whether we should fear or embrace AI to whether we understand what’s at stake if we get it wrong. Hear his provocative case for why we need to “eat the AI.” (Recorded at TED2026 on April 15, 2026)

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The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less) — plus originals, podcasts and exclusive content. Look for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design as well as science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit for our entire library, transcripts, translations and personalized recommendations.

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#TED #TEDTalks #AI

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Embarrassing Gmail Name? You Can Now Change It | HTDIA #google #gmail #googleaccount

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