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

Loading the player... 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. Watch as founder and former CEO of PopSockets David Barnett joins Equity to talk about h ...