Equity

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. 

 

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. 

 

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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The Pentagon is playing chicken with Anthropic over who gets to control how the military uses AI while communities across the country are blocking data center construction. As the AI debate has been flattened to “doomers versus boomers,” one state legislator is attempting to walk a middle road. 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Alex Bores, New York Assembly member and congressional candidate. Bores sponsored New York's first-of-its-kind AI safety law the RAISE Act — and quickly became the target of a Silicon Valley super PAC with $125 million to spend on attack ads. 

 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 


The dueling super PACs now fighting over AI's future, and why Anthropic's $20 million bet on the pro-regulation side matters. 


What the RAISE Act actually requires, why it's being called the blueprint for AI regulation nationwide. 


Whether AI regulation ends up looking like finance and biotech or goes the way of social media — largely unregulated until the damage is done. 


What's coming next from Bores’ office: bills on training data disclosure, content provenance, and a 43-point national AI framework. 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 
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Crypto is creeping back into the startup conversation, but at ETH Denver last week, the buzz was as much about Washington as it was about tokens. Policy shifts are rippling through the market as Tether and stablecoins face scrutiny, players like Stripe re-enter the chat, and startups either find traction or flame out. The hype cycle is over, or at least taking a break. So what comes next? 

 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan sits down with Jacquelyn Melinek, CEO of Token Relations and host of the Talking Tokens and Crypto in America podcasts, to make sense of how the market has changed and what in the world of crypto is built to last. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 


Why ETHDenver fell flat despite a strong speaker lineup, and what it signals about crypto’s shifting hubs. 


What White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce are actually pushing for with The GENIUS Act and Clarity Act. 


What Stripe is quietly building with Bridge, Privy, and Tempo, and whether it's becoming the Visa of stablecoin settlement. 


Tether's shrinking equity cushion and what a de-pegging event could mean for the broader crypto market. 


YC’s surprising move to accept stablecoin investment as Bitcoin prices sit at half their peak. 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. 
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TechCrunch's founder-focused podcast, Build Mode, is back. This season we’re breaking down what it really takes to build a world-class founding team starting with your cap table, equity structures, and startup compensation strategy. 

We kick off with Yuri Sagalov, managing director at General Catalyst and former founder, YC partner, and seed investor at Wayfinder Ventures. Yuri has worked with hundreds of pre-seed and seed-stage startups, and he shares practical advice on how early-stage founders should think about startup equity, cap table design, investor selection, and compensation structures from day one. 

He breaks down: 


The 3 types of investors (and which one to avoid) 


Why your cap table is part of your team 


The 20–25% seed dilution rule 


How to split equity with a co-founder 


How to talk to early employees about risk and compensation 

No matter where you are in your startup journey, this episode will help you get the incentive structure right from the beginning.  

Chapters: 

00:00 - Why your first hires deserve more equity 00:31 - Meet Yuri Sagalov (YC → General Catalyst) 02:12 - Your cap table is part of your team 02:50 - The 3 types of investors (avoid this one) 05:02 - How to split equity with a co-founder 07:55 - How much equity to give early employees 09:37 - How to talk compensation and risk 12:31 - Red flags in formation docs and vesting 18:27 - Advisors for equity? Usually a mistake 20:05 - The 20–25% seed dilution rule 26:03 - The shift to 10-year stock options 34:11 - Don’t scale before product-market fit 39:23 - Final advice: Just start and choose your co-founder carefully 

New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams. 
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The creator economy is evolving fast, and ad revenue alone isn't cutting it anymore. YouTubers are launching product lines, acquiring startups, and building actual business empires. Even MrBeast's company bought fintech startup Step, and his chocolate business is outearning his media arm. This isn't just one creator's strategy. It's the new playbook. 

 

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Bellan unpack how creators are diversifying beyond ads, what happens when influence becomes infrastructure, and whether this model can scale beyond the top 1%. 

 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 


How Date Drop raised “a few million” on the idea that one curated match per week can fix college dating burnout 


Ex-Tesla VP Drew Baglino's $140M raise for solid-state transformers powering AI data centers 


The handshake that didn't happen: Sam Altman and Dario Amodei's moment at India's AI summit 


India's $200B AI infrastructure push and why its first AI IPO flopped 


ByteDance's Seadance 2.0 and whether AI video tools democratize creativity or just create an endless flood of content 

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