It is less and less rare to see how accessories that, a priori, seem extremely simple, acquire more and more popularity, precisely because they make simplicity their best feature, and this allows them to have, in turn, a very low price. And if the majority of users agree on something, it is that we like good, beautiful and cheap things.
Well, precisely one of the accessories we are seeing more lately has managed to make David Barnett the businessman of the year according to Ernst & Young. We refer to the PopSocket, and today we are going to tell you the story behind this curious product.
PopSocket, the idea behind the accessory that made a philosophy professor a millionaire
David Barnett, who is its creator, is a professor of philosophy, who, after losing his house from fire, decided to invest all the insurance money in the manufacture and sale of PopSockets. In just one year, he managed to sell more than 30,000 units, which allowed him to obtain a profit of around 240,000 dollars, a considerable amount that has been reinvested in the company, which today has 120 employees.
The PopSocket is perhaps one of the most fashionable accessories right now, but the truth is that it has been existing and sold for four years. It is an extendable protuberance that sticks to the back of our terminal – slightly bulging – and that we can take out at our will to improve the grip of our smartphone, or to be able to leave it resting on a table while we see content on it.
Between this accessory and the mobile ring that also became fashionable not too long ago, we also found certain similarities, since they both take up little space at the back of our terminal and allow us to hold it securely. And that is perhaps the main advantage of PopSocket. This product has also helped Parkinson’s people to use their smartphone more comfortably.
The company has grown by around 800%, and in 2018 they expect to reach 70 million units sold, some hopeful figures for the company, which has come up with a key product, which is now also interchangeable, and is in fact available in several finishes, focusing on turning the product into a fashion accessory rather than combining with the clothes we are wearing.
On the other hand, although David’s idea was to sell the company to found an NGO, he has decided to create instead Poptimism, a platform where customers can customize the products sold by the company, and part of the benefits of Here they come are donated to other non-profit organizations, maintaining the corporate social responsibility with which the company was born.