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Female Founder | Minority Founder | Technology
Self-service and automation are the future of retail. PopCom has built an automated retail technology platform for vending machines and kiosks that allows retailers to engage and understand their customers, sell more products, and learn from big data.
After two successful and oversubscribed Reg-CF campaigns on StartEngine, the company is opening a Reg A+ offering to take its production-ready machines into mass production and fund additional Regulated Retail pilots with major alcohol and cannabis retailers.
Self-service and automation are the future of retail. But right now, it's a future without data. We're changing that.
We're redefining omnichannel strategy for worldwide brands– from Fortune 500 companies to nimble e-commerce entrepreneurs, providing a completely new direct-to-consumer channel backed by unparalleled data and frictionless transactions.
Automation is at the heart of a colossal shift in the retail paradigm, and in the midst of this phenomenon deemed “the Retail Apocalypse”, the self-service retail industry is exploding.² In fact, a recent survey showed over two-thirds of retail customers now prefer self-serve retail experiences 4 and over 100 million people are projected to use vending machines or kiosks each day in the U.S. ³
While automation and self-service are booming , valuable data is being lost on low-IQ machines. This is an opportunity where we are positioned to dominate.
While the majority of consumers enjoy added convenience and lower friction transactions, data also suggests that a personalized retail experience is still of great value in the buying process.5 Retailers, in the midst of reaping billion-dollar savings from self-service in the form of extremely low operating costs and 24/7 commerce, must address this need for personalized customer experiences without the help of humans at the point-of-sale. Hence, the arrival of smart vending machines was heralded. And with a forecasted CAGR of 34%, the industry is booming. 1
We believe we’re uniquely positioned in a market that is currently domiciled by slow-moving, behemoth hardware companies whose turnkey solutions are too expensive for even the largest CPG companies, let alone successful boutique brands. Our turnkey solution, the PopShop Kiosks with PopCom SaaS, are affordable for any team, from Fortune 500 to single-founder e-commerce brands. Not only is our hardware versatile, sexy, and affordable, we built exceptional software with features that facilitate fun, engaging customer experiences and allows retailers to glean powerful consumer insights and forge stronger relationships with their target demographic.
The last piece pièce de résistance? It's our goal to white-label our kiosk software for use in the 18 million existing machines worldwide16, powered by our innovations, partnerships, and acquisitions.
Bill Butler - CEO, KIOSK Information Systems
We're also disrupting a retail sector that has remained virtually untouched by automation: the Regulated Retail Economy.
We define the Regulated Retail Economy as the system by which consumers and retailers interface with government-regulated goods which require identification, sales compliance, supply chain information, or a combination of all three. It is projected to represent over $4 trillion in global revenue by 2022 6-10 and is severely underserved by automated transactions.
Illustration of PopShop Kiosk use for demonstrative purposes
We've spent the months following our second successful Regulation Crowdfunding continuing to develop our pilot programs with market leaders in the regulated retail industry. We're proud to announce that both regulated retail pilots have successfully moved to the full purchasing contracts with PopCom. We're also excited to soon be able to publicly announce our cornerstone customer in the alcohol space, one of the largest wine producers and distributors on the planet (by volume) with sales in 90 countries in excess of $5B per year. PopCom and this customer are working together to bring automated retail to the wine industry and have made significant progress in seeking regulator approval for a vending solution that is powered by digital ID-checks.
The PopCom team and investor network is a family. We regularly schedule investor meetups around the United States and spend time talking with our investors face-to-face. We're proud to be a hub for connections, friendships, and candid discussion about our company's progress, hardships, and massive accomplishments. You'll join a growing family of over 4,500 like-minded, forward-thinking individuals that are just as excited about the future of retail as we are. Just take a look at what some of our investors have to say about us below! **
** Testimonials herein are unsolicited and are non-representative of all clients; certain investors may have different opinions and feedback than that indicated. All writers' opinions are their own and do not constitute financial advice in any way whatsoever and none of the testimonial content should be relied upon for any investment activities. Unique experiences and past performances do not guarantee future results.
Dawn is a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years in business development. Dawn has received numerous awards and regularly speaks on panels and workshops around the country. She's been featured in countless media outlets including Forbes, Inc Magazine, VentureBeat, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, Ebony.com, Women’s World Daily, CNBC/Yahoo, MSNBC and on the cover of Black Enterprise.
*** All logos, brands, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement. The photo above (top right) does not imply a current, future, or prospective listing on NASDAQ and should not be a relied upon whatsoever for any consideration of investment activity. More information on the NASDAQ Milestone Maker program can be found here.
Sources
1. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-global-intelligent-vending-machine-market-is-forecasted-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-3441-during-the-period-2018-2022-300574545.html
2. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/retail-apocalypse-survival-technology-trends/
3. http://www.balancedforlife.net/pdf/About%20Vending.pdf
4. https://www.retaildive.com/news/study-73-of-consumers-want-self-service-technology/546044/
7. https://mjbizdaily.com/chart-us-marijuana-industrys-economic-impact-could-reach-80-billion-by-2022/
11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK343572/
12. https://www.fda.gov/tobaccoproducts/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/retail/ucm205021.htm#references
13. http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-bethlehem-sands-underage-fines-20160713-story.html
14. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pot-shops-20160711-snap-story.html
Serial Entrepreneur Dawn W. Dickson, founder and CEO of PopCom, a software company for self-service retail, and Flat Out Heels, a producer of rollable flats for women and children sold online and through vending machines, always prepares for the next big opportunity.
Dawn Dickson got into self-service retailing in 2011 with a very simple plan: create a vending machine to sell flat shoes for women on the run. But in the course of launching this business, she learned that self-service retailing technology was not sufficiently developed.
I use my success and access to help other women and people of color, that is what I am most passionate about.
On this episode of StartupNation Radio, your host, Jeff Sloan, chats with Dr. Luke Pittaway, Ohio University College of Business Copeland Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Dawn Dickson, founder and CEO of PopCom and Flat Out of Heels.
Female founders are underfunded and underrepresented, but black female founders bear a disproportionate share of the burden. While female founders overall receive 2.7 percent of all venture funding relative to their male counterparts, black female founders receive 0.2 percent.
Vending machines as we know them—a customer chooses an item, inserts cash and punches in the corresponding letter and number combination—are on their way out. Modern digital technology is finally catching up with standalone retail machines, and Columbus company PopCom, formerly known as Solutions Ve
When you think of cutting edge technology, it’s unlikely vending machines pop to mind. But Dawn Dickson has a plan to change that with her startup, PopCom.
In retail, every transaction is an opportunity. An opportunity to make an impression. An opportunity to build revenue and turn product into profit.
As consumer technology brings new conveniences, retailers and brands are finding they have to work harder to stay on top of emerging innovations. Those attending the recent CES event in Las Vegas found a gold mine of self-service products designed to help retailers and brands stay relevant as e-comm
A full feature on PopCom and our CEO in Forbes.
For a demographic that has a consumer buying power of $1.3T by the end of 2017, there still seems to be a huge gap or disparity with the representation of Black Influencers in various industries.
Flat Out of Heels sells rollable ballet flats for women. CEO Dawn Dickson launched the Miami-based company in 2012, and the product has been selling like crazy ever since.
Dawn Dickson, PopCom CEO, mentioned as one of the Top 100 Female Founders in 2018 by Inc Magazine.
Fundraising lessons from a serial entrepreneur
Industry experts, investors, and users weight in on the potential of PopCom as a company. "...The PopCom kiosks fill every gap we've imagined."
In the blockchain and crypto community, there’s a major gender imbalance that’s even more pronounced for black women. These two entrepreneurs are trying to change that.
PopCom CEO Dawn Dickson speaks about why the company was looking to an STO for funding and how it successfully raised $1,070,000.
Startup raises $1M in crowdfunding for high-tech vending machines that could dispense cannabis
StartEngine's CEO, Howard Marks, covers our CEO and our company's journey on the StartEngine Blog.
Spotted: The American startup PopCom is working on a vending machine that would allow the legal purchasing of government-regulated items. So, alcohol, medication and cannabis vending machines could be around the corner.
Read about PopCom & our CEO Dawn Dickson in the extremely competitive Nasdaq Milestone Makers Cohort.
Read about PopCom and the automated retail landscape at NRF 2020.
Self-checkout is one of the hot-button technologies retailers are embracing as they embark on "store of the future" omnichannel initiatives. Checkout this breakdown of PopCom's tech.
Columbus native and Ohio State graduate Dawn Dickson has spent the last two years spanning the globe, marketing PopCom, a software company which uses data analytics for self-service retail.
Read about PopCom in an upcoming hearing in front of the US House of Representatives.
Experts tell Congress how the technology can drive costs down, while boosting security and operations.
On Wednesday, Dawn Dickson was one of two Ohio entrepreneurs in Washington to testify before the House Small Business Committee about the type of technology her company has embraced.
Read about PopCom at the Building Blocks of Change: The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Small Businesses hearing at the US House of Representatives.
Dawn Dickons (PopCom CEO) is a witness at a US House committee hearing. Get the info here.
Read about PopCom's conversation with Congressional lawmakers.
PopCom has raised over $3M in equity crowdfunding since 2019 and we now have over 4500 investors. We absolutely LOVE our investor family, they are so active and engaged. We have a private Facebook group where we send regular updates and chat, we send a monthly email update to all investors, and we host regular investor meet ups (now virtual). In 2019 we held four meet ups and over 500 investors attended, watch this video to hear some of our investors talk about what made them 'cut the check'.
"This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success."
Offering Circular: https://bit.ly/3059jVk, Selected Risks: https://bit.ly/2G4awoM - Reg A+ offering available through StartEngine Primary, LLC.Just like every other offering on StartEngine, this investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.
Greetings PopCom Investors, Supporters, and Fans: We are very excited to be able to share that PopCom has been featured in Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com! This is a monumental moment for our company; one that will see our story, our products, and our vision shared to the world on a scale that comes with a feature from the one of the world's most respected business publications. We don't want to completely spoil the surprise, so see below for the details!
Forbes Next 1000
You can catch us on Forbes' website in their newly released Next 1000 site, or in the current issue of Forbes' magazine. The Next 1000 issue is a special edition that covers America's small businesses, where PopCom found itself in the Super Achievers category.
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Watch the Interview
Forbes also came by our office and did a great video that shares a bit of our story, our vision, and our products. It's a great watch, don't miss it!
On Thursday February 11th at 9am PST, renowned businessman Kevin O'Leary, aka "Mr. Wonderful", is sitting down with PopCom's CEO & Founder Dawn Dickson to discuss her entrepreneurial journey, her experiences with investor bias and why she has turned to equity crowdfunding, and how her company PopCom is changing the future of retail. Click HERE to register to join us.
This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.
Kevin O’Leary is a paid spokesperson for StartEngine. View the details here: https://www.startengine.
Greetings PopCom investors, supporters, and fans! 2021 is off to a great start for the PopCom team, we recently completed our Q1 team retreat and have our KPIs and strategy set for the year. Thanks to your investments, we were able to hire four new team members in the last six months and they are making a real impact and the media is taking notice. Check out the recent features and stay tuned for some exciting announcements coming soon!
Happy New Year! We made it past 2020 and PopCom is starting 2021 on the right track. In November, we visited our new manufacturing partner in Connecticut to walk through the production schedule and demo the new robotic arm that we are using in all of the PopShops. Adding the robotic arm to the machine instead of our previous dispensing mechanism gives the PopShop much more flexibility on the types of products our customers can dispense and the capacity. Watch the video to see the robotic arm in action.
PopCom is pleased to deploy their patented PopShop digital pop-up shop at The Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, Ohio. The sleek new age vending machine is located adjacent to Ann Taylor Loft and Black & White in the middle of Central Ohio’s premier shopping mall. The PopShop sells Flat Out of Heels, ultra stylish roll-up flats for women which have been worn by celebrities and socialites. PopCom is targeting hundreds of locations including hotels, malls, shopping centers, and airports for placement of the PopShops in 2021. Although previous Flat Out of Heels vending machines were successfully placed in locations such as the Atlanta Airport, Club LIV and Bayside Marketplace in Miami and the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, the 2020 PopShops include cutting edge technology and advertising capabilities to improve the customer experience.
The Popshop digital pop-up shops are available to retailers nationwide to purchase in order to sell their own products/brands. Far less expensive than brick and mortar shops, retailers can maintain a brick-and-mortar presence using this contactless retail approach.
Our patented PopShop digital pop-up shop is a vending machine that retailers can use to sell, sample and deliver products. PopCom has more than one market ready product, you have all seen our patented PopShop digital pop-up shop, but have you seen our PopCom Kiosk? It is a standalone kiosk used for ordering, information, and lead generation.
Watch these videos as our CEO Dawn Dickson walks you through the user experience for both of PopCom's market ready products.
The PopCom team has been working on the design of the PopShop digital pop-up shop since 2017. We have developed several prototypes and conducted numerous tests on our mission to develop a vending machine that changes the way people see and think about automated retail. When we started this journey three years ago, our #1 goal was to think 'outside of the box' literally and figuratively. We simply did not want a box shaped machine, we wanted to create a design that is cool, unique, and high tech that demonstrates the ideal use case for our software. We filed for our design patent on the PopShop and it was awarded to us in September 2020.
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE POPSHOP?
Here are a few key points that makes the PopShop unique:
We are so excited to reach this important milestone!
Greetings to Our Followers & Investors on StartEngine!
We hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. Like the rest of the world, 2020 has been quite the year for PopCom. Our team is expanding, we have adjusted to the new world we live in post-pandemic, and we are focused on scaling. Since the pandemic we have made a few key changes in our business model:
These necessary changes caused a delay in our product release however we are excited to be back on track with a December 11 delivery date for our new PopShop. We are focused on making 2021 our best year yet, and we are raising more capital to make that happen.
We have exciting news to share – our Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding campaign is live and we are now accepting investments in PopCom. As you are aware, we have been working to get qualified by the SEC to raise capital via a Regulation A+ offering (what’s that?) for some time now. While waiting for our qualification we open and closed yet another oversubscribed Reg CF campaign in May only 47 days after going live. The process to get qualified was long and the due diligence was extensive (and expensive), however we are excited to now be qualified to raise up to $5 million to scale PopCom.
The minimum amount to invest is $250.25. As always, investment rounds are limited in amount and time so we invite you to take a look at our offering and invest today.
Although the timing is sensitive due to the COVID pandemic, we must continue to look towards the future and deliver our products to the market. While some industries are hurting, we believe that the retail market will continue to move towards self-service and contactless retail. Vending machines and convenience services are becoming more essential, and retailers are looking for more ways to deliver their products direct-to-consumer with less human friction. We are excited about what is to come.
We are raising capital to grow our operations, build our sales team, reach more customers, go into full production of the PopShop, and scale our age-gating and ID-verification product for regulated retail. Your investments will help us reach the next milestones to success.
Our new offering is now live: https://startengine.com/popcom.
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Offering Circular: https://bit.ly/3059jVk, Selected Risks: https://bit.ly/2G4awoM - Reg A+ offering available through StartEngine Primary, LLC. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.
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