In the world of smartphone accessories, there are very few companies that have disrupted the market like PopSockets has. Created in 2012 as a groundbreaking invention to give smartphone users a better grip on their devices, PopSockets products have seen a meteoric rise in popularity since they debuted on the market.
What started as the passion project of a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado has bloomed into a multimillion-dollar business with offices and fulfillment centers in North America, Asia, and Europe. As the business has grown, the teams at PopSockets have been continuously scaling up operations, building the infrastructure and supporting the company needs to move into the future with confidence.
Creating an effective communications infrastructure for a growing business
When PopSockets debuted on the market in 2014, they did modest business, selling 30,000 grips; however, after the first two years, it was clear that PopSockets was on the verge of explosive growth.
“When I started we were still pretty small, we had around 60 employees,” said Mike Henning, PopSockets’ Senior Director of Infrastructure and Technology Enablement. “But by the end of that year, we were doing $184 million in sales.”
As the company rapidly expanded, the teams at PopSockets began to develop a more robust infrastructure that could support the demand for their cell phone products. After launching a design center in San Francisco and developing plans to launch another in Boulder, Henning realized that PopSockets needed a scalable video conferencing solution that could help them communicate and collaborate effectively between the design centers.
But after signing up with their legacy video tool, Henning was disappointed when it failed to deliver on all that PopSockets was promised.
“I bought some licenses, but after a few weeks, we still didn’t have our video conferencing solution set up,” Henning said. “And when companies the size of PopSockets have to deal with the impersonal, very-slow-to-react vendors in this space, it’s really unfortunate.”
PopSockets also didn’t have a digital phone solution in place, and deploying a separate infrastructure for voice communications in its new Boulder location was far too costly and time-consuming.
“I didn’t want to go through the process of setting up our facility for a specific voice communications solution and wiring our desks for certain hardware,” Henning said. “And I also didn’t want to support two sets of infrastructure just for our communications.
“And as the company grew and hired new employees, communicating internally became a challenge as well. So we wanted to give these new employees more timely, more relevant communication on a regular basis, and we struggled with that.”
“I set up the hardware, and the solution just worked.”
After PopSockets’ legacy video conferencing solution failed to meet its demanding needs, Henning first heard about Zoom after discussing the issue with PopSockets’ CEO, David Barnett. He recommended researching Zoom.
“I contacted the Denver sales office and spoke to a representative who gave me a few free licenses to try out the product and made some recommendations on what hardware to purchase,” Henning said. “After that, I reached out to a supplier who gave me two kits. I set up the hardware, and the solution just worked.”
Henning was so pleased with Zoom’s performance and ease of use that he decided to attend Zoomtopia, Zoom’s annual user conference, that same year. After hearing about Zoom Phone at Zoomtopia and its crucial role in a unified communications platform, Henning was excited to implement the application as PopSockets’ digital phone solution.
“Implementing Zoom Phone solved two different issues for me,” Henning said. “I didn’t have to worry about setting up any physical infrastructure in our new location to support it, and, because they were already used to Zoom, I didn’t have to worry about extensive training for my employees.”
Unifying communications with Zoom
Zoom’s video-first unified communications platform has been “a great fit” at PopSockets, according to Henning.
“We have some outside vendors and customers that can’t use video conferencing, so being able to reach them by phone is a great option,” Henning said. “It’s also great for less formal communication with customers and other stakeholders where video conferencing might not be necessary.”
Implementing Zoom Phone into its communications strategy has also lessened the burden on PopSockets’ IT teams.
