Spiraling Up First Look
Dawn Dickson is the founder and CEO of PopCom, a vending management and technology business that equips entrepreneurs and brands with future-ready retail solutions that allow rapid retail expansion, incredible customer experiences, and powerful sales data.
We're thrilled to announce that she will be one of the founders featured in season 2 of the HubSpot for Startups and LinkedIn business documentary series "Spiraling Up: The Journey to Become a Unicorn." Spanning three seasons, it follows the stories of over a dozen co-founders from ten different companies at varying stages of funding from pre-seed to the coveted "unicorn" status. (Season 1 is streaming now. Click button below).
This is an exclusive preview of Dawn's episode (which will be the first). In this clip, Dawn shares how she dealt with rejection from her previous investors at a crucial time in her business when cashflow was low, and the success outlook was bleak.
About Dawn
Dawn is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with over two decades of experience in technology and business development. She has an expertise in raising traditional and non-traditional business capital, having raised millions of dollars for her ventures since 2001. In 2019, she became the first female CEO globally to raise a secure token offering (STO) over $1 million using equity crowdfunding. In 2020, she raised a second fully subscribed equity crowdfunding campaign, bringing her total to $4 million raised from over 5000 investors.
She has received numerous awards and accolades for her business savvy and pitching skills, and has been invited to speak on numerous panels and workshops. She's been featured in countless media outlets, including the Forbes Next 1000 list, the cover of Black Enterprise, Entrepreneur magazine, Fortune, Fast Company, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, and the popular national syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club.
Dawn is the sheer embodiment of perseverance. From investors refusing to give her the additional funds she needed after her prototype was stolen, to dealing with a total shutdown of her vending business due to the pandemic, she is the "patron saint" of "not giving up." We're honored to have her part of the HubSpot for Startups ecosystem and family and are confident you will find her story inspiring.
Crowdfunding Story
Podcast
No Straight Path (part of the HubSpot podcast network) is a show about defining success and overcoming failure. Host Ashley Menzies-Babatunde interviews Millennial professionals on how they are navigating the twists and turns that lead to growth, understanding, and wisdom.
Dawn was the guest for their very first live episode, recorded August 2022 at HubSpot’s Inbound business conference. In this episode you'll hear about Dawn’s entrepreneurial journey from childhood to adulthood. She also sheds light on investing, the barriers that exist for many people, and why crowdfunding is so rewarding.
HubSpot for Startups
HubSpot for Startups provides founders with resources they need to grow and scale their companies. Startups can apply though over 4,000 partnering organizations to save up to 90% on their first year of paid HubSpot service, plus up to 30% off ongoing!