Dawn Dixon
Founder & CEO, PopCom. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveauthorinvestor@THEDawnDickson ↗dawndickson.me ↗Wikipedia ↗
Dawn Dickson is a serial entrepreneur and inventor who founded Flat Out of Heels and PopCom, a retail technology company that developed smart vending machines. She became the first female founder globally to raise over $1 million through equity crowdfunding under SEC Regulation CF.
1shows
2appearances
25statements
9resolved
3supported
4contradicted
33%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Dawn Dixon said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
PopCom is launching an ICO aiming to raise $30 million
“We are launching an ICO and I'm pitching for the first time in Dubai. I'm, we're shooting for thirty million and that's why I didn't raise a lot of money.”
Dixon predicts consumers will eventually buy everything from automated self-service machines
“So it's a matter of time before we're buying everything out of self-service machines.”
Dickson claims the VC model only works for 10% of startups
“So, I feel like the VC model is broken. I think it's demonstrated that it's broken. It does work for 10%, 12% of companies, but the rest of us have to find our way and figure it out, and I believe in blockchain technology.”
Dickson predicts investors will hug her for tokenizing the cap table
“When my investors understand the token economics and how the cap table will be tokenized to their advantage and their return, they're going to be giving me hugs. They're going to be putting my picture up in their office because I'll be a great return for them.”
Dixon rejects traditional VC to avoid annual fundraising and forced premature scaling
“The traditional VC model doesn't work for me personally.
I don't want to go back and have to raise more money every single year.
I don't want to have to be pushed to grow and scale when, you know, it may not be the time because sometimes it takes longer than y…”
PopCom paused its $30M ICO until the SEC provided clear regulatory guidelines
“Really we decided to just put our fundraising plans on hold completely until we seen what the SEC was going to allow.”
Dixon: Regulated token offerings now feel identical to traditional venture fundraising rounds
“Now it's like so many more rules and regulations around it to the point where it feels almost identical to a tradition around, and I can speak from direct experience.”
Dixon argues venture capitalists force founders to burn capital rather than wait
“Because if when you raise VC money, they make you burn it. You can't hold VC thirty million for seven years.”
Dawn Dickson claims none of her businesses have ever failed
“I've never failed. None of my business has ever failed.”
PopCom uses facial recognition to vend regulated items like cannabis and alcohol
“With the customer's permission, we can verify your face against your ID to dispense a product that's regulated. So think Sudafed, think cannabis, think alcohol. That you need an ID to verify. We have that ability.”
Dixon: Japan has one automated vending machine for every 23 people
“Other countries like China and Japan, where there's one machine for every 23 people selling a product.”
Dixon: 82% of retail customer purchasing decisions happen inside physical stores
“82% of customer decisions are still made in stores.”
Dixon: Aggressively hiring and scaling too quickly causes many startup failures
“So one of the biggest downfalls of startups is scaling too fast. Just because you have the money to hire a ton of people doesn't mean you actually need to.”
PopCom verifies facial IDs to dispense regulated products like cannabis and alcohol
“With the customer's permission, we can verify your face against your ID to dispense a product that's regulated. So think Sudafed, think cannabis, think alcohol. That you need an ID to verify. We have that ability.”
Dickson claims 82% of purchase decisions still happen in physical stores
“82% of customer decisions are still made in stores.”
Dixon: 1 million of 8 million US vending machines are now smart
“Right now, there's eight million vending machines in the United States. One million of those are considered smart, which means they have a touch screen and they can accept credit cards. That number of smart machines is growing 30% year over year”
PopCom partners with Kiosk Information Systems to manufacture its smart vending machines
“My customer, we have the vending machine and kiosk manufacturers, which we have a partnership with the number one kiosk manufacturer in the country called kiosk information systems, kiosk.com.”
Dixon: PopCom funded its hardware product development using upfront customer deposits
“Let's get people to pay for it and put the money up and put a deposit down for us to build it. And that's exactly what we did.”
The US smart vending machine market is growing 30% YoY
“That number of smart machines is growing 30% year over year as retailers continue to bring new concepts into vending machines.”
Japan and China have one vending machine for every 23 people
“Other countries like China and Japan, where there's one machine for every 23 people selling a product.”
Dickson's own shoe company was PopCom's first paying customer
“My first customer, my first paying customer. Flat out of heels. So my business is my first paying customer.”
Dixon: PopCom charges a $200 monthly base fee per smart vending machine
“Each base price is 200 dollars per machine per month.”
There are 8 million vending machines in the United States
“Right now, there's eight million vending machines in the United States.”
The other half of the tape: Dawn Dixon's own voice is left out of every number here. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Statements about Dawn Dixon, by other people (1)
Hyatt would pay a $10M-$20M valuation once PopCom reaches 500 active machines
“I would like to pay a higher valuation for your company, and I'd like to put in more money when you have 500 or a thousand of vending machines, and I'd like to pay for that, right? I'd like to pay a 10, 15, twenty million dollar valuation when you have actual …”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Dawn's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 THE PITCHLEDGER | Founder & CEO, PopCom | 2 | 25 | 33% 3/9 | full record on the Pitch → |