PopCom

Post-pitch story

Dawn Dickson pitched PopCom as the future of vending: smart kiosks with facial recognition and data analytics built in. After the show she made history — in 2019 she became the first female founder to raise over $1 million through equity crowdfunding, eventually pulling in $6 million from more than 10,000 everyday investors on StartEngine. But the venture road got rough. A planned Series A fell through in 2023–2024 amid board disputes and a frozen VC market, and the company slowed operations significantly. Dickson addressed it head-on in August 2024: "PopCom is not dead," she wrote, while being candid about how hard the journey had been. She remains a prominent speaker and author, and still runs Flat Out of Heels, the rollable-shoe company she founded before PopCom. It's one of the season's most honest stories — a record-breaking fundraise, a brutal market, and a founder who refuses to call it over.