DAVE BARNETT FROM PROFESSOR TO POPSOCKETS RELENTLESS TINKERING SPAWNED SMARTPHONE SENSATION.

• Author: Sukin, Gigi
• Position: ENTREPRENEUR OF 2018

Are entrepreneurs born or made?

The question serves to casually enter a conversation with the former philosophy professor turned CEO and founder of PopSockets LLC, David Barnett. His invention? A collapsible knob that has transformed consumers' mobile phone experiences, selling more than 45 million around the globe to date.

Enterprise comes naturally to David Barnett, who as a child had one guiding philosophy: Make a buck.

"My nickname was H. Ross Perot," he says, referring to the billionaire business magnate-turned-politician. "From the time I was 9 or 10 years old, until I graduated high school, I was this greedy little entrepreneur."

As a Colorado kid with roots in suburban Denver, Barnett, 47, had a paper route, a mixed-tape business, a lawn mowing venture and worked at a restaurant before age 16, resulting in a house call and some scolding from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Though his reservoir of hustle dried up when he entered college--he admits he partied and rarely went to class--Barnett got his groove back when he stumbled upon physics. The deeper he dove, the more questions he had, and he shifted focus to philosophy, going on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University in 2003, taking professor gigs there, at the University of Vermont, and finally, his "dream job," at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2005.

Barnett says the highlight of his professional life as a philosopher was "waking up students' minds," particularly in introductory courses. "These kids had never thought critically before."

Throughout his young life and academic career, Barnett continued toiling and inventing. He conceived of a mall kiosk to produce and disseminate personalized greetings; he crafted a tool in college called "Man's Little Helper," for more hygienic toilet seat experiences; and he collaborated on an energy efficiency auditing and on-bill financing business in Boulder called Sozolate that never quite got off the ground.

At his Sunshine Canyon home one day in 2010, Barnett marched with his iPhone 3 and a snarled set of headphones to JOANN Fabric & Craft Store in Boulder, in search of a resolution to a frequent frustration. He purchased two inch-and-a-half black buttons, glued them to the back of his mobile phone, wrapped the headset around the new protrusions and ... voila.

"I did not originally intend to commercialize this," Barnett says of his invention, now known of the PopSockets grip.

He says he has colleagues and loved ones to thank for their playful poking at his unsightly apparatus, prompting his ongoing tinkering.

Barnett eventually conceived a mechanism that allowed the button to expand and collapse, originally fabricating and testing this accordion functionality--since, patented--by cutting up kitchen funnels he found under the sink. He taught himself computer-aided design and drafting on CU's campus and designed hundreds of prototypes all while still serving on staff at CU.

In 2010, Barnett lost his home to a wildfire and put the insurance money he received toward his young business.

The year 2012 was full of milestones for Barnett and his burgeoning brand.

He launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $18,000. And he signed an exclusive licensing deal with Case-Mate to manufacture smart phone covers with his gadget fully integrated. Though validating, the deal fell through within a year, giving him time to perfect his standalone grip-stand.

Barnett also told his then-girlfriend (now wife) he was quitting his job to focus on his startup full-time that year.

"I was ready to leave academia," Barnett says.

Between 2014 and 2015, he had raised nearly $500,000 from friends, family and fans, and he officially launched the business out of his Boulder garage.

"I lent him a little money in the beginning," says Michael Zakin, PopSockets' influencer programs manager and Barnett's friend of 30 years. "He asked if I wanted it to be a loan or equity, and at the time, I said a loan. I had no idea PopSockets was going to become what it is today. It was the biggest financial mistake of my life."

To date, the Colorado company has...