Hello and welcome to Women in Retail Talks, the podcast where C-suite executive women in the retail space share their stories of professional growth leadership development, personal journeys and more.
I'm Marie Albages, Managing Editor of Women in Retail, a membership-based community of executive women at leading retailers and brands.
Today, I'm joined by Jiayu Lin, the CEO of PopSockets.
Jayu and I discuss her nonlinear career that eventually led her to joining PopSockets in 2022 and then being promoted to CEO in 2024.
We talk about how PopSockets goes about selecting the ideal partnership and so much more.
So, Jayu, I'm going to bring you in.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hi, Marie.
So glad to be here.
Yes, I'm very excited.
I mean, this is such a cool brand.
It's been.
I think it's becoming part of the zeitgeist, at least among, I know, the younger generation, even my generation.
So maybe first tell us, for those of you who don't know, what PopSockets is.
Yes.
PopSockets is a mobile accessories brand.
Our founder, David Barnett, invented the phone grip.
You know, it's that little accordion shaped button in the back of people's phones that help you better hold and also view content from your phone.
From Inventing the grip about 10 years ago, we actually also moved on to expand our ecosystem.
And now we provide phone cases wallets, power bags, mounts and whole ecosystems of mobile accessories.
Yeah, and so you were brought on to run the Asia Pacific region, right?
And I read that you kind of took the brand and turned it into not just a mobile accessories brand but more of a lifestyle brand.
So I'd love to hear, you know, from the start to where you are now, what that transition was like.
Yeah, of course.
PopSockets invented the foam grip, right?
That's before...
Selfies were even very popular, like Instagram.
Celebrities taking selfies together at the Grammys.
If you remember that.
So we invented the phone grip, and we were very much known for this product that we sold now close to 300 million units around the globe.
So being so successful with the product, I definitely saw there's more potential for the brand in terms of meeting consumers where they are and making their mobile life a little better by creating a whole suite of products that helps everyday film user and creators and business people with their film use.
That's great.
And I know you've had kind of a dynamic career.
Before PopSockets you were in finance, you've been in fashion, you've been in tech and now consumer accessories.
So what drew you to PopSockets originally and how has that journey kind of evolved from that to becoming a CEO?
Yeah.
So my nonlinear career, like you mentioned yeah, I worked in first in finance and tech and then consumer goods.
So I've always been drawn to the intersection of things.
So whether it was, you know uh, it was the intersection of business and government that draw me to kind of impact investing that field.
And then I was.
I really wanted to, you know, build uh empowering tech products that would make people's life better.
Uh, I've always been an avid shopper and just enjoy learning about brand stories, founder stories, just everyday objects, right?
Like that brightens your life.
So.
Actually, after acquiring business skills in strategy and analysis things I learned in finance and tech I decided that I really want to apply them in consumer and retail businesses, building one brand at a time to grow it and delight consumers' everyday life.
So what about PopSockets? is driving you today?
I mean, you know, we talked about how it's more than just a mobile accessories brand, right?
It's becoming like you said you've grown the brand to more than just the actual product, but it's more of a lifestyle brand.
So what drew you to that?
Yeah.
Definitely.
I was first very moved by the founder story, right?
First of all, before being introduced to this opportunity to lead our APAC businesses, I was a PopSockets user.
I definitely share the sentiment of like what many of PopSockets fans tell us, that this is a little lifesaver right.
Like you know, I'm someone who can help but drop my phones multiple times a day and then just this little object helped me with, you know, holding my phones.
But more than that, the many, many designs that popsockets come up with right like just fit my everyday style.
You know, i'm a fashion girl like i.
I am not limited to one style.
So one day i want to be you, want to have this clean, minimalist look.
You know, then i would.
I would pick, you know, a solid color pop socket.
The other day I really want to celebrate my love for certain like licensing properties such, as you know, embrace the Disney kid out in me.
And we have very fun.
You know whether it's pop out like a big oversized grip or fluffy, squishy pop sockets.
And then we can I can just simply swap that on and embrace a different style.
So I really enjoy that aspect of PopSockets.
It really can serve all kinds of styles, whether you know male female, regardless of age and regardless of your personal style or your use of phone.
We have products for you and we have a whole set of ecosystem that could help your life and also brighten your mood.
Well, and that speaks to you know, the Gen Z generation of expressing themselves culturally in, I think, a way that we haven't really seen before.
And this kind of gives them another outlet to be able to do so.
I'm curious what you're seeing right now in terms of Gen Z and even Gen Alpha, like engaging with the brands.
What kind of behavior is are really kind of shaping the roadmap for PopSockets?
Yeah.
The brand received a lot of fan love, especially, you know, very quick growth the years 2016 to 19.
That's when, you know, kind of Gen Z were in school and then very much embraced the product.
Today, it is our effort to be culturally relevant, meet consumers where they are.
We see consumer behavior in Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Again, they are not limited to one style, and there are some cultural moments.
That's why we work with musicians such as Ella Ling Lee, Right.
To bring very, you know, a Western style collection to them.
And next day we have a ton of licensing properties, including the Monchichi collection we just launched.
Won Chi Chi is the little monkey with hair, very cute.
That has a long history, that character.
But Gen Z and Gen Alpha today is embracing it, for the nostalgic emotions involved with it and also the fashion style that's associated around that character.
So we find our Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers multifaceted and we engage them with our social first content right.
When they speak their language.
We're in the conversations you know they care about and bring them the relevant products that they would enjoy.
So would you say that you're really kind of letting them drive any innovations that you all are coming up with in terms of product launches and in terms of partnerships?
Yeah, we definitely do lean into social listening when it comes to product innovation and community engagement to serve our consumers.
For example, we have a lot of creators, right?
We're within our Gen Z, Gen Alpha audiences.
Therefore, we launched the Kickout Grid.
It's a grip that you know not only help you horizontally view your content, but also can kick out and, you know, have you shoot content or FaceTime in a vertical angle.
And we have our suck up product, that is, a grip with a suction pad, you know that can stick to surfaces for them to record content.
In the meantime, right preserving our grip feature that's so easy for you to hold your phone and carry it everywhere.
Those features are a result of us listening to our audiences and their need.
And we launch a collection on average every week.
So we definitely listen to our consumers regularly. when it comes to partnerships.
In fact, we just launched a two series of our bookish collection.
This is a collection that's inspired by Fantasy books, the readers, their iconography.
So we have swords dragons, just some, you know little fairies very, very fun hand-drawn characters by our very talented designers.
This whole series right that takes you into a fantasy world, together with the launch of our Kindle cases with a grip.
You can now use your Kindle device with a grip.
It helps you hold your device, but a whole look of the outfit also help bring to life a visual world that our reader fans enjoy.
And we are about to actually launch a major series with a very popular book author in a month's time that hopefully will definitely delight those book fans.
This is the result of us listening to our fans.
That's a great example of, of, you know, leading into the trends and what your customers are saying.
I mean, you said you launched, you know, a new collaboration or any product a week.
That's a great example of really leading into what's going on in the mainstream.
And then, you know, you're not, you're not chasing it.
You're staying proactive and on top of it.
What do you look for in an ideal partnership?
We look for a few things, right?
We try to build partnerships that would spark joy and spark conversation.
What that means is that PopSockets, right?
It's a fun product.
You know, it brings you function and fun.
There's a little canvas areas to express yourself and then it's a functional product.
When we link into a partnership to hopefully be able to serve more consumers, we're looking for authentic fan connection.
Whether it's an author or an artist or an influencer we work with, they have a certain appeal.
Their content serves the audiences and we want to lean into that and help them their content get delivered better to those audiences right.
Because we work, we serve their mobile phone style and we use our phones to consume content everywhere, and this is a canvas area to express ourselves.
We also look for cultural relevance.
Today we observed There are a lot of micro trends and just topics that a small group of fans would lean into but we'd be very passionate about.
We see those as sparks for us to serve.
And then we bring design excellence to this partnership.
For example, the Monchichi collection I talked about.
I've used different materials for that, different shapes of grips.
And then this most iconic Monchichi figure, like with hair, the execution there is excellent.
Brought to you by our many years of expertise in producing high quality products, phone accessories.
There's, you know, the hinge and all the materials that go into making your phone a better self-expression and also creation tool.
We bring that into also empowering your personal style.
So you know popsockets right, it's this little lifesaver, or just a little thing that spark.
Bring some sparks to your life.
We want to lean into that fandom and relationship, the brand or persons we collaborate with, and we want to bring that content or the themes that these fans love so much to life by adorning their phone with our excellently crafted phone grips and other accessories to life to accompany you every day.
Well, and I'm glad you brought up cultural relevance, because I mean you have operations in more than 30 countries.
You're a global brand and you're tapping into these micro trends.
But a micro trend happening in Miami might be completely different than a micro trend happening in Shanghai.
So how do you balance that?
Yeah.
So we have teams on the ground to really engage with our consumers and leaning to that trend, those trends.
And we have, you know, agile supply chain to also respond to those trends quickly.
Again, you know, everybody uses a phone, right?
And it's almost like a new part of our, an extension of ourselves.
So we really want to capture these opportunities to bring new products to life that would support our consumers' phone life.
But also to bring the latest, because there are a lot of seasonal themes, for example, holidays coming up, popsockets.
Just to put a plug here, it makes great stocking stuffers.
We just launched a holiday gift set.
For different, you know, like for different type of people in you and in your life.
There is the minimalist, you know, tech person.
There is that fashionista person or, you know, it's a creator, right?
Lifestyle.
And then we have different sets that can support you.
Of course, that's prepared for ahead of time.
And we actually mapped out our whole next year's calendar product drops, also with bandwidth right to do quick strikes that can serve those micro trends that can happen very fast.
Fortunately, you know, we're blessed with this Again our capability in design and manufacturing, but also the fact that you know like these styles and all the tops you know are swappable and the bases and tops work with each other.
So you can, you know, for a consumer to maybe buy into a new trend, they can just maybe purchase another foam grip top.
And that can go on with the kick out or other basis or go on the wallet with a grip.
That's already in your kind of phone wardrobe.
Well, that's a good point.
You and I are speaking just a few days before Thanksgiving, which I don't know how you have the time right now.
But that begs the question how are you feeling about Q4?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Great about Q4.
Q4 is a holiday season, right?
And the most important quarter for every retail company.
I have a lot to look forward in Q4.
The highlight being our deep collaboration with our retail partners.
I will mention a few, Target, Backspot, and Walmart.
So with Target, we actually just roll out our fall reset.
That is our display, with 40 plus new SKUs that just got set into Target over 1800 stores nationwide.
We are bringing swappability to Target right.
So the phone grip itself.
We are calling it pop-top.
And then there are bases and wallets, power banks.
The tops are interchangeable with any of our bases.
We're providing you a lot of options, the consumer options, with a pretty accessible entry point.
Very excited to roll that out for the first time in retail with our important partner, Target.
With Walmart, we actually just launched Walmart Marketplaces.
Hundreds of new SKUs just got dropped on Walmartcom that can serve our consumers everywhere and expanded our offline offering.
Very excited about that.
Makes great holiday gifting as well.
Best Buy.
We have this buy online pick up in-store program on top of our, of course, like retail offering.
And then, as we get very close to you know the holiday and also the shipping cutoff line for last minute gift shoppers.
You have the option of both pairs with our partner, Best Buy.
So.
At this moment we have our biggest assortment so far many, many styles and a dedicated holiday collection called Merry and Bright.
You found Santa there, Bambi there, great holiday scene, products to complete with your holiday sweater outfit.
The gift sets that I just talked about five gift boxes.
$120 plus of value retail at $95.
That includes a phone case and multiple grips.
So you're overseeing all of this.
And I think the women that are listening are probably wondering like how, How does someone like me get to run this kind of global company that has their hands in all of these places?
In retailers, D2C, wholesale, brick and mortar, e-commerce.
So if you're speaking to these women, what advice do you have for that next generation of female leaders?
That's like seeing your career trajectory, seeing you go from you know you were at Allbirds, which we didn't even talk about yet, to running.
You know APAC for pop seconds to now being CEO.
What advice do you have for those women that are looking at their career trajectory and saying you know, I want to get to the C-suite one day?
Yeah, I'd be very happy to share some ideas there.
First of all, you know, I just feel very fortunate and thankful for the career I've been able to have.
You know, I have I had great trust and empowerment in me along the way.
But I've, I think, been able to do this because I identified my passion for retail and I wasn't afraid to take a relatively linear path to pick up transferable skills in each segment in, you know, in different parts of the journey.
There's, you know, the analytical skills, the financial knowledge that Uh, picked up, doing that segment of the career and in tech, um, led me to consumer internet, you know, uh, social online platform in China, uh, taught me how to, in the early days, how to leverage social community and influence on marketing to build a brand.
And then I, when I decided to build one brand from within, I was always the first one to raise my hand to just do things beyond my scope at the time.
So I started managing e-commerce, but because, as a sales operator, I always want to solve the root problem.
For example, for the e-commerce operator, that's traffic.
And it's like, oh, where could that come from?
Where can I engage the consumers?
And that just got me to expand into marketing and then online, offline, right?
Omnichannel consumer journey is an integrated journey and we want to meet consumers where they are.
So I was able to acquire skills in building retail stores, managing them while at Allbirds China.
So that yeah, my roles got expanded.
And that was led very much by not just ambition itself.
But I think I have this strong desire to build a brand and do it well.
And that just requires thinking about the consumer journey holistically and running a business right, like with resource constraints, but but know where we can find efficiency.
Then my kind of sales and marketing and product roles also like when to include back end operations right, the finance and the people that those are also very important parts that go into building a brand.
So I would say to The listeners of this podcast probably mostly are aspiring retail leaders.
I would say follow your passion, pick up transferable skills.
Don't worry too much about the limitation of your role at this time.
Know that you are building, accumulating a toolbox.
And with the right opportunity, and if you always are willing to do more than what you're asked for, that can lead you to a broader path.
Yeah, I love what you said about raising your hand for a responsibility, even if you didn't have all of the skills or you didn't quite know how to do it, because that's what you have to do in order to get those transferable skills that you were talking about.
That's going to lead you to a very dynamic and varied career, right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it sounds like you spent most of your career in China and I know you're now in Colorado for PopSockets.
How has that transition been for you?
Yeah.
I very much enjoy it.
We have, so our headquarter, PopSockets headquarter is in Boulder, Colorado.
That's where our founder's from.
And we have a team here, product, design, you know, all kinds of functions.
I still travel to, you know, Asia every two, three months.
And we, you know, we have teams in China and India as well.
I
Yeah again, I'm fortunate today to live what people would say is like a kind of a portfolio life right.
Like in Boulder, I find myself quite focused on work and you know like, living a calm, simple life, finding time for nature, right like you know, this is this is the what the?
Um colorado communities are about the outdoors activities um really just enjoy even seeing the mountain and beautiful sunrise and sunset pretty much every day.
That does some magical things to my mental health.
But when i uh you know, travel for work within the us too, right like um.
Another plug here is that we are looking into opening PopSocket's own retail stores.
Next year.
So actively scouting locations for that, hoping to meet our fans, you know, in our own offline space sometime very soon.
I find big energy, of course, when I go into bigger cities and when I travel to.
You know, like our offices, maybe in Shanghai and Shenzhen, that the energy right from the concentration of brands and consumers is definitely still very inspiring for me.
But I find the balance of, for example, Boulder and Shanghai to be very good and nurturing for me and serves me to do my job well too.
That's great.
Yeah.
I was going to ask what do you kind of put in place to kind of preserve your personal time while you're also running a company?
Yeah.
Just for yourself as a non-negotiable.
Yeah.
I...
I'm learning quite a bit about those studies related to longevity, but the things are always simple, right.
You want to sleep well, eat well, and exercise. again you know these parts are just taken care of very well when i'm especially when i'm in boulder i'm definitely influenced by the healthy habits of the community the people around me here that's been very beneficial for me the non-negotiables i have really taken very much value sleep you will not find me message you know as a co-worker right like i just wouldn't like i'm always thinking about work but i definitely do allow myself to take a break engaging you know activities right whether even if it's just like grocery shopping or cooking or you know just playing some pickleball i uh just walking in nature and these things i find time for And that's easy to do it here.
And with that, I respect the time of our team members.
Team members are in different stages in life.
I very much want to build a workplace that serves our team members wherever the life stage they're at.
We are an international company.
We work across time zones.
So we hold ourselves accountable for certain guidelines when it comes to scheduling time to meet with colleagues.
We try to maximize the predictability of the time that, you know, we are together, whether online or in person, and very much, you know, just want to respect the personal time that's needed to flourish, right, both for work and for personal life as well.
Well, my last question to you was going to be, you know, your workforce is global.
What's the best way that you find to kind of lead them and motivate them?
But I think you already answered it.
Anything else that you want to say about that?
Yeah, I want to say I want to put a framework around it.
Big moments, whether it's for celebration or for rolling out important strategies and projects.
We want to have those big in-person moments.
So that's why we have mid year and end of year, multiple day kind of company internal conferences.
So we, um, we have that and then it went on one time, right?
Between teammates a manager and a teammate is also very important for those honest conversations um feedback discussions.
We encourage for those to happen regularly.
Ideally some in person, but definitely just, you know, preserve that time outside of group meetings as well.
And then just meeting schedules, make sure that every meeting is very intentional.
And then let's also not hesitate to just jump online and huddle to solve something very quickly.
It's a challenge in the post-COVID world for an international company with some remote workforces.
Some offices are in person every day, and in some places it's a hybrid.
I want to make the best of both worlds, actually, right?
Like the in-person time, the benefit that we all know comes from it.
And also a hybrid work lifestyle where flexibility, right?
There's flexibility and there's personal lifestyle that's also flexible. accommodated for.
We're designing a holistic system and it's still a work in progress.
That incorporates the big in-person moments I talked about.
That put some guidelines around feedback and collaboration.
We're still very much on our way, but just given the potential that's in this brand, PopSockets, I'm confident that we are collaboratively with my teammates. are defining a new way of working that realize the potential of PopSockets, the brand.
Well, I think that's a great place to end, Jiayu.
Thank you so much for all the advice and for all of the information on PopSockets.
I can't wait to see what you guys do next.
And thank you for coming on the podcast.
I really enjoyed our conversation.
Thank you, Marie.
It's a great pleasure.
Thank you, everyone.
Thanks for listening.
For more information on this podcast, please go to womeninretail.com slash podcasts for show notes.
Women in Retail Talks is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Make sure to subscribe on our podcast channel page as well.
If you've enjoyed this episode, please take a few moments to rate and review our show.
Lastly, if you're a female retail leader interested in joining our community at Women in Retail Leadership Circle, visit womeninretailcom.
Slash apply.
Thanks and until next time, this has been Women in Retail Talks.
