Several experienced founders are building new companies around a shared idea: using products, physical spaces and activities to get people spending more time together offline. Brynn Putnam, Tristan Walker, Andy Dunn and Audrey Gelman have all returned with businesses focused in different ways on social connection after previously building companies that attracted major investors, buyers or consumer followings.
Putnam, who sold connected-fitness company Mirror to Lululemon for $500 million, is now building Board, a 24-inch touchscreen gaming table designed for groups sitting together. Rather than relying only on conventional controllers, the system recognizes physical objects and gestures so players of different ages and gaming experience can participate.
Technology Designed Around Shared Experiences
Putnam said the idea developed after her blended family grew to seven people and she struggled to find games everyone could enjoy together. Board uses technology as part of a shared physical activity rather than designing the experience around one person interacting with a screen.
The three-year-old startup has raised $35 million and has already sold thousands of units. Putnam described the product as an attempt to use technology to bring people together instead of further separating their attention.
Tristan Walker is pursuing the same goal through a different business model. His new company, Heirloom Craft, is acquiring and expanding specialist trade schools, beginning with a San Francisco leatherworking school founded by Hermès’s first American artisan-ambassador.
Walker, who previously sold Walker & Company Brands to Procter & Gamble, said concerns about AI replacing knowledge work helped motivate the project. He argues that the United States has weakened the traditional path from master to apprentice in crafts such as leatherworking, watchmaking and fragrance making.
More than half of the available places at Heirloom’s first location are currently occupied by young technology workers seeking a hands-on activity away from their phones, according to Walker.
Other Founders Are Testing Similar Ideas
Bonobos founder Andy Dunn has moved Pie from friend matching and event discovery toward what he calls a social life operating system. Its Community Homes feature provides permanent online spaces for recurring offline groups such as running clubs and watch parties.
Former Wing founder Audrey Gelman is pursuing connection through hospitality. Her Six Bells Countryside Inn in New York’s Hudson Valley holds recurring murder-mystery dinners designed to encourage guests to interact with strangers during and after the event.
The companies remain relatively small compared with major software startups. Board has raised $35 million, Pie has raised $24 million and Six Bells has raised about $3.8 million, while Heirloom has not disclosed its funding.
Adam Neumann’s residential company Flow represents a much larger investment in a related concept. The WeWork co-founder has raised more than $450 million for the business, which combines housing with communal spaces and services intended to encourage interaction between residents.
The businesses arrive as concerns about loneliness receive greater attention. The World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Connection estimates that roughly one in six people globally experience loneliness, while surveys also suggest many consumers are placing greater value on experiences rather than material purchases.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
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