Pie, the social app founded by Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn, has added Community Homes, giving social groups permanent spaces where members can stay connected beyond individual gatherings. The feature shifts more of Pie’s focus toward ongoing communities, with events becoming one part of those relationships rather than the main reason to use the app.
Originally launched as an events app in Chicago, Pie has grown to around 300,000 users, according to TechCrunch. Investors include Forerunner, Lightspeed, Accel, and angel investors such as Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.
Community Homes Give Groups Permanent Spaces
Each Community Home includes a dedicated feed, admin and membership controls, a shareable homepage, and tools for planning events. Members can also share events directly to the group feed instead of leaving that ability only to administrators.
Pie’s official app release notes confirm that Community Homes became available in the app. The company also plans to add group chats and a feature for casual invitations, such as asking whether other members want to craft together or watch the “Love Island” reunion without organizing a formal event first.
Community Homes follows several product changes aimed at giving more attention to the people using Pie. Last December, Pie changed its activity feed to show which people a user knew were attending an event instead of mainly showing newly announced events.
Pie said average time spent in the app increased from two minutes to 10 minutes after that change. More recently, the company introduced a “favorites” feature that lets users add preferred interests to their public profiles.
Pie Builds Around Ongoing Social Groups
Dunn said the idea for Pie developed after he moved from New York to Chicago and initially struggled to find friendships and a community. Social clubs, including run clubs, markets, and watch parties, were also gaining traction among Gen Z at the time.
Dunn told TechCrunch that Pie could provide software for these groups so people could meet repeatedly, join communities, and form deeper connections. He described Pie as a “Reddit for IRL.”
The company later added Nadya Okamoto, founder of the New York run club Zoomies, as co-founder and chief marketing officer. Okamoto said Pie resembles the original promise of Facebook and Reddit, but without the anonymity and toxicity she associated with Reddit.
She said events are a result of having a strong community-building system rather than the starting point. Pie is available more widely, although it currently has stronger traction in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
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