When Brynn Putnam bought her final firm, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million initially of the pandemic, it seemed to this editor like she’d bought the sensible health firm too quickly.
As a substitute, the timing proved good. The house health craze crashed practically as abruptly because it peaked throughout that first 12 months of lockdowns. In the meantime, after a 12 months as a normal supervisor at Lululemon, Putnam had new working insights, a giant win beneath her belt, and a contemporary concept that she has since became a brand new firm that can launch publicly in 2025.
The enterprise agency Lerer Hippeau has already participated in a extremely aggressive spherical for that stealthy startup – the agency led Mirror’s $3 million seed spherical years in the past, too – and on Wednesday night time in New York, I sat down with each Lerer Hippeau managing companion Ben Lerer and Putnam to speak about what she is constructing. We additionally talked a few broader rebound that’s taking place in the end for shopper tech – a few of it being led by founders who led the final wave of profitable shopper startups.
Following are excerpts from that chat, edited evenly for size. It’s also possible to watch the complete interview under.
Ben Lerer on writing that first examine:
Once we invested [in Mirror], Brynn had a really convincing however completely janky demo, which was principally a kind of like a two-way mirror with a pc display behind it to point out you what a mirror would appear to be if she was capable of increase tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to truly produce such a factor. Actually apparently, she had designed a contraption that was proprietary to her [own line of boutique gyms at the time] . . . and once we noticed it, it was simply clear that Brynn was not only a intelligent enterprise builder who had constructed a superb health club model for herself however was additionally an inventor. Brynn received us over very, in a short time, and possibly we seemed loopy for a couple of years, however finally much less so.
Brynn Putnam on promoting Mirror simply 4 years after founding it:
We weren’t on the market. We weren’t on the lookout for an acquirer. We had simply actually launched. However we had a longtime partnership with Lululemon. I had labored with them at my gyms for a few decade, and we had been spending numerous time with them, making content material and doing fascinating occasions with them, and it simply felt like the best match for us to have the ability to actually take Mirror into houses internationally with pace and certainty. We actually simply felt prefer it was this chance we couldn’t move on.
As for whether or not Lerer weighed in with recommendation on that sale, he stated:
I did have an opinion on it. Look, enterprise is a humorous enterprise due to the facility legislation and the concept you’re purported to take these moonshots and also you’re going to have a bunch of losses however your massive wins are going to alter the entire world. I imagine within the energy legislation, however I additionally suppose generally enterprise loses sight of simply actually fundamental, good, sound enterprise decision-making. And there are some normal truths in enterprise, like: promote when others are grasping, and purchase when others are scared. You don’t all the time should proceed to return to the on line casino repeatedly and once more. On this case, when Brynn got here and stated, ‘Hey, I bought this supply, I’m actually serious about taking it,’ I stated, ‘Yeah, you need to do that for you; that is superb for us. And when you’re getting pushback from folks [like later-stage investors with a different cost basis], I’m blissful to attempt to be useful, however you’re frankly rather more forceful and highly effective than I’m and also you’ll care for this.’ For a 12 months or two after, I feel Brynn most likely bought some individuals who second-guessed it, and now I feel folks see the arc of the complete class and notice it was only a completely good transfer.
Putnam on working afterward as an exec at Lululemon, which later threw within the towel on Mirror:
An investor who I love . . .instructed me on the time that I needs to be gracious and study, that all through the lifetime of your organization, you’re promoting your organization. You’re promoting it in small items, otherwise you’re promoting it in larger items, however you’re all the time promoting your organization. And the most effective factor you are able to do after you have made the choice to promote, is to actually study as a lot as you’ll be able to from this enterprise that you just’ve chosen to promote to and attempt to sort out one thing with function on this new position. And that’s what I did. And I realized an unbelievable quantity within the 12 months that I used to be there, and it was extremely fascinating. However I feel finally, whenever you go from being a founder and CEO to successfully the final supervisor of a division, it’s a really giant change, and for some folks, it’s a match. And for me, it simply was not. I’m actually a builder.
Putnam on what led her to develop her new startup:
After I left Lululemon, I used to be actually simply at a distinct stage of my life. I went from being pregnant to then having two youngsters, and actually, I simply took inventory of what was essential to me at that time. Mirror was very a lot about me. It was my reflection, my efficiency, it was about making your individual self higher. At that subsequent section, my life was actually simply rather more about my household and my mates and my relationships and people issues that I used to be discovering essential. I used to be actually struggling to seek out high quality time with my family members the way in which that I had rising up — , we might sit across the desk and have a meal, play a board recreation, look one another within the face. For my children who’ve grown up glued to iPads or smartphones, the expertise of high quality time was tougher.
So I actually began to consider, how might I take what I realized at Mirror and apply these classes to the class of play? How might I take advantage of tech to construct higher social relationships and connections? And that’s what I’m engaged on now. It’s a brand new shopper {hardware} firm, however within the gaming area reasonably than health, actually geared in direction of how we spend time collectively nose to nose, the place expertise isn’t the expertise however actually an enabler to constructing higher relationships.
Requested if her new product is for kids (or if matches in a single’s pocket, or one wears it on their face), Putnam answered:
It’s for everybody. It’s for mates and households spending time collectively. It’s not a children’ firm, though we do hope you’ll take part together with your children. It’s not an training firm, though we do hope that folks discover it fascinating and strategic and inventive, however it’s actually about utilizing tech to attach folks to one another. (Right here Lerer declared he was sworn to secrecy by Putnam.)
Putnam on the confluence of AI and {hardware} and software program that appears very a lot prime of thoughts for founders and traders all of the sudden:
I feel we’re about to enter a golden age of {hardware}. All of the VCs listed here are going to be so excited to put money into {hardware} founders quickly, hopefully [because a] few issues are taking place. The iPhone got here out 17 years in the past, and we haven’t actually had a mainstream shopper {hardware} success story since Oculus. I feel there’s a possibility in the marketplace for one thing new. A variety of the core parts of those applied sciences have gotten much more mature and subsequently reasonably priced, so with the ability to construct, in our case, show applied sciences, is feasible in a approach now that it wasn’t 10 years in the past. After which clearly AI is opening the door for a way we work together with our units. So naturally, there will likely be new units in the marketplace. We’re betting on this concept of not one other private pc however reasonably a brand new shared gadget within the dwelling, which is what we did with Mirror and what we’re doing once more right here. This concept that there will likely be a chunk of tech that helps deliver your home and household collectively is the place we predict the long run is headed.
On not focusing an excessive amount of on the technical specs of {hardware} however focusing extra on the general expertise being created, Putnam stated:
I realized not too long ago about Nintendo’s design philosophy. They’ve this idea that they use ‘withered’ expertise with lateral pondering. So the concept is utilizing mature, reasonably priced, extra available applied sciences however creating a extremely fascinating expertise round them, and that’s what we did with Mirror. It was reasonably commodity {hardware}. It wasn’t frontier tech. And [that’s] what we’re doing once more now.
On bringing household and mates collectively as an investing theme (right here, this editor introduced up the brand new startup of Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn, Pie, which focuses on bringing folks collectively offline), Lerer stated:
I’m an investor [in Pie]! Look, I’ve younger children and I’ve the identical challenges that each one my mates have and everybody has: we’re all hopelessly addicted to those units, and at a excessive stage, we’re fascinated by alternate options to that dependancy and new codecs of leisure or alternatives to get folks off of screens or out on the planet. We very not too long ago did a [related] deal that’s not but introduced in an software layer AI firm within the journey area that I’m actually enthusiastic about. And we simply introduced a deal this previous week in one other software layer firm within the aftermarket automotive area, which is definitely the largest hobbyist space by spend within the U.S. Discovering methods to faucet into folks’s passions is all the time a superb guess within the shopper area.
On the sensation that ‘shopper’ as a class is swinging again – together with due to a brand new $500 million fund introduced this previous week by the well-known consumer-focused agency Forerunner Ventures, Lerer stated:
As a fund, we’re founder first, however we’re additionally New York first, and [with] the primary [founder] generations of New York within the early 2010s, there was numerous shopper, numerous media, numerous direct to shopper commerce. And there have been a couple of traits that actually drove that. You had the rise of the iPhone and the App Retailer. You had social media exploding and the arbitrage advert ecosystem alternative to go and seize clients sooner than ever. Perhaps the rise of Shopify as effectively created a good time to go construct shopper companies with a large open creativeness.
During the last 4, 5, six years, there’s been little or no by way of massive tech adjustments that encourage folks to do something that doesn’t really feel incremental. And I do suppose that AI is that catalyst proper now. We’re seeing a really top quality group of founders saying, ‘Now’s the time to get again within the pool.’ There are issues which are attainable right now that weren’t attainable six months in the past or a 12 months in the past, and the slope is steep proper now by way of utilizing your creativeness. So I’m extra enthusiastic about shopper than I’ve been in a very long time, which is actually thrilling for me as a result of that’s my ardour. I constructed a shopper enterprise. I like investing in shopper founders, and it’s been fairly crappy the previous couple of years, fairly frankly.