Consumer tech is bouncing back, and consumer founders like Brynn Putnam are bouncing back with it
When Brynn Putnam offered her final firm, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million firstly of the pandemic, it appeared to this editor like she’d offered the good health firm too quickly.
As an alternative, the timing proved sensible. The house health craze crashed practically as abruptly because it peaked throughout that first yr of lockdowns. In the meantime, after a yr as a common supervisor at Lululemon, Putnam had new working insights, a giant win beneath her belt, and a recent 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 seed spherical for that stealthy startup – the agency led Mirror’s $3 million seed spherical years in the past, too – and on Wednesday evening 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 client tech – a few of it being led by founders who led the final wave of profitable client startups.
Following are excerpts from that chat, edited calmly for size. You too can watch the total interview beneath.
Ben Lerer on writing that first examine:
Once we invested [in Mirror], Brynn had a really convincing however completely janky demo, which was mainly a form 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 in a position to elevate tens of thousands and 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], like her personal model of a pilates reformer, and after we noticed it, it was simply clear that Brynn was not only a intelligent enterprise builder who had constructed a great gymnasium model for herself however was additionally an inventor . . .Brynn received us over very, in a short time, and perhaps we appeared loopy for just a few years, however ultimately much less so.
Brynn Putnam on promoting Mirror simply 4 years after founding it:
We weren’t on the market. We weren’t in search of 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 loads of time with them, making content material and doing attention-grabbing occasions with them, and it simply felt like the fitting match for us to have the ability to actually take Mirror into properties the world over 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 speculated to take these moonshots and also you’re going to have a bunch of losses however your huge wins are going to alter the entire world. I consider within the energy legislation, however I additionally assume typically enterprise loses sight of simply actually fundamental, good, sound enterprise decision-making. And there are some common truths in enterprise, like: promote when others are grasping, and purchase when others are scared. You don’t at all times need to proceed to return to the on line casino repeatedly and once more. On this case, when Brynn got here and stated, ‘Hey, I received this supply, I’m actually enthusiastic about taking it,’ I stated, ‘Yeah, you need to do that for you; that is superb for us. And in case you’re getting pushback from other people [like later-stage investors with a different cost basis], I’m glad to attempt to be useful, however you’re frankly, way more forceful and highly effective than I’m and also you’ll care for this.’ Nevertheless it was the fitting resolution. For a yr or two after, I feel Brynn in all probability received some individuals who second-guessed it, and now I feel individuals see the arc of all the class and understand it was only a completely sensible transfer.
Putnam on working afterward as an exec at Lululemon, which later threw within the towel on Mirror:
An investor who I like . . .advised me on the time that I must be gracious and be taught, 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 at all times promoting your organization, and the very best factor you are able to do, upon getting made the choice to promote, is to essentially be taught as a lot as you’ll be able to from this enterprise that you just’ve chosen to promote to and attempt to deal with one thing with objective on this new position. And that’s what I did. And I realized an unbelievable quantity within the yr that I used to be there, and it was extremely attention-grabbing. However I feel in the end, if 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 individuals, 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 special stage of my life. I went from being pregnant to then having two youngsters, and actually, I simply took inventory of what was vital to me at that time. Mirror was very a lot about me. It was my reflection, my efficiency, it was about making your personal self higher. At that subsequent part, my life was actually simply way more about my household and my mates and my relationships and people issues that I used to be discovering vital. I used to be actually struggling to search out high quality time with my family members the best way that I had rising up — you already know, 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 may I take what I realized at Mirror and apply these classes to the class of play? How may I exploit tech to construct higher social relationships and connections? And that’s what I’m engaged on now. It’s a brand new client {hardware} firm, however within the gaming house fairly than health, actually geared in direction of how we spend time collectively head to head, the place know-how just isn’t the expertise however actually an enabler to constructing higher relationships.
Requested if her new product is for kids (or if suits 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 along with your children. It’s not an training firm, though we do hope that individuals discover it attention-grabbing and strategic and artistic, but it surely’s actually about utilizing tech to attach individuals 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 high 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 client {hardware} success story since Oculus. I feel there’s a possibility available on the market for one thing new. Plenty of the core elements of those applied sciences have gotten much more mature and subsequently reasonably priced, so having the ability to construct, in our case, show applied sciences, is feasible in a means now that it wasn’t 10 years in the past. After which clearly AI is opening the door for the way we work together with our units. So naturally, there will likely be new units available on the market. , we’re betting on this concept of not one other private laptop however fairly a brand new shared machine 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 bit of tech that helps carry your own home and household collectively is the place we expect 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 just lately about Nintendo’s design philosophy. They’ve this idea that they use ‘withered’ know-how with lateral pondering. So the thought is utilizing mature, reasonably priced, extra available applied sciences however creating a very attention-grabbing expertise round them, and that’s what we did with Mirror. It was fairly 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 firm of Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn, Pie, which is concentrated on bringing individuals collectively offline), Lerer stated:
I’m an investor [in Pie]! Look, I’ve younger children and I’ve the identical challenges that every one my mates have and everybody has: we’re all hopelessly addicted to those units, and at a excessive stage, we’re eager about alternate options to that dependancy and new codecs of leisure or alternatives to get individuals off of screens or out on the planet. We very just lately did a [related] deal that’s not but introduced in an software layer AI firm within the journey house 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 house, which is definitely the largest hobbyist space by spend within the U.S.
Discovering methods to faucet into individuals’s passions is at all times a great guess within the client house.
On the sensation that ‘client’ as a class is swinging again – together with because of 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 loads of client, loads of media, loads of direct to client commerce. And there have been just a few traits that basically 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 nicely created a good time to go construct client companies with a large open creativeness.
Over the past 4, 5, six years, there’s been little or no by way of huge tech adjustments that encourage individuals to do something that doesn’t really feel incremental. And I do assume that AI is that catalyst proper now. We’re seeing a really prime quality group of founders saying, ‘Now’s the time to get again within the pool.’ There are issues which can be doable at present that weren’t doable six months in the past or a yr in the past, and the slope is steep proper now by way of utilizing your creativeness. So I’m extra enthusiastic about client than I’ve been in a very long time, which is basically thrilling for me as a result of that’s my ardour. I constructed a client enterprise. I like investing in client founders, and it’s been fairly crappy the previous couple of years, fairly frankly.
