When Brynn Putnam offered her final firm, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at the beginning of the pandemic, it regarded to this editor like she’d offered the sensible health firm too quickly.
As a substitute, the timing proved sensible. 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, an enormous win beneath her belt, and a recent concept that she has since changed into 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 night time in New York, I sat down with each Lerer Hippeau managing accomplice Ben Lerer and Putnam to speak about what she is constructing. We additionally talked a few broader rebound that’s occurring 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 flippantly for size. It’s also possible to watch the total interview under.
Ben Lerer on writing that first verify:
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 capable of increase tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to really produce such a factor. Actually curiously, 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 once we noticed it, it was simply clear that Brynn was not only a intelligent enterprise builder who had constructed fitness center model for herself however was additionally an inventor . . .Brynn received us over very, in a short time, and perhaps we regarded loopy for just a few 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 searching 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 quite a lot of time with them, making content material and doing attention-grabbing occasions with them, and it simply felt like the correct match for us to have the ability to actually take Mirror into houses internationally with velocity 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 that you’re speculated to take these moonshots and also you’re going to have a bunch of losses however your massive wins are going to vary the entire world. I imagine within the energy legislation, however I additionally suppose typically enterprise loses sight of simply actually primary, 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 at all times need to proceed to return to the on line casino many times and once more. On this case, when Brynn got here and stated, ‘Hey, I received this provide, I’m actually desirous about taking it,’ I stated, ‘Yeah, it is best to do that for you; that is superb for us. And if you happen to’re getting pushback from folks [like later-stage investors with a different cost basis], I’m pleased to attempt to be useful, however you’re frankly, rather more forceful and highly effective than I’m and also you’ll handle this.’ Nevertheless it was the correct determination. For a 12 months or two after, I believe Brynn in all probability received some individuals who second-guessed it, and now I believe individuals see the arc of the whole class and notice 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 . . .informed me on the time that I ought to 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, after getting made the choice to promote, is to essentially be taught as a lot as you possibly can from this enterprise that you just’ve chosen to promote to and attempt to deal with one thing with goal on this new function. And that’s what I did. And I discovered an unimaginable quantity within the 12 months that I used to be there, and it was extremely attention-grabbing. However I believe in the end, once you go from being a founder and CEO to successfully the overall supervisor of a division, it’s a really massive 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:
Once I left Lululemon, I used to be actually simply at a unique stage of my life. I went from being pregnant to then having two youngsters, and actually, I simply took inventory of what was necessary 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 part, my life was actually simply rather more about my household and my associates and my relationships and people issues that I used to be discovering necessary. 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 recognize, we might sit across the desk and have a meal, play a board sport, 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 discovered 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 fairly 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 associates 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 schooling firm, though we do hope that folks discover it attention-grabbing and strategic and artistic, nevertheless it’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 prime of thoughts for founders and traders all of the sudden:
I believe we’re about to enter a golden age of {hardware}. All of the VCs listed here are going to be so excited to spend money on {hardware} founders quickly, hopefully [because a] few issues are occurring. 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 believe there’s a chance available on the market for one thing new. Loads of the core parts of those applied sciences have gotten much more mature and due to this fact reasonably priced, so having the ability to construct, in our case, show applied sciences, is feasible in a method 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 gadgets. So naturally, there can be new gadgets available on the market. You realize, we’re betting on this concept of not one other private laptop however fairly a brand new shared system within the residence, which is what we did with Mirror, and what we’re doing once more right here. This concept that there can be a chunk of tech that helps convey your own home and household collectively is the place we expect the longer term 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 discovered not too long ago about Nintendo’s design philosophy. They’ve this idea that they use ‘withered’ expertise with lateral pondering. So the thought is utilizing mature, reasonably priced, extra available applied sciences however creating a extremely 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 associates collectively as an investing theme (right here, this editor introduced up the brand new firm of Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn, Pie, which is targeted 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 associates have and everybody has: we’re all hopelessly addicted to those gadgets, and at a excessive stage, we’re inquisitive about alternate options to that habit and new codecs of leisure or alternatives to get individuals off of screens or out on this planet. We very not too long ago did a [related] deal that’s not but introduced in an utility 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 utility 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 individuals’s passions is at all times 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 quite a lot of shopper, quite a lot of media, quite a lot of direct to shopper commerce. And there have been just a few 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 properly created a good time to go construct shopper companies with a large open creativeness.
Over the past 4, 5, six years, there’s been little or no by way of massive tech modifications that encourage individuals 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 doable right this moment that weren’t doable 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 admittedly 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 few years, fairly frankly.
