When Brynn Putnam offered her final firm, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at first of the pandemic, it seemed 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 almost as abruptly because it peaked throughout that first yr of lockdowns. In the meantime, after a yr as a normal supervisor at Lululemon, Putnam had new working insights, an enormous win below her belt, and a recent concept that she has since was a brand new firm that may 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 couple of 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 frivolously for size. It’s also possible to watch the complete interview beneath.
Ben Lerer on writing that first test:
After 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 indicate 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 curiously, she had designed a contraption that was proprietary to her [own line of boutique gyms at the time] . . . and after we noticed it, it was simply clear that Brynn was not only a intelligent enterprise builder who had constructed a great 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 number of 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 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 couple of 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 suitable match for us to have the ability to actually take Mirror into properties the world over with velocity and certainty. We actually simply felt prefer it was this chance we couldn’t go 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 ability legislation and the concept you’re speculated to take these moonshots and also you’re going to have a bunch of losses however your large wins are going to vary the entire world. I consider within the energy legislation, however I additionally assume 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 obtained this supply, I’m actually enthusiastic about taking it,’ I stated, ‘Yeah, it’s best to do that for you; that is wonderful for us. And when you’re getting pushback from folks [like later-stage investors with a different cost basis], I’m completely happy to attempt to be useful, however you’re frankly rather more forceful and highly effective than I’m and also you’ll deal with this.’ For a yr or two after, I believe Brynn in all probability obtained some individuals who second-guessed it, and now I believe folks see the arc of your entire 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 love . . .advised 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 greater items, however you’re at all times promoting your organization. And the most effective factor you are able to do upon getting made the choice to promote, is to actually be taught as a lot as you may from this enterprise that you simply’ve chosen to promote to and attempt to deal with one thing with goal 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 fascinating. However I believe finally, if you go from being a founder and CEO to successfully the overall 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:
Once 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 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 section, my life was actually simply rather more about my household and my buddies and my relationships and people issues that I used to be discovering necessary. I used to be actually struggling to seek 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 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 more difficult.
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 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 client {hardware} firm, however within the gaming house fairly than health, actually geared in direction of how we spend time collectively nose to nose, the place know-how just isn’t the expertise however actually an enabler to constructing higher relationships.
Requested if her new product is for youngsters (or if matches in a single’s pocket, or one wears it on their face), Putnam answered:
It’s for everybody. It’s for buddies 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 schooling firm, though we do hope that individuals discover it fascinating and strategic and inventive, nevertheless 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 buyers all of the sudden:
I believe we’re about to enter a golden age of {hardware}. All of the VCs listed below are going to be so excited to spend money on {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 believe there’s a chance in the marketplace for one thing new. Plenty of the core elements of those applied sciences have gotten much more mature and subsequently inexpensive, so with 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 probably be new units in the marketplace. We’re betting on this concept of not one other private pc however fairly a brand new shared system within the dwelling, which is what we did with Mirror and what we’re doing once more right here. This concept that there will probably be a bit of tech that helps deliver your own 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’ know-how with lateral considering. So the thought is utilizing mature, inexpensive, extra available applied sciences however creating a very fascinating 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 buddies 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 buddies have and everybody has: we’re all hopelessly addicted to those units, and at a excessive stage, we’re concerned with options to that dependancy and new codecs of leisure or alternatives to get folks 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 house 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 house, which is definitely the most important hobbyist space by spend within the U.S. Discovering methods to faucet into folks’s passions is at all times a great wager 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 numerous client, numerous media, numerous direct to client commerce. And there have been a number 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 prospects quicker than ever. Perhaps the rise of Shopify as nicely created a good time to go construct client companies with a large open creativeness.
During the last 4, 5, six years, there’s been little or no by way of large tech adjustments that encourage folks 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 are potential as we speak that weren’t potential 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 absolutely 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 few years, fairly frankly.
