A Small but Growing Number of Founders Are Betting on Bringing People Together Offline
Brynn Putnam and Tristan Walker have already accomplished what most founders only dream about: building companies so compelling that larger players acquired them. Putnam, a trained ballerina who ran a small chain of boutique studios, founded the connected-fitness company Mirror and sold it to Lululemon for $500 million in cash less than three years later. Walker, who interned at Twitter while attending Stanford business school, built the popular men's grooming brand Walker & Company Brands, selling it five years later to Procter & Gamble for undisclosed terms (reportedly in the range of $20 million to $40 million).
That both are at it again is less surprising than what each is building. Founders tend not to relish working inside other people's companies β Putnam has hinted that life as a GM inside Lululemon wasn't for her, while Walker lasted five years inside Procter & Gamble before striking out on his own. But though their new companies couldn't be more different, Board and Heirloom share the same north star: bringing people together, offline, in the same room.
Two Very Different Companies, One Shared Mission
Putnam's new company, Board, makes a 24-inch touchscreen table that recognizes physical game pieces as well as gestures. It was built explicitly for a group sitting around it together rather than one person alone with a screen. Walker's Heirloom is buying up and scaling fine-craft trade schools, starting with a leatherworking school in San Francisco founded by HermΓ¨s's first American artisan-ambassador. He's also running Collaborative Holdings, a fund carved out by the venture firm Collaborative Fund to give founders like Walker β running profitable, cash-flow-positive businesses β the room to grow on their own terms, without the pressure to chase venture-style returns.
On the surface, a game console and a leathercraft school don't appear to have much in common. But both founders are chasing the same thing β a kind of connection they believe technology has eroded over the last decade β and both think there's real money in restoring it.
The Loneliness Economy Is Going Mainstream
The timing isn't accidental. In June of last year, the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Connection formally classified loneliness as a defining global health challenge, estimating that one in six people worldwide are affected and linking the condition to roughly 870,000 deaths a year. As of 2026, that classification has only gained traction, with employers, insurers, and city governments increasingly treating social connection as a public-health priority rather than a soft lifestyle concern.
The opportunity to address that challenge is expanding, too, for those paying attention. In a Harris Poll survey sponsored by Marriott Bonvoy earlier this year, two-thirds of Americans said they were prioritizing experiences, like travel, over material purchases this year. The same percentage said retail shopping today feels too generic, with all retailers looking and feeling the same.
East Coast entrepreneurs seem to be gravitating more naturally to the space, at least for now. Along with Putnam and Walker, two other founders whose newest businesses are focused on connection include Bonobos founder Andy Dunn and Audrey Gelman of The Wing.
From Friend-Matching to a Social Life Operating System
Pie, Dunn's now five-year-old company, has moved from friend-matching app to event-discovery tool to what he now calls a "social life operating system," anchored by "Community Homes" β a permanent digital hub for recurring social groups like run clubs or watch parties. In 2026, that pivot reflects a broader shift: the most durable consumer social products are no longer trying to replace in-person relationships but to organize and sustain them.
Gelman tried this once before. Her last company, The Wing, built a business on bringing women together and folded during the pandemic amid accusations that it didn't treat its own staff equitably. Now she's found a different way to do something sim...
via TechCrunch