Seven years after TechCrunch unveiled the mirror in 2018, Brynn Putnam is back to the stage where it all began. The serial entrepreneur, who turned the fitness concept into a $500 million acquisition by Lululemon, will debut her latest venture in 2025 in West Moscon, San Francisco in October.
Putnam’s path from that groundbreaking moment to today is a story of extremely clever timing. Miller, a connected fitness device that brought boutique workout classes to the house, launched just as the pandemic created unprecedented demand for home fitness solutions. This timing is so foresightful that Lululemon acquired the company for $500 million just two years after destroying its debut.
Now Putnam is betting on another cultural change – the desire to disconnect from the screen and reconnect directly with family and friends is growing. Her new company is still operating in stealth mode, developing consumer gaming hardware designed to bring people into face to face rather than quarantine behind individual devices.
“We’re about to enter a golden age of hardware,” Putnam recently told TechCrunch on one of the investor-centric StrictlyVc nights, pointing to the convergence of mature display technologies, affordable components, and AI capabilities that enable new types of interactive devices.
The new venture represents a shift in Putnam’s priorities. Miller focuses on individual performance and self-improvement, and her latest project focuses on strengthening shared experiences and relationships. She describes it as using technology not as a primary experience but as an enabler of better human connection.
Taking inspiration from Nintendo’s philosophy of “withered technology with lateral thinking” (combining mature, affordable components with innovative experiences,” Putnam follows the Miller’s successful playbook. But rather than pushing technical boundaries, she focuses on creating compelling user experiences with proven hardware.
Gamespace represents a natural next step for Putnam, who has built her reputation in understanding how technology motivates behavioral change. Her boutique fitness studio taught her how to create engaging group experiences, lessons applied to mirror virtual classes, and how to create gaming scenarios that now promote face-to-face interactions.
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Lerer Hippeau, the venture that LED Miller’s $3 million seed round, has already taken part in the Putnam’s new company’s highly competitive funding round, signaling the trust of investors in its ability to identify and capitalize consumer trends.
This timing is also coincided with a broader revival of consumer hardware investment. After years of focus on enterprise software and AI infrastructure, investors are showing renewed interest in consumer hardware that can leverage AI and a mature component ecosystem to create new categories of devices.
As TechCrunch celebrates its 20th anniversary, we can guarantee that Putnam’s appearance in 2025 has gathered TechCrunch’s biggest names to share insights into the future of innovation.
Meanwhile, as entrepreneurs and investors see consumer technology trends, Putnam’s return to the disruption phase offers an opportunity to see how one of the category’s most successful recent founders is positioning for the next wave of innovation. Don’t miss it. Sign up now to destroy 2025 and see what Brynn Putnam announced next.
The Tech Epicenter of the Year will be held at the Moscon Center in San Francisco from October 27th to 29th.
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