Founders Bet Offline Connection Can Become a Startup Category

TechCrunch frames a small but growing group of founders around a shared bet: offline connection can be a business category. Brynn Putnam and Tristan Walker, both repeat founders with prior exits, are building very different startups with the same aim of bringing people together in person. The article positions this as a response to the feeling that technology has weakened real-world connection over the last couple of decades.

Putnam’s Board makes a 24-inch touchscreen table that recognizes physical game pieces and gestures, designed for groups sitting around it together. Walker’s Heirloom Craft is buying and scaling fine-craft trade schools, beginning with a San Francisco leatherworking school founded by Hermès’s first American artisan-ambassador. Both models use physical presence as the product, not just a marketing hook.

The article cites the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Connection classifying loneliness as a defining global health challenge, with one in six people worldwide affected. It also cites a Harris Poll survey sponsored by Marriott Bonvoy in which two-thirds of Americans said they were prioritizing experiences like travel over material purchases this year. Walker’s thesis adds another angle: renewed interest in mastery, apprenticeships and phones-down creative outlets.

The funding levels vary widely across this emerging group. TechCrunch reports that Board has raised $35 million, Pie has raised $24 million, Six Bells has raised roughly $3.8 million, Heirloom has not disclosed funding, and Adam Neumann’s Flow has raised more than $450 million. The central investor question is whether “togetherness” can scale beyond strong brands and compelling founder stories.