Founders Bet on Offline Experiences to Counter Digital Isolation

A handful of seasoned entrepreneurs are launching new companies that deliberately pull people away from screens and into shared rooms. Brynn Putnam, Tristan Walker, Andy Dunn and Audrey Gelman each unveiled ventures that center on face-to-face interaction, a trend that aligns with rising concerns about loneliness and a consumer shift toward experiential spending.

Putnam’s latest effort, Board, is a 24-inch touchscreen table that reads physical game pieces and hand gestures, allowing participants of any age to play together without learning a controller. The product emerged from Putnam’s own experience as a mother of five, who found no existing technology that could bridge the gap between a toddler and a grandparent at the same table. Board has secured $35 million in venture capital for its three-year development cycle.

Walker’s Heirloom Craft takes a different tack, acquiring and expanding fine-craft trade schools. Its first acquisition is a San Francisco leatherworking school founded by Hermès’s inaugural American artisan-ambassador. Walker, who previously sold Walker & Company Brands to Procter & Gamble, launched Heirloom out of concern that artificial intelligence is pulling knowledge work away from collaborative settings. He cites data showing roughly half of Gen Z and Gen Alpha do not want a four-year degree, and notes that more than half of the enrollment at Heirloom’s flagship location consists of young tech workers seeking a “phones-down creative outlet.” Funding for Heirloom has not been disclosed.

Other founders are pursuing similar offline-first models. Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos, rebranded his five-year-old startup Pie from a friend-matching app into a “social life operating system” anchored by “Community Homes,” digital hubs that organize recurring groups such as running clubs or watch parties. Pie has raised $24 million. Audrey Gelman, former CEO of the Wing, now runs the Six Bells Countryside Inn, an 11-room Hudson Valley guesthouse that hosts monthly murder-mystery dinners designed to spark conversation among strangers. Six Bells has attracted roughly $3.8 million in capital.

The timing of these ventures coincides with a growing recognition of social isolation as a public-health issue. In June of last year, the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Connection classified loneliness as a defining global health challenge, estimating that one in six people worldwide are affected and linking the condition to about 870,000 deaths annually. A Harris Poll survey sponsored by Marriott Bonvoy earlier this year found that two-thirds of Americans are prioritizing experiences such as travel over material purchases, and the same share feels that retail shopping has become generic. These data points suggest a market appetite for products and services that facilitate genuine human interaction.

Founders say their personal histories drive the focus on offline connection. Putnam built the connected-fitness company Mirror while pregnant and juggling brick-and-mortar studios, and she now wants technology to create shared experiences rather than isolate users. Walker, worried about AI eroding communal knowledge transmission, believes the United States has lost the apprenticeship chain that once linked masters to apprentices in crafts like leatherworking and watchmaking. Both see technology as a conduit for, not a substitute of, in-person collaboration.

While the capital raised so far remains modest compared with larger consumer tech rounds, the early traction indicates investor curiosity about the “offline” niche. As more founders test whether physical gathering can be monetized at scale, the sector will reveal whether the bet on human proximity can deliver sustainable returns or remain a niche counter-trend to the dominant digital economy.