Grit• Nov 24, 2025• 1:12:26Interview

She Sold Her Startup for $500 Million, Here’s Her Next Idea

From Grit

Bryn Putnam•Founder and CEO, Bored

Executive Summary

Bryn Putnam, founder of Mirror (acquired by Lululemon for ~$500M), discusses her journey and the launch of her new company, Bored.
Bored is a new gaming console that merges physical board games with digital interactivity using a proprietary touchscreen that recognizes unique, non-electronic game pieces.
The company has raised ~$15M, developed its own local AI and ML models for piece recognition, and is launching with 12 games and an SDK for third-party developers.
The discussion covers the full lifecycle of her previous venture, Mirror, from its bootstrapped origins to its acquisition by Lululemon and eventual sale to Peloton, offering insights into post-acquisition integration and founder motivation.

12 quotes

Concerns Raised

The consumer hardware market is challenging, and the ~$500 price point may be a barrier to mass adoption.
Successfully building a third-party developer ecosystem is critical for long-term content viability and is a significant challenge for any new platform.
The ultimate fate of Mirror (product discontinued after being sold twice) serves as a cautionary tale for the long-term viability of acquired hardware products.

Opportunities Identified

The novel 'phygital' gaming experience creates a new market category with limited direct competition.
The proprietary technology for recognizing passive physical pieces on a touchscreen provides a strong, defensible competitive advantage.
Leveraging a proven founder's track record and investor relationships to secure funding and partnerships for the new venture.

Key Themes

Serial Entrepreneurship Driven by Personal Problems

Bryn Putnam's ventures are born from deeply personal needs. Mirror addressed her post-ballet fitness journey, while her new company, Bored, aims to solve the challenge of finding meaningful, screen-based connection for her family.

This highlights a common and powerful motivator for successful founders: solving a problem they intimately understand, which provides the resilience and insight needed to build a compelling product.

Hardware Innovation via Software and IP

Both Mirror and Bored are hardware-centric companies, but their core innovation lies in software and intellectual property. Bored uses a commodity touchscreen but has developed a unique software stack with embedded AI to recognize physical game pieces, creating a defensible moat without costly custom hardware.

This strategy demonstrates a capital-efficient path for creating novel hardware experiences by focusing R&D on software and proprietary algorithms rather than expensive, custom-fabricated components.

The Post-Acquisition Founder's Journey

The episode explores the lifecycle of Mirror after its acquisition, including Bryn's one-year tenure at Lululemon and the product's eventual sale to Peloton. It touches on the cultural challenges of a founder integrating into a large corporation and the bittersweet outcome of a product's evolution post-exit.

This provides a candid look at the complexities founders face after a successful exit, including navigating corporate culture, managing team morale, and accepting the new trajectory of their creation.

Bridging the Physical and Digital Divide

Bored's core concept is to blend the tactile, social experience of traditional board games with the dynamic magic of video games. The technology, which uses capacitive patterns on physical pieces to interact with a digital surface, represents a significant step in 'phygital' (physical + digital) entertainment.

This addresses a growing consumer desire for technology that encourages in-person interaction rather than isolation, opening a new category in family entertainment and gaming.

Platform and Ecosystem Strategy

Bored is not just launching a product, but a platform. By providing an SDK for standard game engines like Unity and Unreal, the company aims to foster a third-party developer ecosystem to create a rich library of games, following the successful model of console giants.

This go-to-market strategy is critical for the long-term success of any new hardware platform, as a robust content pipeline is essential for attracting and retaining users beyond the initial launch titles.

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