Brynn Putnam’s ‘Together Tech’ Bet: Board Secures $20M Series A to Scale Physical Gaming
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A pivot from self-optimization to social connection
Brynn Putnam spent years building Mirror into a connected-fitness powerhouse, eventually selling the company to Lululemon for $500 million in 2020. But while Mirror was designed as a solitary pursuit of self-improvement—a digital reflection focused on individual performance—Putnam’s latest venture is designed to do the exact opposite.
Board, a New York-based startup focusing on what Putnam calls “together tech,” has closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures (USV). The investment signals a growing venture appetite for consumer hardware that facilitates real-world human interaction rather than digital isolation. General Partner Michael Mignano, marking his first investment since joining USV, will join the company’s board of directors. The round also attracted a high-profile group of angel investors, including Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Belsky.
The hardware: Bridging the tactile and the digital
At the center of the company is a $399 device: a 24-inch touchscreen encased in a wood-finish frame. Unlike a standard tablet or gaming monitor, the Board employs proprietary sensing technology that allows it to recognize and track physical game pieces moving across its surface. The goal is to preserve the tactile satisfaction of a traditional board game—the sliding of a piece, the roll of a die—while layering in the dynamic interactivity and automation of a video game.
The market response has been surprisingly rapid. Since its public debut at TechCrunch Disrupt last October, Board claims the device has penetrated tens of thousands of homes, hospitals, and schools across all 50 states. More telling than the unit sales, however, is the retention data: 85% of users are averaging 30 or more play sessions per month, suggesting the device is becoming a recurring fixture in living rooms rather than a novelty gadget that gathers dust.
AI as the catalyst for user-generated content
While the hardware provides the canvas, the company is now moving toward democratizing game design. Alongside the funding announcement, Board unveiled “Board Studio,” an AI-powered creation platform slated for release later this year.
Board Studio aims to remove the technical barrier to game development. By using natural language prompts, users can theoretically move from a conceptual idea to a playable prototype in under an hour. This move reflects a broader trend in the AI sector where the focus is shifting from simple chat interfaces to “agentic” tools that can generate functional, interactive software on the fly. For Board, this means a potential explosion of user-generated content that could keep the hardware relevant long after the initial factory games are exhausted.
The return of the consumer hardware bet
For several years, venture capitalists were wary of “hard tech” and consumer electronics, often preferring the scalable margins of pure SaaS. However, the intersection of generative AI and a post-pandemic desire for physical proximity is creating a new window of opportunity.
Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau—who led Board’s initial $15 million funding and Mirror’s early seed round—has noted a shift in the landscape. The current climate is seeing a return of high-quality founders entering the hardware pool, driven by technical capabilities that simply weren’t available two years ago.
Putnam’s trajectory from Mirror to Board illustrates this shift in digital culture. If the previous decade was defined by the “quantified self” and the optimization of the individual, the next phase may be defined by technology that intentionally steps back to let people look each other in the face.
