Brynn Putnam’s ‘Together Tech’ Bet: Board Secures $20M to Bridge the Gap Between Tabletop and Digital Gaming
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A Pivot from Self-Improvement to Social Connection
Brynn Putnam spent years perfecting the art of the solo digital experience. As the founder of Mirror, she built a connected fitness empire centered on a reflection—a high-tech mirror designed for individual performance and personal health—before selling the company to Lululemon for $500 million in 2020. But her latest venture, Board, is an intentional inversion of that philosophy.
The New York-based startup has just closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures (USV). The investment marks a significant milestone for the company, which describes its mission as building “together tech”—hardware and software specifically engineered to coax people away from their individual screens and back into the same physical room.
The lead investor, USV General Partner Michael Mignano, is set to join the company’s board of directors. The round also drew in a heavy-hitting group of angel investors, including Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, entrepreneur Tim Ferriss, and Bending Spoons/ Draper Venture founder Scott Belsky, signaling strong industry confidence in the “phygital” (physical plus digital) gaming market.
The Hardware: Tactile Gaming in a Digital Era
At the center of the company’s strategy is a $399 device: a 24-inch touchscreen housed in a minimalist wood-finish frame. While it looks like a piece of home decor, the Board device utilizes proprietary computer vision and sensing technology to recognize physical game pieces placed on its surface. This allows the board to blend the tactile satisfaction of traditional board games with the dynamic logic and interactivity of a video game.
According to the company, the market response has been immediate. Board reports that its hardware is already present in tens of thousands of homes, hospitals, schools, and restaurants across all 50 U.S. states. More telling than the sales volume, however, is the retention data: 85% of Board customers average 30 or more play sessions per month, suggesting that the device is becoming a habitual part of social gatherings rather than a one-time novelty gadget.
The AI Angle: Democratizing Game Design
While the hardware provides the interface, Board is now moving to solve the content bottleneck. Alongside the funding announcement, the company unveiled Board Studio, an AI-powered creation platform slated for release later this year.
Board Studio aims to lower the barrier to entry for game design by allowing users to create original games using natural language prompts. The company claims that users can move from a conceptual idea to a fully playable prototype in under an hour. By leveraging generative AI, Board is attempting to create a flywheel effect: users design the games that then drive more hardware sales, which in turn encourages more community-led creation.
This move into AI-assisted design reflects a broader trend in consumer hardware. As Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau—which led Board’s previous $15 million seed round—noted in recent industry commentary, the current crop of consumer founders are returning to the market because AI has made things possible today that were unthinkable even a year ago.
The Macro Trend: The Return of Consumer Hardware
For the last several years, venture capital has largely shied away from consumer hardware due to the high risk of inventory overhead and manufacturing failures. However, Board’s success is emblematic of a nascent recovery in the sector, driven by a desire for “mindful tech” that facilitates human connection rather than digital isolation.
Putnam’s transition from the self-centric focus of Mirror to the communal focus of Board mirrors a wider cultural shift. As digital fatigue peaks, there is a growing appetite for products that use technology as a catalyst for physical interaction rather than a replacement for it. With $20 million in new capital and a looming AI toolset, Board is positioned to see if the “together tech” movement can scale from a niche luxury into a household standard.
