MIRROR: The customer you know, and the customer you don’t know (yet)
Insights from speaking with Brynn Putnam, CEO of MIRROR at Women in Hardware’s first virtual gathering.
Prior to founding MIRROR (recently acquired by lululemon) Brynn Putnam spent a decade bootstrapping Refine Method, a boutique fitness studio with three locations in NYC. She lived, breathed, stretched, and jump-squatted her way to an intimate knowledge of what customers wanted from a fitness experience. More than any focus group or survey, Brynn’s insights were central to MIRROR’s product design.
Given her deep background with the customer, I asked Brynn what surprised her most about the MIRROR customer. Her answer is nothing short of inspiring.
When MIRROR launched in 2018, Brynn expected multiple people in a household would use a single device, but she didn’t expect so many of those users to be kids. A significant portion of MIRROR customers were working out together as a family. MIRROR leveraged its in house creation studio and direct distribution into customers homes to create custom content for this use case and deploy it in just a few weeks.
Digging around on the MIRROR website, I found the above video of a mom and her two daughters dancing it out in the living room. I was immediately transported to 1994, doing aerobics in the living room with my mom and older sister in our leotards. One of my biggest fears about technology is its propensity to isolate us from one another. Here, we see MIRROR facilitate a family workout experience rarely seen in boutique fitness studios, or single-user, at-home products like stationary bikes and rowing machines.
Brynn also saw surprisingly strong adoption from older adults and people with disabilities. While it makes total sense that these populations might be more comfortable working out at home versus in a traditional gym environment, the company didn’t anticipate such high traction with these demographics. MIRROR responded quickly, developing a suite of workouts designed to be completed in a chair.
A thorough understanding of the customer is table stakes for any consumer products company. From day one, Brynn had that in spades. MIRROR’s ability to quickly and capital efficiently serve new customer demographics is unique, and one of the things that makes it a great business.
As MIRROR continues to expand into homes across the country, I’m looking forward to seeing how the team continues to serve an expanding group of users looking to find confidence through fitness.
Women in Hardware is a community of female and non-binary identified people working in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at intersection of hardware and software. Founded by Kate McAndrew in 2015, Women in Hardware has hosted over 35 events for its 2000+ members. Join us! All genders warmly welcomed.
All proceeds from this Women in Hardware event were donated to BLCK VC. BLCK VC’s goal is to increase the number of black venture capitalists from 2% to 4% by 2024.
