Andy Dunn’s startup Pie becomes less of an events app and more of a social network
The social app founded by Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn is expanding beyond events with new digital homes for groups to connect, organize, and make plans.
Startup Pie, originally an events app founded by Bonobos' Andy Dunn, is evolving into a social network with the launch of a new Communities feature. This allows people to create permanent "homes" for their social groups, providing an alternative to group texts and other platforms like Facebook Groups. Backed by investors such as Forerunner, Lightspeed, Accel, and Ev Williams, Pie has amassed around 300,000 users.
The Communities feature, called Community Homes, encourages users to join groups where events are a result of these connections, not the primary focus. Each "home" offers a community feed, group management tools, a shareable homepage, and event planning resources. Admins and members can share events on the group's feed, fostering more organic networking.
Pie plans to incorporate group chats and a feature allowing casual connection requests, like asking to "hang out and craft together." These updates aim to make Pie centered around people rather than events. The change came after Pie altered its activity feed to highlight users' connections, increasing app usage from 2 minutes to 10 minutes. Additionally, Pie introduced a "favorites" feature for users to showcase their interests.
Founders Dunn and Nadya Okamoto, who co-founded the popular New York run club Zoomies, believe Pie resembles the original vision of Facebook and Reddit, focusing on community-building instead of events. The app is currently popular in markets like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.
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