Pie adds community hubs to expand beyond event planning
Pie, the social app founded by Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn, has launched a new "communities" feature that shifts the platform away from being purely an events app and towards a fuller social network. The update, called Community Homes, gives users permanent digital spaces for their social groups, positioning Pie as an alternative to group texts and Facebook Groups, and reflects a broader push to make relationships, rather than individual events, the app's central focus.
Each Community Home includes a group feed, admin and membership controls, a shareable homepage and event-planning tools, with any member able to post events to encourage organic networking. Pie, which began as a Chicago-based events app and has attracted roughly 300,000 users along with backing from Forerunner, Lightspeed, Accel and angel investor Ev Williams, previously reworked its activity feed in December to highlight mutual connections attending events, a change the company says boosted average session time from two to ten minutes. Founder Andy Dunn, who has also brought on run-club founder Nadya Okamoto as co-founder and CMO, describes the app's ambition as recreating "the original promise of Facebook and Reddit" for real-world community-building.
- Pie adds "Community Homes" to build lasting groups, not just events
- App has grown to about 300,000 users with major VC backing
- Move reflects wider trend of digital tools driving real-world connection
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Pie is a social app started by Andy Dunn, who previously co-founded the clothing brand Bonobos. It began life in Chicago as a way to help people plan and organise events, and has built up roughly 300,000 users along with financial backing from investors including Forerunner, Lightspeed, Accel and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.
The app has been gradually shifting focus from one-off events towards helping people maintain ongoing social groups and relationships, competing with tools such as group text messages and Facebook Groups. Dunn has also brought in Nadya Okamoto, founder of a run-club community, as co-founder and chief marketing officer, reflecting the company's wider push into community-building.
This matters because it signals how a young social app is trying to differentiate itself in a crowded market by focusing on sustained group connection rather than single events, at a time when many users have grown frustrated with older platforms like Facebook Groups.
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Originally published by TechCrunch as “Andy Dunn’s startup Pie becomes less of an events app and more of a social network”.