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
New here? Start with this
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.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Pie addresses a real gap in the market: events are temporary and create churn, whereas permanent community spaces foster ongoing relationships and sustained engagement. The company's doubling of session time to ten minutes demonstrates users respond well to deeper community features, and with backing from Accel and Lightspeed plus co-founder Nadya Okamoto's community expertise, Pie has resources and credibility to execute. Facebook Groups remains clunky, and there is genuine demand for purpose-built platforms for small, relationship-focused communities.
The case against
Pie faces entrenched competitors—Facebook, Discord, Slack, Reddit and group messaging—where network effects provide insurmountable advantages. At 300,000 users, the company is tiny, and whilst its design may be cleaner than Facebook Groups, history shows being better rarely defeats the lock-in of existing networks. Pivoting from events to general community management risks diluting Pie's identity and repeating the pattern of countless well-funded startups that have failed to dislodge incumbents.
Art Business Celebrity Companies Culture Entertainment Software Technology
Read the full article at the source →
Originally published by TechCrunch as “Andy Dunn’s startup Pie becomes less of an events app and more of a social network”.