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- 💪 From Ballet Slippers to a $500M Exit in Just 4 Years
💪 From Ballet Slippers to a $500M Exit in Just 4 Years
How one pregnant founder turned a mirror into a fitness empire—and sold it for half a billion dollars.
Deal Lift
April 26, 2025
In partnership with
👋 Hey Dealifters!
Let’s kick off today with a founder story that’s equal parts hustle, heart, and hardcore innovation. Seriously, if you’ve ever said “I don’t have time to build something,” you might wanna sit down for this one.
This founder launched a fitness tech startup while pregnant…
🍼 Raised millions the day she gave birth…
📈 Built it into a $500 million business…
And did it all in just 4 years.
Let’s dive into the powerhouse story of Brynn Putnam — the ballerina turned tech founder who literally changed the way we look at ourselves. Mirror, mirror, on the wall… 👀
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🩰 Harvard, Ballet, and Russian Lit?!
Before she was making tech headlines, Brynn Putnam was juggling some serious life chapters:
🎓 Harvard degree in Russian Literature
💃 Professional dancer with the New York City Ballet
Yep — she was that girl. High-achiever energy from the jump.
Fast forward to 2010 — post-ballet life. Brynn opens a boutique fitness studio focused on high-intensity, functional training. But she was on a tight budget, so for a while… no mirrors.
Eventually she installed some — and boom 💡: clients instantly showed better form, more confidence, and greater engagement.
She didn’t know it yet, but that little observation was about to change her life.
🤰 Morning Sickness → Multimillion-Dollar Idea
In 2016, Brynn was pregnant and struggling to attend fitness classes thanks to brutal morning sickness. That’s when she had a thought:
“What if the mirror was the fitness class?”
No tech background? No problem. Brynn built a scrappy prototype using:
A Raspberry Pi
A cheap Android tablet
A two-way mirror from Amazon 😅
This wasn’t Silicon Valley. This was sheer grit.
Oh — and did we mention she was 8 months pregnant while pitching investors?
She ended up raising $13 million — some of it on the day her son was born.
Mic. Drop. 🎤
👀 Introducing: MIRROR (Yes, All Caps)
By September 2018, the product was live. And it was sleek.
MIRROR was a high-tech, wall-mounted mirror that streamed live and on-demand fitness classes — basically Peloton, but shinier.
💰 Price? $1,495
📅 Monthly sub? $39
🏋️♀️ Classes? Yoga, cardio, boxing, strength — you name it.
It was modern, aspirational, and fit perfectly into the rising wave of at-home wellness tech.
Early traction was strong. Really strong.
In 2019, MIRROR raised ~$70M across two rounds from investors like:
🧘♂️ Lululemon
👗 Karlie Kloss
💸 Point72 Ventures
It was the it product in fitness tech. And then came the knockout punch…
🥊 In June 2020, just 2 years after launch, Lululemon acquired MIRROR for $500 million — hoping to ride the at-home fitness boom brought on by COVID.
They forecasted $150M in annual revenue. The vibes were immaculate.
🪞 The Rise and Fall of MIRROR
But not every story stays perfect.
By September 2023, Lululemon quietly sunset MIRROR, shifting focus to a new partnership with Peloton. 😬
The product had its moment in the sun… but like many COVID-era darlings, it fizzled out.
Still — that doesn't take anything away from what Brynn built.
💡 What’s the Takeaway?
Let’s be honest:
Most people don’t launch startups while pregnant.
Most people don’t raise millions with zero tech experience.
And most people don’t scale to a $500M exit in 4 years.
But Brynn Putnam did.
So maybe today’s the day we all look in the mirror and ask:
💭 “If she did that... what’s stopping me?”
Time to build, fam.
— Deal Lift 🚀
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