Linxy launches location-based event app to boost attendee connections

Charlotte, September 19, 2025

News Summary

Linxy, a Charlotte-based location-aware event app, launched this year to help attendees skip small talk by matching people around shared interests using its Social Linx system and micro-experiences. After prototyping in 2022, the company has hosted over 50 events and is available in Charlotte, Nashville, Cincinnati and Miami while pursuing aggressive city expansion. Linxy has 20 employees, has raised crowdfunding via Wefunder, and is closing a $750,000 SAFE note. The report also highlights major Charlotte center-city investments and growing national proptech activity as cities and startups adapt underused spaces and speed construction.

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Quick take

A Charlotte-based app that helps event attendees skip small talk and make faster, richer connections has officially launched this year and is moving to scale across multiple cities while seeking new investment. At the same time, downtown Charlotte leaders are funneling major capital into reimagining older buildings and new projects as the city adapts to high office vacancy rates. Nationwide, proptech startups continue to attract attention and capital as companies build tools for everything from field robotics on jobsites to digital building records and new home-financing models.

What launched and why it matters

Linxy is a location-based social connection and experience app based in Charlotte. The product is designed to help people move past small talk at events by giving attendees more situational awareness and by matching people around shared interests. Linxy invented a social connection system called the Social Linx, which lets users design interests, passions, hot topics, and professionals they’d like to connect with among fellow event attendees. The app also facilitates real-time connections through micro experiences.

Company and launch details

The founder and CEO is Joel Puthoff. The company put a prototype out in 2022 and Linxy officially launched in March of this year. Since launch the service has hosted over 50 events ranging from music festivals to tech networking events to tailgates. Linxy is available in Charlotte, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Miami and has an aggressive city growth strategy set for 2025.

Linxy currently has 20 employees, with half in Charlotte and the other half spread across Atlanta, Miami, Cincinnati, Nashville, and across the Middle East and South Asia. The company has brought on over 40 crowdfunding investors through its Wefunder campaign and is focused on finding aligned investors to finish raising a $750,000 SAFE note; the company secured $150,000 of that SAFE note over the last two months. Linxy’s 2025 goals include bringing in 250,000 new users and $1,000,000 in revenue.

Founder background and company culture

Joel Puthoff grew up in Ohio and started his professional life in North Carolina with Young Entrepreneurs Across America, an organization that helps college students develop entrepreneurial skills. He previously built a consulting business, launched a construction company, and wrote a book on human performance. Puthoff describes the company culture as electric and says the team is the company’s number one asset.

Why event hosts and business owners might use it

Linxy targets event hosts, community leaders, and business owners who want attendees to connect better in real time. The platform’s dashboard and Social Linx system aim to let people skip introductions and meet immediately around common interests, passions, professional alignment, and ideal collaborations. Linxy seeks to help businesses turn locations into interaction and connection community hubs.

Charlotte center-city investment and reuse push

A nonprofit focused on downtown growth released an annual State of the Center City report that recommends revitalizing and converting older buildings into office spaces with amenities or into residential or hospitality uses across uptown, midtown and South End. The report says approximately $1.7 billion will be invested into reimagining aging spaces this year to transform the area from a business-centric district into a destination district.

The center-city group highlighted persistent office vacancy concerns. Office vacancies throughout last year sat between 22% and 24%, peaking at a record high of 24.7% in July of the prior year. The Charlotte metro office vacancy rate ended the year at around 24.6% according to one report that includes suburban areas. In Charlotte alone, the office vacancy rate was 22.4% in another report. High vacancy rates stem from low demand, a 2018–2019 construction boom, and aging buildings that no longer appeal to tenants. Construction on new office spaces has slowed, which is expected to increase demand for existing space and push renovation and adaptive reuse.

Examples of large renovations include work at 550 S. Tryon St., One Independence Center at 101 N. Tryon St., and One South at 101 S. Tryon. Cousins Properties is modernizing 550 South, the former NASCAR Plaza building on S. Caldwell Street. Part of the $1.7 billion is allocated to upgrading Bank of America Stadium and the Spectrum Center. The 100-year-old Johnston Building on Tryon Street will be converted into the Beckworth Hotel with about 245 rooms and retail space. Other reuse projects include Blume Studios opening in a 1.5-acre warehouse in the Iron District and conversion of 200 N. College Street into residential and retail space.

The center city group also reported about $3.7 billion is being invested in new developments that are either under construction or set to break ground in 2026. Those projects are expected to bring about 7,110 apartments, 2.2 million square feet of office space, 338,800 square feet of retail, and 1,630 hotel rooms to downtown districts in upcoming years. The current pipeline represents a decrease in development product from previous years—about $700 million less in developments than last year and roughly half the total of 2023—because many projects completed last year and high costs are slowing new starts. Noted large upcoming projects include the Iron District, The Pearl, and the North Tryon Tech Hub.

Selected project notes

The Iron District covers 55.5 acres and will focus on a walkable neighborhood. About 12 acres will be developed by Trammell Crow Co. Initial plans call for 500 residential units, a 150-room hotel, 100,000 square feet of retail, 150,000 square feet of Class A office space, and more than 1,200 parking spaces. The Pearl will host the Wake Forest University School of Medicine–Charlotte on 20 acres and includes affordable housing and the headquarters for Advocate Health. The North Tryon Tech Hub is planned as a partnership with UNC Charlotte to support startups and students.

Proptech snapshot

A roundup of buzzy proptech and construction-tech startups shows a wide range of approaches to post-pandemic real-estate challenges, from robots printing layouts on job sites to new ways to buy, finance, and manage homes and buildings. Venture-capital investments in private real-estate-technology companies hit a record $32 billion in 2021, with residential-focused proptech drawing nearly half of that funding in that period.

Examples from the roundup include companies that build tools for contractors and developers, marketplaces for resale furniture, platforms that help homeowners access equity without loans, and services that operate flexible coworking spaces. Notable entries are Dusty Robotics, which builds robots that print construction models; OpenSpace, which creates 360-degree visual records of job sites and pins them to floorplans; Kojo, which helps contractors order and track materials; and Material Bank, which ships designer samples next day and claims to have cut down sample waste.

Other startups highlighted include Daybase, Divvy, Doorkee, Eden Workplace, Handdii, Hometap, Homeward, Inspectify, Kaiyo, Livly, Loftium, Morty, Nabr, Northspyre, Occupier, Pacaso, Piñata, Prescriptive Data, Pronto, Properly, Tomo, TurnoverBnB, Welcome Homes, Withco, and more. Many firms declined to share valuation and revenue figures while they pursue additional funding, and the list used a mix of VC nominations, self-reported figures, and public-data supplements.

Why it matters

The mix of local tools to connect people at events, city-led investments to remake downtown buildings, and a national burst of proptech innovation points to a broader shift: owners, operators, and startup founders are seeking new ways to fill underused spaces, speed construction and operations, and create better experiences for residents, visitors, and workers.

Site and publication notes

The center city report story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 6:06 AM. The page includes a copyright notice and legal updates: the site carries a copyright notice stating © 2025 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved.; the site states its User Agreement was updated August 13, 2024 and its Privacy Policy was updated July 1, 2025. The site notes that material may not be reproduced without prior written permission.

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Key features table

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Additional Resources

• Hypepotamus: Linxy eventtech in Charlotte
• Wikipedia: Linxy
• Charlotte Ledger: The Pearl & med innovation district
• Encyclopedia Britannica: medical innovation district
• WSOC-TV: Charlotte drone startup aims to disrupt cleaning
• Google Scholar: drone building cleaning startup
• Charlotte Observer: downtown redevelopment & office market
• Google Search: Charlotte center city redevelopment 2025
• Business Insider: hottest proptech startups
• Google News: proptech startups 2022

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