Lunchclub, a 15-person start-up that makes professional introductions, tops $100 million valuation as usage spikes in quarantine

Lunchclub, a 15-person start-up that makes professional introductions, tops $100 million valuation as usage spikes in quarantine

Patrick Burns, left, and Alex Khadiwala, who met each other virtually on the Lunchclub service, had dinner at Burns' house in Los Angeles on Aug. 20, 2020.Alex KhadiwalaPatrick Burns wanted more human interaction after the pandemic sent him home from the start-up he was working for in Los Angeles. Then a friend invited him to Lunchclub, a start-up whose software introduces people to one another so they can interact virtually.  "It fulfilled a lot of my deeper need to connect with new people in this very structured and professionally managed way," said Burns, who previously worked in product management at Amazon and Google and recently co-founded a start-up of his own called Grand View."It kind of plays into the need to connect in a social dinner-party-type way," he said, taking him