Be among the first
to carry the light.
Lumin House is the first social thermal house in Appleton and the Fox Cities — a house of heat, cold, and commons opening on College Avenue. We're inviting a small circle of founding members and early believers to help light it before the doors open.
The world got faster. It also got lonelier.
We are more connected and more separate than any generation before us. Productive and depleted. Surrounded and alone. We live almost entirely inside what the Greeks called chronos — clock-time, the necessary, measured time of schedules and commitments — always arriving, rarely here. The nervous system has no off-switch, and the old gathering places — the bar, the club, the feed — leave us emptier than they found us.
Everyone feels this, even those who can't name it. What we're all missing isn't another room to perform in — it's permission to put the phone down, lower the shoulders, and simply be near other humans. The need is universal; what's rare is a place built to meet it.
That's not a hunch. It's a measurable shift. A generation is drinking less and gathering differently, trading the late-night bar for heat, cold, and rest. Sociologists call it the search for a third place — and the bathhouse is becoming it.
What they're really chasing has a name too: kairos — felt-time, the moment that opens when the body finally unclenches and you arrive in the only place life happens, now. That is the truth Lumin House is built on: presence is a human need, and right now it's chronically unmet. We're not inventing a market. We're building the door back to a kind of time people are already aching to find.
A need this old, surfacing this loudly, is not a trend. It's a return.
The trend is already here
Proof, not predictionU.S. bathhouses grew from roughly 150 in 2015 to 525 in 2024 — and openings are still accelerating. Social thermal wellness has moved from niche to mainstream: proven, profitable, and pulling serious capital. The model works — and the newest growth is moving into the second- and third-tier markets the founding cities never reached.
~20 N. American locations planned
~$120M run-rate · ~1,000 guests/day
franchise-ready growth
category-defining longevity
What began on the coasts is already moving into second- and third-tier markets — Sauna House across Asheville, Charlotte, Nashville and Cincinnati, Bathhouse opening in Nashville, and a fast-growing sauna culture taking hold in Madison and the Twin Cities. The behavior is universal; the map is simply filling in from the metros outward — and the Fox Cities are the next open frontier.
A market with the wind behind it
Light-touch numbersU.S. bathhouses in 2024 — up from ~150 in 2015
The category has more than tripled in under a decade. This is a structural shift in how people gather, not a passing fad.
Increase in U.S. bathhouse openings since 2024
Growth is still accelerating — and the newest demand is moving outward, beyond the coastal cities that started it.
Global wellness economy by 2028
Already $6.8 trillion in 2024 and growing nearly 8% a year — one of the most durable consumer shifts of our time.
Annual growth in wellness real estate
The fastest-growing sector of the wellness economy from 2019–2024 — capital is flowing toward places, not just products.
Sources: industry reporting (Fitt Insider, Bloomberg, NYT), Global Wellness Institute, Global Wellness Summit. Figures are directional, shown to size the opportunity — not a financial projection for Lumin House.
Already moving inland.
The Fox Cities are next.
The model is validated — and it's already spreading inland, from Nashville and Asheville to Madison and the Twin Cities. The Fox Cities are the natural next step: a tight-knit community, a real downtown, long cold winters, and people hungry for somewhere to gather that isn't a bar — with no direct competition for the experience.
Lumin House plants the region's first social thermal house at 10 E College Avenue — the population center of the Fox Cities, drawing from Appleton, Darboy, Greenville, Kimberly, Oshkosh, Green Bay, and Fond du Lac.
What you'd be backing
The circuitNot a spa. A gateway. Roughly 7,400 square feet on College Avenue, designed as a self-paced circuit through heat, cold, and commons — the ancient rhythm every bathing culture discovered independently, built for the way people want to gather now.
Theater Sauna & steam
A tiered Finnish sauna at 150–195°F with regular löyly water pours, plus a tiled steam room at 100% humidity. Warmth that gathers the room together.
Cold showers & plunges
50–60°F contrast therapy — the shared threshold everyone crosses together. Bracing, honest, and the surest way back into the present moment.
Recovery & nourishment
Room for 30+ to rest, plus a café-style lounge with a smoothie, coffee & cocktail bar, fireplace, and library. Where a visit becomes belonging — the real product.
What it means to be a
Founding Luminary.
We believe every human carries a unique light. Founding Luminaries are the small, deliberate circle of early members, neighbors, and believers who help shape the house before it opens — and belong to it differently forever.
Shape the house
A real voice in the experience — the rituals, the sound, the programming. You help decide what this place becomes.
First through the door
Founding access before the public — preview nights, the opening ceremony, and a standing place in the commons.
Named in the light
Recognition in the house as one of the originals who carried the light before anyone else could see it.
The people behind it
Team & partners
Emmanuel Buah
Lawrence University alum and serial entrepreneur. Co-Founder/CTO of Airfordable, a Y Combinator (S16) fintech that helped customers book flights and hotels on structured payment plans — experience he now brings to Lumin House's membership systems, customer journey, and growth, alongside a long-standing passion for bathing culture.
Nathan Litt
Lawrence University alum and operations leader, and founder of Kōv Sauna, a wood-fired sauna experience in Appleton built around community and wellness. Nathan brings proven local-market execution — turning concept into product, running day-to-day operations, and delivering an experience that keeps people coming back.
Future Studio
Leading the experiential design. Founder Ali McQuaid Mitchell designed flagship modern bathhouse environments for Othership — including its Toronto homes and New York expansions in Flatiron and Williamsburg — now bringing that craft to Appleton.
Crux Commercial Partners
Leading Lumin House's debt strategy and lender execution. Brittany Valenty-Koss structures the financing, coordinates underwriting, and drives terms to close — aligning capital with the buildout and operating plan.
NFP
Insurance brokerage and risk management for a guest-facing wellness environment. Adam Wilkins advises on coverage design, risk controls, and insurer positioning from construction through ongoing operations.
Carry the light
before anyone else.
If Lumin House is something you'd want to be part of — as a founding member, an early supporter, or an investor — we'd love to hear from you. No commitment. Just the start of a conversation.
luminaries@luminhouse.usTell us a little about you and how you'd like to be involved. We read every note.