As a young child, Brandon Lurie was always in awe of his mom. In his eyes, she was a superhero. She raised five children, prepared breakfast each morning, and, as they ate, packed their lunchboxes, scheduled a dentist appointment for one of the boys, shuffled them into the car to drive them to school before heading to work. “I remember thinking that being a mom is a hard job. My mom was always busy, always doing something, always on the go,” he said.
This month, Lurie launched Vivs.co an AI assistant for busy moms who juggle countless tasks and need a personal assistant. Lurie hopes it will become Israel’s next startup unicorn.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, many mothers lost children, or their children were injured at the Nova Festival or in battle. Even for those not directly affected, the stress of the situation weighed heavily. Lurie began reflecting on the immense mental load of motherhood, and that’s how he developed Vivs, named after his mother, Vivian.
“Moms are superheroes, but even superheroes need sidekicks, and this is going to be every mom’s sidekick,” Lurie said in a phone interview from his home in Israel. “It’s an all-in-one app for moms — a singular place where they can manage the entirety of their mental load, from carpooling and meal prep to grocery shopping, appointments, home stocking, Amazon returns and more.”
“Moms are superheroes, but even superheroes need sidekicks and this is going to be every mom’s sidekick.”
– Brandon Lurie
The application simplifies daily responsibilities for moms. For instance, it can suggest meal ideas, provide recipes and even order all the necessary ingredients to be delivered to their homes, alleviating the constant decision-making that comes with motherhood.
“Around March of this year, I started reaching out to moms to learn about a typical day in their lives and the challenges they face,” said Lurie. “I talked to hundreds of moms — secular and religious alike — from both the East and West Coasts and discovered some of their biggest challenges. Then, I developed an AI around those insights.”
To help bring his vision to life, Lurie recruited Ari Ackerman, an engineer he met through a mutual friend. “I was looking for someone to help me build this and we hit it off right away,” said Lurie.
The two worked quickly. “We started writing code on Nov. 1 and we launched the product by Dec. 1,” he added.
Lurie moved to Israel from the U.S. after graduating from NYU in 2017. “I always knew I wanted to make Aliyah and I never looked back. I met my wife four years ago at a Shabbat dinner. It was the first time in my life I didn’t think about anything else but the conversation we were having,” Lurie, whose professional background includes strategy and consulting in venture capital, said.
Just days after its launch, Vivs already had 500 users and the numbers continue to grow. Users can ask the app to plan recipes for the entire week, specifying restrictions like, “I keep a kosher home,” or, “I have one child who doesn’t like broccoli and another who is allergic to peanuts.” Moms can also customize their preferences by setting time limits for meal preparation — restricting it to 30 minutes or less — or by choosing their preferred cooking methods, such as stovetop, oven or microwave.
Vivs takes the mental load of meal planning off moms’ shoulders. What makes it particularly appealing is that users don’t even have to shop for ingredients. The app generates a grocery list, places the order and ensures everything is delivered to their doorstep the same day.
“We learned that many moms have Amazon packages piling up by their doors and wish they had an app to remind them when to return items,” said Lurie. “So Vivs now includes a feature that tracks return deadlines and locations. You can set reminders for each package and know exactly when and where to send them.”
The application is completely free and anyone can log on to Vivs.co to start using it. “Right now, we’re a small start-up in Jerusalem running fast, but we have the ambition to build one of the largest companies in the world,” said Lurie.
Vivs doesn’t stop at meal planning and returns. The app can also send reminders when household essentials, like toilet paper, are running low and will take inventory to identify what else you might need.
One of the newest features, which Lurie is particularly excited about, allows users to scan their receipts. Vivs will then generate dinner ideas based on the ingredients already in the home. “It’s inventory management and dinner prep all wrapped in one,” he added.
“Being a mom is a job like any other. Yet, unlike every other job, it doesn’t have its own hub to manage its workflow — until now,” said Lurie. “Vivs aims to fill that gap and serve as a vital tool for the most important job in the world: being a mom.”
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