Vivify

Vivify started with a trip. In China, every shop I visited opened inside one app. In Bali, businesses ran on text messages alone. I came home asking why we can't have both.

I started it with my co-founders, Curtis, a senior engineer with 11 years at Nike, and Jcari, a senior engineer with 8 years at LinkedIn. The three of us had spent years building apps by hand for small businesses. Every app took months, and only a few businesses could afford one. We kept thinking about everyone who couldn't.

The first idea: someone in the phone

Our first belief was that the phone already has everything it needs except someone living in it. So we designed Vivi, an AI with a face who works for you and never pretends to be a person. We pointed her at service businesses. A barber would text her what he needed, she'd build him a page from the conversation, and then she'd run his front office.

Then the big launches came

On August 11, 2026, xAI launched Grok Bot, an always-on agent that works from its own computer in the cloud. Within weeks, agents that manage things over text were everywhere, and that part stopped being special. So we moved our weight to building the app itself.

On September 8, Meta launched Muse, a personal agent for your phone. It showed that people want an agent in their pocket, and it told us where not to compete. We pivoted again, toward making apps from your phone. You text what you need, and anyone you send the link to can open it without installing anything.

On September 29, OpenAI launched Dots, always-on agents with their own little avatars that you name and make your own. It looks a lot like what we sketched with Vivi in August.

What the pivots taught us

Each launch made one layer cheap. First it was agents that run errands over text, then agents on your phone, then agents with a face. What stayed ours was the part the big agents don't do: small businesses, and the regulars who keep coming back to them.

Where it is now

What we're building now is a mini app network for local businesses and their regulars. A business builds its mini app by text. Customers open it from a link, and they save the places they come back to. Vivify is in development, and the pilot waitlist is open.

How it works

1. You text what you need. Vivi asks who it's for, shows you a plan, and lets you pick a look.
2. She builds it. You watch it come together in the thread.
3. You change anything. Tap a part of the screen and tell her what should change. Every version is saved.
4. You send the link. Anyone can open it right away.