Transcript 0:01 For many women, the hardest part of balancing work and family isn't the visible work, it's the invisible work. 0:06 It's remembering the camp schedule changes, the forms buried in your inbox, the birthday gifts, the doctor's appointments, and the hundreds of tiny decisions that quietly consume your attention every day. 0:15 In this episode, I'm joined by Lara Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of Ava, an AI-powered chief household officer designed to take that invisible mental load. 0:24 After spending nearly two decades building technology and AI products, Lara realized the very tools transforming the workplace hadn't yet been applied to one of the most demanding jobs there is, managing a household. 0:35 We talk about the moment that inspired her to become a founder, what it means to build AI people can actually trust, why women may be uniquely positioned to shape the next generation of AI products, and how Ava is helping parents move from constantly reacting to finally feeling supported. 0:50 If you've ever wondered why you're exhausted before the day even begins, or you're curious about what AI can actually do to make your life easier, this conversation is for you. Here's Lara. Hi, everyone. 1:02 Today, I'd like to welcome Lara Cunningham, the CEO and founder of Ava, an AI-powered chief household officer built to take the daily mental load of parenting off one person's plate. 1:13 Before Ava, Lara spent nearly two decades in public education, data and technology, including roles at the New York City Department of Education, Kipp, Noodle, and Near Protocol, before co-founding Ava with Jo Alicata. 1:27 Built alongside more than thousands of parents in her early community, Ava now scans your email, takes your voice memos, and gets things done for you, but never without saying yes first. Lara, welcome. 1:39 We're so happy to have you. Thanks so much for having me. All right, well, let's jump right in. Um, from your bio into where you are now. 1:47 You spent close to two decades moving through public education, ed tech, and even blockchain before becoming a co-founder. 1:55 Can you take us back to the decision where you decided that you really wanted to address the mental load of parenting? 2:02 And, and talk to us maybe if there's any, like, specific events that, that pushed you over to becoming a founder. Yeah. So as you can probably imagine, the, um, the journey of building Ava is very personal. 2:14 So really came from a period of personal pain for me. Um, so I was working at Near, which is, um, kind of a deep tech, you know, company. Um, and I was leading AI product strategy. 2:26 So I was building with founders and developers who are building agentic systems, you know, all day, really pushing the bounds of what this new, very powerful technology can do for us as humans. Um, 2:39 and then simultaneously at home, um, was really, really struggling to keep up with the amount of, like, admin and coordination and just, like, logistics management that it was taking to run my family. 2:52 And I was-- even though I was thinking about it all the time, like it took up a lot of space in my brain, I found that I was constantly dropping the ball. Like, I was just constantly behind. 3:03 I had missed the email, or I had missed, you know, page thir- like, three, paragraph two of the 12-page email. 3:10 Um, and one specific event really stands out, which is I've, like, written about on my Substack, which, um, just was, like, sort of the event that, like, broke the camel's back, which, um, I was supposed to sign my younger daughter up for clay club. 3:24 She was so excited about it. She brought home the form, um, that had the email address that I needed to email. 3:31 And, you know, it got lost in, like, the stack of all of our kitchen papers, and I, like, forgot about it and didn't find it. And she was like, "Did you do that yet?" And I was like, "Oh man, no, I haven't." 3:40 So then I finally emailed, and it was full, and she was so upset. Um, and she said to me that I cared more about my job than I cared about, like, them, her and her sister. 3:51 And it just-- I mean, only in a way that, like, a child can say the thing, you know? 3:55 Um, and so it really gutted me, and I started to just pay more attention to what was kind of going on in both my brain, but just also the systems that I was using. 4:05 And I was like, "God, I have so many tools at work to help me make sure I don't, like, miss anything. Um, and I have all this infrastructure, and I really have nothing at home. 4:16 I mean, I have my email, I have my, like, shared calendar with my husband, but, like, it's really not working for me. Um, there has to be a better way." 4:25 And so, um, it just felt so obvious, truly, because I was working on these agentic systems all day, and I could see the power of what it could do and what it was getting really good at. 4:36 And, um, and then the sort of application of that technology to the home space was such a, like, sort of natural aha moment for me. Um, and so that was, that was really kind of when the vision for Ava came into being. 4:51 Um, and then I just started to do a lot more research about it. I didn't, I mean, I didn't even have the language for, like, the mental load, right? Mm-hmm. I, like, had no idea what that even was. 4:59 And then I started to look into it and being like, "Am I alone in this?" And it turned out I deeply am not. 5:05 There's all this academic research about what the mental load is and also its impact on, um, you know, women and families and society actually as well. So learned that it was just a much bigger problem than just me. 5:19 Yeah. I-- certainly count me in. Uh, [chuckles] I'm right there with you in terms of trying to live and die by the calendar, and it's just not sufficient to manage my life, uh, professionally and with my family. 5:31 So- Yeah... I think it's a really interesting time to see how women use AI to solve problems that haven't been solved that we deal with regularly. Totally, yeah. 5:41 And so let's get into building it, 'cause I know you've been working on this for a long time. You mentioned you just launched recently. Can you talk to us about the process? 5:51 I know you worked with a bunch of, uh, parents to build it up. And how did you pick what you built first? So Jo and I started to prototype, um, a little over, like, probably a year and a half ago. 6:04 So I think we both had a vision in our brains of sort of some of the things that we wanted this product to do and to be in its capabilities. 6:14 Um, but we really didn't have a, I think, clarity around the shape of, like- You know, how, what the interface should fully be like. I think we had some early hypotheses. 6:23 We wanted it to be very, like, voice first and, or at least, like, really capable of dealing with voice because, you know, so much of parenthood is, um, you know, you're juggling things with your hands. 6:34 And so, um, having something that's, like, hands-free is really helpful. Um, so we had all these early hypotheses about, you know, what this product should be. 6:42 Um, and then did some prototyping on, like, what is technically kind of possible. 6:48 Um, and then I think when we got to the point where we both just had so much conviction in the vision and the idea, um, and started to really work on this, you know, full time, um, one of the first things I think both of us really, uh, believe is that we need to be building very closely with our users. 7:06 Because, you know, he and I are obviously both parents, and we have a lot of insight into, you know, the problems that we have, but, um, but there's so many different ways that families kind of run their lives and, you know, they have different preferences and priorities and all of that. 7:20 And so really having kind of a group of people who could give us different perspectives and try things out and really iterate with us was very, very important. 7:29 Um, and so, um, so from the beginning, what we started to do, actually even before we had a product, was, um, start doing these, like, mom salons. So, um, we had them just literally at my dining room table in my home. 7:42 [chuckles] I, like, met people on Facebook, and shockingly, they wanted to, like, come in real life and talk about the mental load and talk about things that they would like to take off their plates. 7:51 And so that was a lot of the really, like, early user research. And then a lot of those people then converted into being our alpha and then beta, you know, sort of users and testers. 8:01 And so we've really been in this, like, iter-iteration mode with that group of people for, um, a little over eight months. Um, and so really just learning a lot. 8:10 I think we, before we launched, we were on version, you know, 96 or something like that of the product. [chuckles] That's incredible. 8:18 I'm so happy to hear that you had such a solid test group and eager and engaged participation. Um, it just is, proves out that, uh, we're the need, and we will show up at your dining room table. [chuckles] Totally. 8:29 Yes, totally. 8:31 So one of the things I read that you mentioned is that throughout your career, you thought of yourself as a product person, and through this journey, you've learned a little bit more about being a brand person and building the trust contract. 8:45 And can you talk to us a little bit about what you meant by that? Yeah. 8:50 So I think for mo- you know, for most of my career, I have been really the one who has been working on building the actual product itself, and then I've always had, you know, t-teammates that are focused on the go-to-market marketing, you know, all of those pieces. 9:05 But as a founder, of course, you're, you know, you're sort of having to do all of those things at once. 9:12 Um, and I think particularly in this domain, one of the things that, um, I realized, I think, really early on was just when you're dealing with something that is as intimate a-and, you know, personal as, um, someone's family life, that you really have to have this, you, you know, this, like, trust contract. 9:31 You really have to have them trusting the product. 9:34 And one of the ways that I think really just came, um, from some of those early community interactions as being very, um, useful for that, for building trust and just authentically building it was, um, being very founder, like, first in the way that we are building and in the way... 9:53 So we're building in public. You know, I'm posting all the time on LinkedIn about things that we're learning. We're posting on, you know, TikTok and Instagram. I'm sharing a lot about the journey on Substack. 10:03 So just being really open about kind of like, "Here's where we are. Here's what we're learning. Um, here's where we're going." 10:09 And trying to, um, you know, be as, like, just authentically open about all of those things as possible. 10:16 And I think in, particularly in this moment of time where AI has really a bad brand problem, I think very driven by the fact that it has been built primarily by men and by men in Silicon Valley who, you know, um, are very disconnected, I think, from the rest of America and the struggles and needs of what is happening in sort of like a typical American household, um, that I think, um, having someone who is like the diametric opposite of that is actually really helpful in this domain. 10:49 And so, um, just really like, like wanting to express that, you know? Mm-hmm. And, and make sure people are aware that there's real humans who are really experiencing this journey themselves who are building it. 11:01 Um, and you know, we don't have everything figured out, but I actually, I really think that we can figure so much out together and as a community, and so, um, really trying to like instill that mentality. 11:14 I think building together i-is such an interesting concept that hasn't been used enough, and I look forward to it being used more by many companies. 11:24 I wonder if there's anything else you think that, um, companies dealing with people's personal lives get wrong, um, or something they get right. 11:36 So I'm, I'm curious what you've learned or what, what your thoughts are there. Yeah. 11:40 I mean, I think there's been a number of, um, apps that have lost trust because of the way that they have either changed their business model without sharing that transparently with users. Mm-hmm. 11:52 So I'm thinking about, um, you know, like the period app where it turned out that they were selling all of the data about users. 11:59 That was like not really transparent, and it was not something that people knew when they were signing up. 12:03 So I think we have taken a very specific stance about our business model, which is we are a su-so-subscription company. Mm-hmm. 12:10 Um, meaning that like you, we are not selling your data for advertising purposes or marketing purposes. You are funding the development of this app through your subscription, right? Like and that's how it works. 12:22 Um, and I think in terms of like some of the folks who are getting- Getting things right. 12:28 Like, I, I think, um, I've actually been really impressed by the team at Aura, which is, um, like the, you know, the picture frame, like the digital picture frame. Um, we have one. We love it. 12:38 We love bringing it into our household and having our pictures up on it. 12:42 Um, and so and I think they have a really, like, um, sort of cool mission that's very focused on the joy of family life and, you know, really bringing that into the spaces where you are, and so, um, I've appreciated that a lot. 12:57 Yeah, it's super interesting. 12:59 Um, so for folks who are listening or parents who are listening right now who are currently the default project manager in their household, what is one of the things or a few of the things that they could potentially hand off to Ava at this point? 13:15 So Ava is gonna do a few things immediately for you, like, literally within the first, you know, kind of minute of setting up with Ava. Um, so she's gonna start scanning your email. 13:26 She's actually gonna go back and look like 48 hours, um, in it in before you even, like, set Ava up, um, to find anything that might be buried in your email that is missing from your calendar. 13:37 She's gonna show you that stuff and allow you to quickly add it or not add it, um, and then also pull out any of the, like, tasks that need to happen that are in-- that are, again, buried in your email. 13:49 So the signing up for, you know, play club, the, um, filling, filling out the form or the waiver for, you know, the trampoline park that's coming up on Wednesday. 13:59 Um, and just gonna make a to-do, like a task associated with that, um, and then start to actually work on those tasks for you. 14:07 So if you're having to, you know, send an email to someone to confirm, um, a ca- you know, a camp pickup or something like that, it's actually gonna draft the email for you. You can just within one tap send it, right? 14:19 So, um, it's fully-- The execution of everything is fully s- remains in your control. You know exactly what's happening. 14:26 But Ava's gonna move the ball forward for you as much as it possibly can to that then that point of, like, you being like, "Okay, cool, I wanna, like, do this thing or not." 14:36 Um, the other really, really big feature that we found to be one of the most magical moments for users getting sort of early on is, um, that Ava, because it's constantly scy- scanning your email, um, finds important ch- things that have changed and sends you a push notification. 14:55 Mm-hmm. So some examples of that are, like, just today, like, there was a schedule change at camp. Um, and so my daughter no longer had a water day. She had, you know, a non-water day. 15:05 And so Ava sent me a push notification. I never would have seen that email in time. Um, but I sent her with the right stuff on to go to camp. 15:14 Um, or we've had, you know, examples like the camp pickup location has changed from, like, one exit or entrance to another. 15:21 And so, you know, someone got that literally while they were driving to pick their kid up from camp, and they would have gone to the wrong place, and now they are going to the right place. 15:29 The field for soccer has changed, or the game has been canceled or rescheduled. 15:34 So there's all this stuff that gets, like, buried in your email that you miss constantly because, uh, let's be honest, all of our personal email inboxes are totally, like, are a nightmare, at least they're anything like mine. 15:46 Um, and all of these organizations are not pros at communicating. You know, they're not, they're not great at it. And so, um, having something that's just always on, it feels like it has your back. 15:57 You know, it's like, okay, I'm gonna make sure that I just don't miss anything important, um, or that's gonna, like, cause me to take a lot more time out of my day than I need to on something that is pretty silly and should only take a minute. 16:11 Um, so those are some of the, like, big pieces that Ava will start to do immediately. Just as you were speaking, I felt a little bit of relief because as you're giving very specific examples, they all are in my inbox. 16:25 You know, my kids are at a different camp every week. Totally. And like you're saying, every camp communicates differently. And one day I'm sending her in a bathing suit, but she needs a helmet instead. 16:35 You know, you hear mental load and, and that language is important, but it's even more helpful and it feels more personal when you give specific examples of, of what it's gonna do because those are actually what is in my inbox and actually what makes me anxious when I start a day. 16:51 Totally, yes. Takes up so much space in your brain, right? You're like constantly scanning your environment of, what do I need to do? Like, what did I forget to do, right? 16:59 [chuckles] Yeah, and, and it is isolating even though so many of us are doing the same thing. It makes you feel a little less lonely in the, in the matrix of scheduling. Totally. 17:11 Is there anything you guys are working towards in the future you'd like to tell us about? Yeah. 17:17 So, um, I, I'd say there's sort of two big buckets of work from a product standpoint that we are-- um, that we've been sort of prototyping and, and getting requirements down for. Um, the first is a full family account. 17:32 Mm. Um, so today, Ava is, you know, so my husband and I each have our own Avas. Um, it's been incredibly helpful. 17:40 And actually, if you have a family plan on Apple, you only need to pay for one subscription for both you and your partner. 17:48 Um, but, um, and it's been-- I mean, honestly, I truly can't tell you how helpful it's been for both of us to have our own Avas. 17:55 It's looking at-- They're looking at our shared family calendar, and so they're, they're up to date on all of the same information. 18:02 Um, but, you know, sometimes he gets emailed about something that I don't, or sometimes I get, or the majority of the time I get emailed about something that he doesn't. 18:10 And so all of that just allows us to, like, share information so much more easily. 18:15 Um, but the idea of a full family account is that you actually have kind of, um, the, the concept of, like, one kind of family login or, like, you know, you're, you're logging into the same, basically, like the same Ava account. 18:29 So it has, like, all of the information that I shared about, like, our kids is available immediately in, you know, my partner's Ava. He doesn't need to, like, repeat that information, things like that, right? 18:41 So that's one bucket of stuff that we're thinking about. And then the second is really giving Ava more execution capabilities as users trust Ava more and as the technology gets better too. Mm-hmm. 18:55 So things like being able to robocall the doctor's office and, um, s- check whether there are appointments available or whether, you know, this document has come in that you need or things like that. Mm-hmm. 19:07 Being able to actually email on your behalf or text on your behalf so the user isn't the doing the one tapping. The user just says, "Yes, take care of that, Ava." Like, you can, you know, you can send that email for me. 19:19 Um, things like form filling, things like grocery shopping or buying the birthday present. 19:25 So today, Ava gets you to the point of execution on all these things, um, but what we're hearing from our users is that as they gain trust in using Ava, they then want it just to do it for them basically. 19:39 Um, so it's a little bit of a dance between, like, user trust and full capability, and so we're kind of like dancing that along the, the pathway, um, to having Ava do a lot, like actually execute a lot more for you. 19:54 Super exciting. Yeah. Can you tell our listeners where they can find Ava and, uh, and follow you? Absolutely. So, um, you can go to our website, which is hiava.app. Um, so that's pretty easy, hiava.app. 20:08 Um, and you can, um, get access to Ava there. We are also available fully on the App Store, um, and if you use the code inner1, um, then you will get the same level of discount that you get from our website. 20:24 Um, and then for me, um, you can follow me on LinkedIn. I'm Laura Cunningham, um, and then I also have a Substack, which is called Motherload, um, and we can maybe link those in the show notes as well. 20:37 But, um, but those are... That's, yeah, where you can find us. Definitely. Thank you so much for your time and for telling us about Ava. We'll definitely be excited to check back in on your journey and see how it's gone. 20:48 Yeah, I would love that. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks.
