Viva — Your Sign to Start
The Inspiration
"There's still this massive gap between inspiration and action. Sometimes they still get kind of stuck waiting for permission, waiting to feel confident, or waiting for a sign that this is meant for them." Viva IS that sign.
We've all been there. 47 saved travel pins. Zero booked flights. A mental bucket list that grows every year but never shrinks. The problem isn't motivation, it's that big dreams feel overwhelming, and life never seems to hand you the "right moment."
What if your phone knew your bucket list and told you when you were near something meant for you? Or found your flights for you?
That question became Viva.
What Makes Viva Different
Location Magic — "This Was Meant For You"
This is Viva's signature feature.
When you add a dream like "Go skydiving," Viva quietly monitors your location in the background. Walk past a skydiving centre? Your phone buzzes:
"This was meant for you"
Skydiving is on your list, and there's a centre 8 minutes away.
Want to go bowling?
"This was meant for you"
Bowling is on your list, and there's a lane 4 minutes away.
It's not a to-do list. It's serendipity, engineered. Viva finds the moments that feel like fate and gives you the nudge to act. Be spontaneous.
Users can tap "Let's go!" or "Not today" (no judgment). Either way, the dream stays alive.
Dream Scout — Your Personal Research Assistant
Most goal apps tell you what to do. Viva tells you how to do it with real data relevant to you.
Dream Scout is Viva's proactive engine that automatically researches your dreams and surfaces actionable findings:
Travel dreams: "Found flights to Rome from $63, departing next month"
Career dreams: "Salary data shows your role pays 15% more at Series B startups"
Health dreams: "5K running events near you in March, registration closes Friday"
Financial dreams: "Current ISA rates: Nationwide 4.5%, Chase 4.25%"
Every research item includes a Quick Win: one thing you can do today to make progress. No more analysis paralysis.
Dream Scout runs automatically, in the background, 24/7 for premium users, taking the load off your mental overhead.
Memory Reels — Turn Progress Into Something You Can Feel
When you complete a dream, Viva helps you capture the journey in a short cinematic Memory Reel.
Select photos from your journey
Pick music that matches the vibe
Viva creates a polished video you can save and replay
Memory Reels make progress tangible. You don't just check a box, you relive what it took to get there.
Note to Your Future Self
When you add a dream, Viva invites you to write a message to your future self, the version of you who will have done this thing.
This note is sealed away and only revealed when you complete the dream. It's the emotional payoff that connects past-you (scared but hopeful) with present-you (who made it happen), reminding you why you started.
Micro-Steps That Actually Work
Big dreams paralyze. "Visit Japan" can feel impossible to start.
Viva has a conversation with you to understand your dream, then breaks it into 15-30 minute micro-steps personalized to your starting point. These aren't generic suggestions:
Dream: "Go skydiving"
Research skydiving centres within 2 hours of you (15 min)
Watch a first-timer experience video (20 min)
Check available dates and pricing (10 min)
Book your jump (15 min)
Tell a friend you're doing it (5 min)
Go skydiving!
Dreams can be one-off (do once), habit (recurring check-ins), or milestone (progressive achievements, for example, saving money). The scheduling engine is cadence-aware, so rest days don't break streaks.
Gamification That Celebrates, Never Punishes
Streaks: Daily momentum. Miss a day? Streak freezes (premium) give you grace.
Sparks: Points for every action. +10 for completing a step, +25 for acting on a location nudge.
Levels: From "Dreamer" to "Legend" across 10 tiers.
Badges: 20+ achievements celebrating consistency, exploration, and category mastery.
Confetti: Dream completion triggers a full-screen celebration with your sealed note revealed.
The philosophy: accountability should feel supportive, not stressful.
How We Built It
iOS
SwiftUI with iOS 17+ and iOS 26 Liquid Glass design language
RevenueCat SDK for subscriptions, offerings, and native PaywallView
Background location monitoring with privacy-first design
Push notifications via APNs
Backend
Django
Celery + Redis for async tasks (notifications, Dream Scout research)
Challenges We Faced
The "Visit California" Problem
Early testing revealed a critical flaw: goal-type dreams (vs habits) would go silent. After completing initial research steps, users had nothing actionable for weeks. The daily nudge would say "Book flights" when they couldn't afford it yet, creating guilt instead of progress.
Solution: We introduced step states (blocked, in-progress) and dream engagement modes. Users can reflect on dreams ("Still excited about this!") even when no step is due. Reflections count toward streaks. The system stops nagging about impossible steps.
Making Location Magic Feel Like Magic
The challenge wasn't just sending nudges, it was sending the right nudge at the right moment. Too many alerts feel spammy. Too few and users never feel the value.
We had to strike a balance between relevance, timing, and tone so nudges felt encouraging and serendipitous, not intrusive. The guiding principle was simple: each nudge should feel like a gentle sign, not pressure.
Dream Scout
The hardest part of Dream Scout was making research genuinely useful, not just "interesting." Users don't need more information overload. They need clarity and a next move that fits real life.
We focused on surfacing concise findings with practical context and a Quick Win users can act on immediately, so Dream Scout helps people move from dreaming to doing. Each research item is directly relevant to a step in your dream.
What's Next
Post-launch roadmap:
- Reverse Location Nudges - Viva suggests goals proactively near you, based on what it thinks you might enjoy.
Built for ambitious women who are done waiting. Viva is your sign to start.
