Alexis Sursock, the co-founder and CEO of Luvu, has always been motivated and innovative in his endeavors. Now his fitness app, Luvu, is encouraging others to achieve their goals with the help of an “unhinged” AI marshmallow.
“I’m combining everything I’ve learned, product design, retention psychology, and organic virality, to help people stick with habits and become their best selves,” says Sursock.
A Foundation of Innovation
As a creative child, Sursock developed a substantial online following for his content focused on cruise ships. By experimenting with organic growth, he drew in 300,000 followers. This ability to have insight into what appeals to an online audience would lay the foundation for his future projects.
While studying at Princeton, he met his future co-founder of Luvu, Creston. Together, they formed a formidable team, building viral products and scaling them to hundreds of thousands of users through organic marketing.
After he graduated from Princeton, Sursock worked as a product engineer at Duolingo. His job was to run experiments making the “core language learning experience stickier and more fun for users.” The goal of any app is to keep people coming back to use it. Through this experience, he says he learned the art of making products that customers find valuable to their lives and keep them hooked.
Motivational AI
Sursock and his co-founder raised $3 million for Luvu through the Speedrun Accelerator, which is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. When they launched the app, it was a hit. In less than a month, they garnered 150,000 beta users who did over 10,000,000 repetitions of exercises like pushups, jumping jacks, and squats. Unlike other fitness apps that traditionally struggle with keeping users sticking to their goals, Luvu’s early retention data is extremely strong.
The Luvu Fitness app uses advanced machine learning to learn about the users and adapts to create a more personalized workout. Luvu also utilizes computer vision to track workouts as they happen, so it can provide feedback from its snarky mascot.
“Luvu is an unhinged marshmallow that motivates people to stick to their goals. Over time, Luvu the marshmallow uses AI to learn who you are and what your unique motivational style is, whether you need a mean, profane drill sergeant, or a cuddly supporter, or anything in between,” says Sursock.
Luvu, the marshmallow, is an AI companion that retains information essential to motivating and inspiring people to stick to their fitness goals, even heckling them if they slow down in their workouts.
Using AI for Good
People don’t always have a positive opinion of AI. This makes sense to Sursock, since in the past, machine learning has been used to addict people to things that don’t benefit them or aren’t something they really want to do. Sursock points out doomscrolling on TikTok as an example.
The goal of Luvu is to use AI for good by helping people reach their long-term goals and aspirations. Sursock says that Luvu’s mission is to align “AI companions to be in service of humanity.”
“We want Luvu to help people hold themselves accountable and be the best version of themselves, whether that means starting a fitness habit, getting sober, or learning more about themselves through daily reflections. It’s time to use AI for good and we want to be at the forefront of this,” says Sursock.