Our story
Choosing a college is one of the biggest decisions a student will make, but most of the information families get comes from the colleges themselves. Tours are run by admissions, guides follow a script, and the goal is to get you to apply. What’s missing is the personalization that shows you exactly what it’s like to be a student studying your desired major and having the same interests.
We learned this firsthand. My co-founder and I both transferred after our first year because the schools we chose weren’t what we expected. Then we got to the University of Denver, where we met in an entrepreneurship class, and realized the problem was much bigger than our own experience. Every college looked great on paper, and none of them showed real student life because they were just trying to get students in the door.
That’s why we built Vivaday. We connect prospective students with current college students in their intended major for 1-on-1 virtual college tours. Have a follow-up or a specific question? Send it to a student and get a personalized video answer back, kind of like Cameo for college. You get the real student experience instead of the sales pitch, so you can find the right school the first time.
If we’d been able to talk honestly with a current student in our major, we would have made a different choice.
Backed by the University of Denver and growing every week.
Accepted into the startup accelerator in 2025, then selected after five weeks to move on to its incubator program.
From current students, ready to watch.
With 1-on-1 virtual tours. More of the information that matters, without the time and cost of traveling to every campus.
The team
Co-founder and CEO
Transferred from Indiana University to the University of Denver.
Co-founder and CTO
Transferred from Neumont College to the University of Denver. Met Sean in an entrepreneurship class at DU.
Sean’s story
For its top-tier Entrepreneurship program.
Every required class full. Waitlists thousands long.
A better fit, with its own list of surprises.
With Stephen, a fellow transfer student.
Let’s jump right in: the moment I knew I’d picked the wrong school was registration day. I chose Indiana University because of their top-tier Entrepreneurship program. On my tour, I’d been told that getting into the business school without direct admission was simple: take five required classes, and you’re in. So when registration opened, I logged on ready to start. Every one of those classes was full, and the waitlists were actually thousands of students long.
I told myself next semester would be different. It wasn’t. At that pace, the degree I’d come for was going to take five years or more.
After that, I started noticing the other gaps between what I’d been told and what was real. The tour said over half of students weren’t in Greek life, and that was true. But if you weren’t in it, there was barely any social life. The tour said there was plenty to do off campus, and there was, if you had a car. I didn’t, since the guide mentioned it was easy to get everywhere.
After my first year, I transferred to the University of Denver. DU was a better fit, but it had its own list of things I wish I’d known. That’s when I realized my first school wasn’t the problem. The whole system was. Every college looks good on paper, and none of them show you what it’s really like to be a student there.
At DU, I met Stephen in an entrepreneurship class. He’d transferred too, for his own reasons, but his story ended the same way mine did: one honest conversation with a current student in our major, without having to spend the money and time to travel for real insights, would have changed everything.
So we built Vivaday.
Nobody had lied to me. I’d just been shown the version of the school that gets you to enroll, not the version you actually live.
See why hundreds of students trust Vivaday for making the right college decisions.
“I was down to two schools and completely stuck. I booked a tour through Vivaday with a junior in the exact program I wanted — she told me things about the workload and culture that I never would have found online. Committed the next day. Best decision I made in this whole process.”
“We had already paid a college counselor and done two campus visits, and I still felt like we didn't really know what we were choosing. A friend mentioned Vivaday and I booked a tour that same night. My daughter asked questions to a sophomore in her intended major and came away with more clarity than three months of research had given us. I wish this had existed when we first started our search. It would have saved us thousands in unnecessary visits and a lot of stress.”
“I signed up to be a host on Vivaday and honestly it's the easiest thing I do for extra money. I just talk about my experience — my dorm, my classes, what the social scene is actually like. It takes no time at all and I get paid more than a on campus job. The wild part is I kept thinking, why didn't this exist when I was choosing? I picked my school based on the website and one rushed campus tour. I would have made a completely different decision if I could have just talked to someone real first.”
“The student I talked to was in my exact major at my top choice school. She told me about professors, which classes actually matter, and what she wished she'd known freshman year. No tour guide does that.”
“I applied to 11 schools, got into 6, and had no idea how to actually choose between them. My counselor helped me get in — she was great at that — but when I asked her what it was really like to live at these schools, she just sent me links to their websites. Vivaday was the missing piece. I booked three tours in one week with students at my top choices. By the end I knew exactly where I was going and felt good about it.”
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