How I built Lulu For You: From ADHD mum to AI founder, and why parenting tech needs more voices like mine

Twelve months ago, I was a lawyer, mum of two under five, and the CEO of Mikki & Me: a parenting brand best known for its magnetic fridge planners and school lunch essentials.

From the outside, it looked like I had everything under control.

But inside? I was mentally fried by 4 pm.

The breaking point came when I forgot to complete a time-sensitive bank form. That simple oversight caused our loan approval to lapse and left our half-built dream home at risk of being demolished.

It wasn’t just forgetfulness. It was the crushing weight of the invisible mental load mothers carry every day.

At the time, I didn’t know I had ADHD. But what I did know was that my brain couldn’t take one more tab, one more task, or one more forgotten note from school. I was exhausted by the mental gymnastics of my career, running a family and a business.

And if I, someone who literally built a business designing and selling planning tools couldn’t keep up, what hope did anyone else have?

That moment of terrifying clarity became the spark for Lulu For You, an AI-powered executive assistant designed for neurodivergent families to help carry the cognitive load of daily life.

We don’t need more planners. We need support that thinks with us

Lulu For You isn’t an appointment tracker. She steps in when executive function drops out completely. Like when it’s nearly dinner time, you’ve got no plan, and your brain is blank. She suggests a recipe based on what’s already in the fridge. She remembers the birthday party you forgot and helps you send a gift, fast.

She doesn’t shame or ping you into panic. She gently guides. She’s there when you’re stretched too thin and says, “let’s just take the next easy step.”

Most productivity tools are designed for revenue and efficiency. Lulu For You is designed for empathy.

Built in a messy kitchen, not a boardroom.

After my ADHD diagnosis at 34, everything finally made sense. The burnout, the forgetfulness, the late-night shame spirals. But I also saw how deeply unsupported mums like me really are.

Since 2020, ADHD diagnoses in adult women have more than doubled. In Australia alone, hundreds of thousands of women, many of them mothers, are quietly struggling with executive dysfunction while trying to keep their families running.

They’re not looking for just another app. They’re looking for relief. They’re searching Google, Reddit, and TikTok for “ADHD mum planner” and coming up empty.

That’s why I built Lulu For You when I realised I couldn’t even use the very meal planner I designed and stuck on my fridge.

Lulu For You is not a startup experiment. She’s a lifeline built from deeply personal experiences.

Why Lulu For You is different

Current tools either focus on individual task management, meal planning or family scheduling. But none bridge the gap between neurodivergent thinking and family-wide logistics.

Lulu For You is the first of its kind: a cognitive support assistant for overwhelmed households.

She includes:

• AI-powered meal and lunchbox planning designed to accommodate varying allergy and sensory needs;
• Last minute “what’s for dinner” support based on what’s actually on hand in the fridge;
• Task breakdowns tailored for ADHD and executive dysfunction;
• Flexible visual planning that prevents app fatigue; and
• Voice-first integration for hands-free support during the chaos.

She’s built with compassion at her core. She doesn’t punish missed tasks. She adapts, forgives, and helps you reset.

This isn’t niche, it’s the next wave of parenting tech

While Lulu For You is ADHD-first, the truth is, every modern parent is nearing cognitive overload. We’re all navigating fractured school comms, multiple chat apps, disappearing library books, and last-minute class costume days.

The tools we’ve been given aren’t cutting it. Lulu For You offers something radically new; not just smarter tech, but kinder tech built by a mum who lives amongst the chaos.

Since opening our waitlist, we’ve been inundated with not just sign-ups, but messages sharing stories. “It’s like you read my mind.” “Where was this when my kids were little?” “I’m trying so hard, and I still feel like I’m failing.”

That’s what this is really about.

It’s not about optimising busy mums into efficient, robotic machines. It’s about reminding them in the moments they need it most, that they’re not alone.

Lulu For You is the assistant we all wish we had, not to make us perfect, but to help us breathe.

The future needs founders like us

I didn’t build Lulu For You because I wanted to be a tech founder. I built her because no one else was doing it and because I needed her. And so did the thousands of women in my community who kept saying the same thing: “Why does it feel like I’m the only one who can’t keep up?”

We don’t need more apps. We need more understanding.

And we need more founders who’ve packed school lunches while crying into their coffee reheated more times than we can count. More innovation led by lived experience because that’s where true transformation happens. By women, by neurodivergent parents, by people building tech not for scale or revenue potential first, but for care first.

Because most of us aren’t drowning in tasks. We’re drowning in unrealistic expectations amongst a world that’s moving faster by the day.

It’s time our tools saw that too.

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