OurRitual began with a question familiar to many couples: why is structured support often reserved for the point when a relationship is already in crisis? Co-founder David Pruwer has connected the company's origin to experiences in his own family and to the pressures that arrived around the birth of his first child during the pandemic. Conversations with friends made clear that relationship stress was common even when people did not see themselves as candidates for traditional therapy.
A relationship rarely changes in one hour a week
Pruwer, Nir Shtern and Gilad Meir launched the company publicly in 2022 under the name HeyRitual. Their idea was to combine human guidance with a digital product that continues between meetings. The platform later became OurRitual, a name that better reflects the recurring practices—conversations, reflections and exercises—that turn insight from a session into something a person can try at home.
Human guidance with a digital layer
Members are matched with relationship experts for live online sessions, then use guided material between appointments. OurRitual offers 40-minute scheduling and lets one partner begin individually before inviting the other. That flexibility matters in a category where hesitation, mismatched schedules and different levels of readiness can prevent a couple from starting at all.
The company is careful to describe the service as a modern relationship-support program rather than simply reproducing classic couples therapy online. Its network includes hundreds of vetted experts, while clinical advisors such as psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik help shape the expert program and content. More recently, OurRitual has described AI as a way to personalize ongoing support while keeping experienced humans responsible for care quality.
Scaling support without flattening it
OurRitual emerged from beta with $2 million in pre-seed financing led by GroundUp Ventures. The investment case rested on making a high-touch service available to more people without stripping away the personal understanding that makes it useful. The company now publishes internal outcome measures, including matching and session ratings, while noting that individual results vary.
The business sits in a sensitive acquisition category. Prospective members may search during private, emotionally charged moments, and broad promises can easily outrun what any program can deliver. OurRitual's growth therefore depends on precise explanations: who the experts are, what a member actually receives, how privacy is handled, and where support ends. Done well, that clarity turns a difficult first click into a manageable first practice.
