With her second child, Rhea, born smaller than most babies due to a congenital heart condition, being able to breastfeed the girl was “critical”, says Vivian Lee, Lead Founder and CEO of Go!Mama.
“Breast milk was the best gift I could give her,” relates the mother of two. “So, I was very committed to breastfeeding.”
But there was one problem: finding conducive spaces to breastfeed or pump milk outside the home was challenging.
While others may have just tolerated existing facilities (or the lack of them), Vivian took matters into her own hands, launching a startup offering lactation pods.
These pods are inspired by the standalone work booths that popped up during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a private, comfortable space for mothers to breastfeed children under 36 months old.
And when Rhea started babbling “Go! Mama! Go! Mama!”, Vivian found the perfect business name that encourages mums to not let motherhood hold them back.
“You Cannot Breastfeed In The Toilet”
When Vivian returned to work after maternity leave, she let her employer know she wanted to continue breastfeeding Rhea.
Her employer approved her request—and said she could do it in the toilet. Vivian was stunned.
“I told my employer you cannot breastfeed in the toilet,” exclaims Vivian.
“It’s dirty, it’s not for feeding and there’s someone pooping next to me. How can you breastfeed there? It’s so smelly, also.”
Her employer’s reply: Other employees had breastfed in the toilet, and this had worked out fine.
It wasn’t fine with Vivian, who was sad her colleagues had made do with that arrangement.
She left her job, joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) Enterprise’s Venture Building programme for first-time entrepreneurs in end-2020 and incorporated Go!Mama on 8 March 2021—a date chosen to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Scaling From Sentosa To Singapore
Vivian’s participation in the venture building programme paid off. She secured funding, including $50,000 from a Startup SG Founder grant.
Receiving the funds validated Vivian’s belief that her lactation pod idea was worth a shot. It also convinced her long-time friend, Eunice Lim, to join the business as co-founder.
The first version of Go!Mama’s pods was tested in Sentosa. Vivian chose the island resort for the pilot trial because “it’s a lot like a smaller Singapore.”
“If our concept could work in the little island of Sentosa, it’s able to work in Singapore at a larger scale,” she says.
As Sentosa-goers used the pods and shared feedback, Go!Mama improved the pods’ features.
For example, the pods’ seats were initially similar to the MRT’s uncushioned ones to help the pods’ ultraviolet (UV) sanitation system disinfect them after use.
But after many mums wrote in to say sitting on a hard bench for 20 to 30 minutes was uncomfortable, Go!Mama installed “well-cushioned” seats whose material can withstand UV disinfection and physical wipe-downs.
The current version of the pods also contains amenities like:
- A swivelable side table for placing belongings
- Power sockets and USB ports within arm’s reach
Facility managers pay Go!Mama to place pods on their premises. This means mums pay nothing to use them. Locating the nearest publicly accessible pod is as easy as you just need to access the Go!Mama’s mobile app:
To unlock a pod, users activate the app’s Singpass authentication and facial recognition features, which verify if they’re a mum with a child under 36 months.
“Mums really appreciate [the Singpass] feature because there has been a lot of abuse of nursing spaces,” shares Vivian, citing instances of people sleeping in freely accessible lactation rooms and even cooking instant noodles in them.
The app also shows non-Go!Mama-operated nursing facilities, with these listings being contributed by users and the Go!Mama team of around 10 people.
Vivian aims to have 100 lactation pods in Singapore by the end of the second quarter of 2025.
Read Also: 10 Truly Singaporean Apps You Should Have On Your Mobile Phone
Go!Mama Is Going Global
The Go!Mama app has only Singapore listings now, but version two of the app—launching end-May—will display global ones, too. Vivian decided to include global listings after receiving submissions for nursing facilities in Japan, Korea and other countries from users travelling overseas.
The app will also sport an improved user submission experience and integrate with Go!Mama’s e-commerce store, which is in beta.
Separately, with Go!Mama receiving many enquiries about its lactation pods from airports and other overseas facility managers, launching a global version of them is in the pipeline.
Breakthroughs In Lactation Facility Access
In the meantime, Vivian relishes recent building accessibility developments that benefit breastfeeding mums locally.
From 1 November 2025, new buildings (including offices and shopping centres) in Singapore that occupy at least 5,000 sqm of gross floor area must provide at least one lactation facility.
This facility doesn’t need to be a built-in lactation room: it can also be a plug-and-play lactation pod like Go!Mama’s.
The business was involved in the dialogues for these changes, and Vivian hails the acceptance of lactation pods as a “breakthrough”.
That’s because even if facility managers encounter structural difficulties building lactation rooms, they can bring in a lactation pod instead. They can also tap into the Building and Construction Authority’s Accessibility Fund to get co-funding of up to 60% of the installation costs.
“Behind every policy change are human stories. And this is a ‘we hear you’ moment,” says Vivian.
“It’s about creating spaces where everyone belongs, and I’m very proud that Go!Mama was a part of it.”
What You Do Must Come From “A Deep Sense Of You”
Outside of her work at Go!Mama, Vivian is also the chairperson for the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) Women Entrepreneurship Committee. She describes her main role as bringing people together, which reflects her commitment to fostering collaboration—not competition—among female entrepreneurs.
But if any entrepreneur, regardless of gender, is keen to build a business catering to women’s needs, Vivian believes their efforts need to come from “a deep sense of you”. In other words, you have to truly care about what you stand for.
“You also have to believe you really want this, and that the world needs your perspective,” advises Vivian, who shares that entrepreneurship is a “very, very challenging journey”.
“It’s hard to make that change if you don’t have confidence in yourself. So, you have to trust that you have that perspective. Trust your voice, and have the courage to challenge the status quo.”
Read Also: Venus Rising: Is It More Difficult To Be A Woman Entrepreneur?
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