Why I Started SimchaCam

SimchaCam didn't begin as a business idea.

It started because my cousin asked me to live stream her wedding.

At the time, the conflict between Israel and Iran had disrupted travel, and many family members simply couldn't get to the UK. Her brother wasn't able to attend. Her grandmother was too elderly to travel. Several members of the groom's family were also stuck in Israel.

For everyone who couldn't be there in person, the live stream wasn't just a nice extra—it was the only way they could share in the day.

Wanting to do the best job I could, I started looking for the right platform.

That's when I fell down the rabbit hole.

At first, it seemed like there should be plenty of options. There are lots of services that let you broadcast video, but none of them felt like they were designed for a family celebration.

I looked at Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. They're excellent for meetings, but a wedding isn't a meeting. Guests can accidentally unmute themselves, cameras can appear on screen, and the whole experience feels more like a conference call than a special occasion. Zoom's free plan also has time limits for longer events.

I explored Vimeo, but it felt aimed at professional creators and involved far more setup than I wanted for a one-off family event.

Eventually, I settled on YouTube.

Once it was working, it was brilliant. I was genuinely amazed by the quality you could achieve with nothing more than a smartphone on a tripod.

But getting there was another story.

Before I could stream from my phone, I had to verify my identity, meet YouTube's eligibility requirements and then wait for approval before I could finally go live.

I also wanted the stream to be private. This was a family wedding, not a public broadcast. I wanted to know that only the people we'd invited could watch.

When the wedding day arrived, everything worked beautifully.

The messages I received afterwards were what stayed with me the most.

Family in Israel told me they felt like they had genuinely been part of the wedding despite being thousands of miles away. People who had no way of travelling still got to watch the chuppah, hear the music and celebrate with everyone else in real time.

That's when I realised the technology wasn't the problem.

The problem was that there wasn't a platform built specifically for moments like these.

So I decided to build one.

SimchaCam is designed to make live streaming a family event as simple as possible. Create an event, share a single link and start streaming. Guests don't need to download an app or create an account—they just click the link and watch. If you want extra privacy, you can password-protect your event, and if you want to keep the memories, you can record and replay the stream afterwards.

My hope is simple: no one should have to miss life's biggest moments just because they can't be there in person.

That's why I built SimchaCam.