Photo by Nick Fewings
TL;DR Executive Summary
Try our chore-sharing conversation cards
Take our FREE 30 second quiz to find out what you and your partner's perceived shares of physical and cognitive housework are
I graduated from the UK Centre for Entrepreneurs 6-month programme, and was delighted to be awarded the CEO's award
Fairshare is in conversation about partnering with 6 organisations
The co-founder hunt continues - 10 introductory meetings resulted from this job description
I attended Alma Angels' female founders event, and have begun conversations with angels in preparation for future fundraising
🧪 Experiment
Objective: Increase and improve conversations about sharing chores
Method:
Hit 'CONVERSATION CARDS' above to view Fairshare’s curated chore-sharing conversation cards
Invite your partner to spend time together doing something they like, and ask if they would be open to taking some time to talk about roles & responsibilities at home. (Feel free to say you are doing some research for Fairshare if helpful!) Set aside 30 mins to talk
Have a read of the 20 questions and select your favourite 3
Invite your partner to pick 3 questions they would be interested to chat about
Take it in turns to ask one another your questions, timing two minutes to each answer all 6 questions
Continue whatever fun activity you were doing before!
Carry on business as usual, and observe if anything has changed relating to a) visibility of work at home, b) who does what, c) your appreciation for one another's contributions
🏆 Big win
This past month, I was thrilled to graduate the UK Centre for Entrepreneurs 6-month Founder Leadership programme and receive the CEOs award for showing up to 100% of the sessions, making significant progress, and developing as an entrepreneurial leader
📢 Updates
We are in conversation with 6 potential Fairshare partners, including one of the UK’s largest telecommunications companies, two international charities, a US business school, a US startup and a European scale up. We’re very excited - watch this space
We had 13 customer discovery conversations this past month, including an especially interesting call with a Catholic pre-marital counsellor
This newsletter currently reaches 549 people! We are always looking to grow our reach, so please do share this newsletter with any networks or friends you know who might be interested
We have launched a new social media campaign: ‘Overheard at Fairshare’. By sharing (anonymous) quotes from people we have spoken to about how they do (or don't) share chores, we aim to:
--> 🤐 ➡️ 💬 Increase the conversation around chores
--> 📊 Observe common themes
--> 💙 Showcase how common the problem is
This past month, I have tried a new approach to find a co-founder
I attended FounderVine’s co-founder matching event for underrepresented founders
I created and shared a job description on LinkedIn
…Resulting in 10 introductory meetings scheduled this past week alone, with a few more in the works. Besides one unfortunate call that turned out to be an accounting sales pitch, several of the initial meetings were extremely positive and promising. Fingers crossed I may be close to finding ‘the one’!
I have begun exploratory conversations with angels, and enjoyed meeting fellow founders and investors at Alma Angels' female founders event
I applied to the RSA Catalyst Grant, the US FamTech Collaborative, Founders Factory breakfast, and spoke with a Female Founders Growth team member about their upcoming accelerator
Unfortunately Fairshare was rejected from LSE’s 100x Impact Accelerator
I am grateful to many impressive people who continue to be generous with their time and support of Fairshare, thank you!
- Dr Allison Daminger for our cognitive labour solution brainstorming session
- Professor Kathleen McGinn and Associate Professor Jessica Calarco for research seminars on topics relating to Fairshare
- Felicia of Tend Task, Shivani of The Wallflower Academy, and Louisa of Equaly for sharing startup wisdom and encouragement
- The Early Stage Female Founders circle I have joined this past month, and your support all the way from the West Coast!
- Emmie Faust at Female Founders Rise for the community and helpful Early Stage Marketing Essentials + Q&A session
- Bertie O’Brien for many hours of product workshopping
- Dr. Steph Francioli & Klara Condac for survey support
- William Dinsdale & Melike Kaya for the social media marketing 101 over the Easter weekend
📊 Statistic of the month
Even in egalitarian relationships in the US, wives log an average of 4.6 hours of housework relative to their husbands’ 1.9 hours. Men spend 25.2 hours per week on leisure activities versus women’s 21.6 hours.
Pew research 2023
📖 What we are consuming
Claudia Goldin’s Career & Family (which is INCREDIBLE, I highly recommend)
Bath research from last year - ‘Married mothers who earn more than their husbands take on an even greater share of housework’
The Skimm State of Women report
Range of insightful to amusing Insta videos, including Ariel India’s #ShareTheLoad advertising campaign, a comedian’s eye-watering sketch (tears, laughter? You decide!), and this man receiving 423k likes (!) on TikTok for talking about how he helps reduce his wife’s mental load
🥅 Next month's goals
1. PRODUCT - Ship the next 2 minimum viable product iterations & gather feedback
2. MARKETING - Land 2 speaking gigs to spread the word about Fairshare; build social media momentum
3. TEAM - Scope out potential co-founder project; identify 3 potential profiles for Fairshare’s advisory board
4. OTHER - Apply to Zinc VC Accelerator & Founders Factory