About us
The story behind Unloaded
You literally do not have time to build an app.
That's what my sister said to me when I first showed her the prototypes. And she wasn't wrong. Between working full-time, raising two primary-school-aged kids, caring for four horses, and volunteering with both the PTA and the Pony Club, my life isn't just busy; it is completely overcommitted.
My answer to her was simple: "I don't have time not to."
Built out of pure necessity
I am someone who genuinely loves organisation and life admin. But when you are juggling a senior career, a household, ponies, and school schedules, even the best calendar method starts to crack.
Our family setup comes with its own unique puzzle. My extremely understanding husband works term-time. Come July, when my mums' WhatsApp group starts exploding with messages about how to cover the six-week summer holiday, my heart goes out to them because that's the one window where we have coverage sorted!
But the moment term time hits? The tables turn. His job offers zero flexibility during term time, meaning the daily logistical masterpiece falls squarely on my shoulders. If I need to travel for work, managing drop-offs/pick-ups/dinner/horse care requires military precision.
Why standard calendars fail busy families
We were all promised that "it takes a village to raise a child." But for a lot of modern working parents, that village simply has not materialised. Instead of a local network of relatives and neighbours stepping in, we are left managing the entire operational burden ourselves on our phones, and standard digital calendars just are not up to the job:
They are not built for a team: Standard apps assume you have a switched on admin helper, not a partner who is skimming notifications while running between meetings.
They give passive reminders, not real accountability: They treat a 10-minute school run the exact same as an all-day conference, leaving crucial handoffs to chance.
They trigger notification fatigue: When every minor update looks identical, your partner stops reading them altogether (this is us!!) leaving you right back where you started: holding the entire mental load alone.
Designed by the person doing the heavy lifting
Most calendar and productivity tools were built in tech boardrooms by people designing for corporate schedules where someone else handles the domestic background details. They treat life like a series of clean 30-minute meetings.
But family life doesn't work in a vacuum. Unloaded was built from the ground up through a mum's lens, focusing on the complex web of handoffs, dependencies, and invisible mental load that standard software completely ignores. It wasn't built to manage a corporate diary; it was built to run a real (slightly chaotic) household and to make it effortless for families to stay in sync.
I built Unloaded to fix the mental load. It is designed to handle the realities of family life, from the last-minute schedule curveballs and "hand grenade" emergencies, to managing independent travel for older kids, pet care routines, and making sure both parents are actually on the same page with a simple tap.
Unloaded wasn't born in a corporate incubator. It was built on evenings after the work day was done, by a parent who needed a system that actually works.
I built it to survive my own week and I hope it gives you back a little breathing room in yours.
Suzy (sister, also juggling), Mum (Jill, funder and biggest supporter), Claire (not horsey for once)
— Claire Gooch
Founder, Unloaded
If Unloaded sounds like it could lighten your load, join the waiting list.
Get in touch