When I shifted SOMOS to focus on supporting workers in the social impact space, the original plan was to build a complete operating system — something that could help people plan, earn, manage projects and build a personal brand.

The focus was largely on improving financial wellbeing. Given how many people in the sector are under pressure to earn a sustainable income, that part of the message resonated quickly.

But before getting too far into the build, I spent time speaking to potential users — and two things became clear:

1. Starting with a single “all-in-one” app would likely be overwhelming

2. Wellbeing needed to be defined more broadly than just income

At first glance, those two points might seem slightly contradictory.

On the one hand, simplifying the product — starting smaller with something focused and easy to use.

On the other, broadening the definition of wellbeing — moving beyond income into something more holistic.

But they actually point in the same direction.

The way to do both is not to build a single, all-encompassing system from day one, but to build a set of smaller, complementary tools — each focused, useful on its own and designed to work together over time.

That shift allows SOMOS to stay simple in the short term, while still building towards a broader, more complete system.

Starting with health and wellbeing 💚

Nearly everyone I know in the social justice space has had to confront burnout at some point in their career.

These are people doing deeply meaningful work — often emotionally demanding and difficult to switch off from.

Over time, it’s not uncommon for personal wellbeing to drop down the priority list.

When the focus is on impact, urgency, financial survival and doing more with less, things like nutrition, rest and day-to-day habits can quietly become secondary.

But over time those things compound.

Energy drops, consistency becomes harder, and even the most important work becomes difficult to sustain.

If SOMOS is about helping people build independent, long-term careers in social impact, then these foundations matter just as much as the work itself.

That’s what led me to build the first tool in the SOMOS ecosystem: Food Journal.

Introducing Food Journal 🍏

Starting with something simple, but foundational.

Food Journal is a calmer alternative to traditional food tracking — something designed to help people notice patterns, reflect, and build sustainable habits without pressure or perfection.

No calorie obsession
No “all or nothing” mindset

Just something simple you can actually stick with.

Even at this early stage, we’re already close to 2,000 meals tracked, which has been a helpful signal that this kind of approach is resonating — and that people are able to stay consistent without feeling overwhelmed.

As with everything in SOMOS, it’s also built with impact in mind — each annual subscription contributes to a small group of grassroots organisations, so supporting your own wellbeing can also support others doing important work.

What this means for SOMOS 🤔

The broader vision for SOMOS hasn’t changed.

The tools around planning, branding, selling and managing work are still very much part of what I’m building — they’ll just be released as a series of focused tools, rather than one large platform from day one.

Over time, these tools will connect into a broader system — but each one is designed to be useful on its own.

Impact also remains central to how SOMOS operates

Each product will include a built-in contribution model, where part of every annual subscription supports grassroots organisations.

The main change is that each tool will support a smaller number of charities (up to four), so each one receives meaningful visibility and support — rather than being one of many.

Over time, this allows us to support a wider range of organisations across the ecosystem, without diluting impact.

For Food Journal, the organisations are BuildPalestine, Conversation Over Borders, Foodfacts.org and Linguistic Justice Foundation.

If you’d like to try Food Journal , you can do so here:

Try Food Journal

And if it feels useful, I’d really appreciate hearing how you find it — this is still early, and your feedback will shape what comes next!

That’s it for now!

Thanks for being here 🙏🏽

Khawar | Founder @ SOMOS 👋🏽

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💚 Check out our Blog for tips on how to build a life in social impact that lasts.

SOMOS is a social enterprise by design.

The aim is to build practices into every part of the business that support both grassroots organisations and workers doing social justice work.

This includes our business model i.e. how we earn money and where that money goes.

In today’s post, I’m going to break down how our pricing works and why it’s structured the way it is.

But first, let’s briefly look at where SOMOS sits in the wider landscape (and how our approach differs from the other ways freelancers and fractional professionals usually find work).

How Freelancers and Fractional Professionals Typically Find Work 🤔

There are three common routes for building a fractional or freelance career:

→ via recruiters
→ via marketplaces
→ going solo

The first two charge hefty commissions because they handle the part most people really hate… finding clients.

The problem?

Those commissions often stack up to 20–40% of earnings, indefinitely.

And because the platform/recruiter “owns” the commercial relationship, the worker never really builds long-term independence.

Going solo can give you freedom but also all the admin, marketing and responsibility for client acquisition that comes with it 🙈.

SOMOS exists to make the “going solo” route easier and smoother.

Our job is to give people the tools to market their services, operate more confidently and attract work that genuinely aligns with their values.

Commissions vs Monthly Fees 🤷🏾‍♂️

As we aren’t a “connector” like a recruiter or marketplace, we don’t charge commissions.

We’re instead structured like a software business:

→ one simple monthly subscription fee
→ no take-rate/commission

Along with being significantly cheaper for people, this approach is more sustainable in the long-term because our customers own their commercial relationships, not us.

How SOMOS Pricing Works and Why 🙌🏾

Alongside wanting to offer the best-value deal for our customers, our pricing is designed to benefit our wider ecosystem.

For every SOMOS subscription:

• £5 goes to our Impact Fund, which supports long-term capacity building for community partners.

• Another £5 goes directly to a grassroots project chosen by the customer, giving each subscriber a small but meaningful way to redistribute resources every month.

Given our current pricing is only £35/month, this donation element is a significant commitment.

Hopefully(!), it helps turn each subscription into a direct vehicle for strengthening communities and movements at a time when they really need it.

How Each Donation Component Works 🌍

The SOMOS Impact Fund 🟢

SOMOS has a unique co-ownership model.

From day one, we set aside a significant percentage of our equity to be shared with grassroots organisations, our advisors, team and eventually our customers too!

The Impact Fund is the part of our model created specifically for our community co-owners: the grassroots projects who receive gifted equity shares in SOMOS.

How it works

Each community co-owner is gifted 500 shares in SOMOS, with the exact same financial and voting rights as any other shareholder.

That means they:

→ receive dividends when SOMOS distributes profits
→ hold voting power in key decisions
→ receive a payout if SOMOS is ever sold

How the fund is financed

→ £5 from every monthly subscription goes directly into our Impact Fund, for the benefit of community co-owners.
→ In addition, SOMOS donates 1% of all additional revenue into the same fund, which is then shared equally among our core partners 😄

The funding we provide is unrestricted, giving partners the freedom to allocate donations where they’re most needed — from wages and capacity building to urgent programme costs or community support.

Our first core community partner: Conversation Over Borders 💛

As it stands, we have one community co-owner, Conversation Over Borders (COB).

I’ll follow up with a more detailed overview of their work, but it’s worth highlighting that despite a horrendous tide of racist, anti-migrant rhetoric in the UK — COB continues to provide thoughtful, cross-cultural support for refugees and asylum seekers.

Their growing community offers:

→ free English classes
→ mental health support
→ digital skills training
→ powerful advocacy and storytelling work

If you’d like to help them continue this essential work, you can do so here.

Projects We Love ❤️

Alongside the Impact Fund, every subscriber also directs £5/month to a grassroots organisation of their choice.

The idea is simple: if you’re building a mission-driven independent career, you should also have a say in where some of your subscription fee goes.

It’s a small but meaningful way for each customer to support the movements and communities they care about most.

How it works

When a customer signs up to SOMOS, they can choose from a curated list of grassroots organisations — each doing powerful work across a range of social justice issues.

Here’s our current list of Projects We Love:

• BLAM 🏆
  Supporting the wellbeing of Black communities through mental health, education and cultural advocacy.

• BuildPalestine 🌱
  Strengthening the social innovation sector in Palestine by connecting values-led funders with impactful community initiatives.

• Conversation Over Borders 🤝
  Connecting refugees and asylum seekers with volunteers for English lessons, befriending, and confidence-building.

• foodfacts.org 🍏
  Providing credible, science-backed information to help people make informed choices about food and nutrition.

• Global Voices 🕊️
  A multilingual community of journalists and human rights advocates amplifying underrepresented stories worldwide.

• LAWA 🌍
  The UK’s only refuges run by and for Latin American women and children fleeing gender-based violence.

• Level Up 🔥
  A feminist community campaigning for gender justice and liberation from systemic and bodily violence.

• Linguistic Justice Foundation ✊🏽
  Advancing expert-driven, impactful interventions that promote linguistic justice globally.

• Médecins Sans Frontières 🚑
  Delivering urgent medical and humanitarian support to save lives in more than 70 countries.

• People & Planet 🌍
  A student-led movement organising campaigns against oppression, injustice, and environmental harm.

• Respond Crisis Translation 💬
  Trauma-informed, around-the-clock interpretation for migrants and refugees when language is a barrier to dignity and safety.

• Tech For Palestine 🇵🇸
  A coalition of founders, engineers, and advocates supporting Palestinian liberation and digital rights.

Over time, this list will grow.

We’ll invite suggestions from subscribers and use this pool of organisations to guide future Impact Fund beneficiaries too.

The goal is to let our community shape where resources flow — and to create a model where independent workers directly strengthen the movements they believe in. ✨

That’s it for now!

Thanks for being here 🙏🏽

Khawar | Founder @ SOMOS 👋🏽

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📬 Reach out on LinkedIn, I’d love to connect.
💚 Check out our Blog for tips on how to build a fractional career in social impact.

→ After a few years of living on the move, I’ll be settling in Kuala Lumpur 🇲🇾 for the foreseeable future.

→ I’ve got a 5 year visa and my folks will also be moving over in 2026 so big changes (and lots of admin 🙀) for everyone.

As much as I’ve enjoyed visiting everywhere, KL really feels like home and I’m excited about being in one place (with great food!) and focussing on the business.

Rebuilding SOMOS for freelancers & fractional leaders working in social impact 💚

Aside from big life changes(!), I’ve also been re-building SOMOS as the business pivots out of the online language teaching space into software designed to help freelancers and fractional leaders working in social impact manage their work day-to-day.

In case you missed it, I wrote a short post about why I made the shift here.

I’ll be taking a more build in public approach to SOMOS 2.0, starting with a look at some of the no-code tools I’m using to get an MVP up and running.

Core goals for the rebuild 🎯

Having spoken with a few potential users (and taking some lessons from the previous version!), I wanted to make sure of two things:

1️⃣ Inbound marketing was solid from day one: I’m looking to attract the right kind of users early without relying on paid ads or too much cold outreach.

2️⃣ The product could be flexible and fast to build: a simple, easily updated web app that can evolve as user feedback comes in.

Marketing Site, Helpful Directories + Blog 📣

The marketing website is the foundation for our inbound strategy: combining tailored landing pages, directories and a blog to attract the right audience over time.

I’ve built this using a no-code tool called Unicorn Platform - it’s quick to set up, easy to update and very well structured for SEO.

Core functionality built:

Each of these is designed to help support long-term SEO visibility and AI discoverability, while providing genuine value for potential SOMOS users.

✅ Landing pages:

• Explain what we do, the problem we solve & how the product works.

• There are several tailored versions for our different audiences — fractional workers, freelancers, social entrepreneurs, social impact leaders and DEI professionals.

✅ Blog:

• Designed to be a genuinely useful resource for fractional professionals.

• A mix of guides, insights and free tools (like our rate calculator for freelancers) to help people build flexible, values-led careers.

✅ SOMOS Selects:

• A growing directory of helpful communities, service providers and even city guides for nomadic or remote workers.

Not yet built:

🤷🏽‍♂️ Compare pages + listicles:

• Planned as future SEO assets — these typically rank well and will help SOMOS reach people earlier in their search journey.

You can also take a look at somos.work and let me know what you think so far - feedback always welcome!

Next up, let’s look at the other side of the build: how I’ve been using Zite, Airtable, Fillout, Zapier and Make to prototype the actual SOMOS web app. 🚀

Building the new SOMOS Web App 🙀

The first iteration of SOMOS (originally a platform for online language teachers) was built using no code tools like Softr (interface), Airtable (database), Heartbeat (community + teaching), Stripe (payments) and Tally (forms) alongside automation software (Make & Zapier) and HEAPS of custom code and “hacks” to pull together a comprehensive solution.

✅ It worked - we had paying customers who could create and sell different types of products directly through the platform.

✅ The Softr community was incredibly generous with sharing ideas, templates and creative workarounds to help build customisations where needed.

🤯 It was a NIGHTMARE to maintain. Softr has evolved a lot as a product over the last few years (mostly for the better) but each update came with a lot of manual fixes and time-consuming rebuilds.

🤯 For more complex products, Softr eventually gets quite limiting so for the new version of SOMOS, I wanted to explore other avenues.

Why I Chose Zite (vs. Softr) 🧩

Vibe-Coding

I’m sure by now, you’ve probably heard of (or even tried) “vibe-coding”.

If not, imagine you’re to trying to build a piece of wooden furniture:

→ Coding is like hiring a skilled carpenter: total freedom to design whatever you want, but it can get time-consuming and expensive fast.

→ No-code is like heading to Ikea - easy to assemble, affordable and (mostly!) reliable but difficult to customise if you want more than what the VOXLÖV has to offer.

→ Vibe-coding (in theory!) sits somewhere inbetween - you still get the flexibility to build something custom but instead of hiring a carpenter, you use conversational prompts to bring your design to life.

Challenges of Vibe-Coding

Although there are some big brand (and very well capitalised) vibe coding platforms like Lovable and Bolt.New out there already, it’s still very early days.

There’s also a lot more to building a functional platform than making it look good.

Developers think deeply about things like database structure, data relationships and secure connections — all the invisible layers that make a product stable and scalable.

In my opinion, that’s where vibe-coding still has some gaps! These tools are impressive in what they promise, but they don’t yet replace the thoughtful backend design and data security practices you’d expect from a production-grade build.

Enter Zite

Zite is a relatively new vibe-coding platform built by the same team behind Fillout Forms (which I’ve used a lot in the past).

I was intrigued by the offering because Fillout is incredibly solid software. The team ship updates regularly (and they do it with care and consistency - something I found a bit more chaotic with Softr).

That said (and like most new platforms), Zite still has gaps — especially around databases and some of the deeper automation logic.

To get around this, I’ve:

• Integrated Fillout + Airtable instead of relying on Zite’s native database

• Used Make and Zapier for more advanced workflows

Fillout is SOC2 compliant so gives me a secure way to handle data input and transfer.

This mix gives me the flexibility of a “vibe-coding” stack (modern design and visuals, API-ready and secure) but without the overhead or security concerns of custom code.

Where Things Are Now 🚀

The waitlist is live on the marketing site (created using Fillout + Zapier), and I’ve already built out most of the early user interfaces (sneak peak below 👀).

Over the next 7 - 10 days, I’ll be connecting Airtable with automation layers — finalising the onboarding flow and getting us ready to take on users!

It’s still early days, but I’ve been really impressed with what’s possible on Zite.

Every page of version 1.0 includes built-in ways for users to give feedback and report bugs, so we can refine the experience quickly as more people come on board.

That’s it for now!

Thanks for being here 🙏🏽

Khawar | Founder @ SOMOS 👋🏽

🌱 Subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox.
📬 Reach out on LinkedIn if you’re building something similar, I’d love to connect.
💚 Check out our Blog for tips on how to build a fractional career in social impact.

Note: As a long-term user of both platforms, SOMOS recently joined Fillout and Unicorn Platform’s affiliate programmes and may receive commissions for referring new customers.

This is the first edition of Build With…🌱, a behind-the-scenes newsletter where I’ll be sharing stories, insights & lessons from:

• "Community-strapping" a social enterprise startup with no and low-code tools,

• Building useful products for people doing meaningful social justice and social impact work;

• Experimenting with governance, ownership, hiring and impact models;

• Grassroots activists and organizations doing incredible work.

Before we get into all that, I wanted to take a step back and introduce what SOMOS is trying to help with…

Social justice - conceptually, practically and very much in reality - is under attack.

We're living in a world where international frameworks for governance are being routinely ignored when convenient, where even small, piecemeal changes won over the last few decades are facing a monumental backlash.

Simply trying to survive in systems designed to extract more than they give becomes harder every day.

Making Noise vs Shifting Power 💪🏾

If you were to spend the next 30 minutes scrolling your favourite social media sites, I'd bet you'd easily find a lot of coverage for a range of social justice issues.

Are some issues/viewpoints covered more than others? Yep.

Is shadow-banning a thing? Yep.

BUT is it easier than ever to make noise? Yep.

The bigger question? Where does all this noise get us?

Likes, comments, shares have been going up... BUT worker, migrant, language (and a whole host of other) rights and the freedoms to live and love how we want are being ruthlessly eroded.

Boring as it might sound, we need new structures and systems to shift power and navigate the global turmoil we're in.

As a startup founder, this is the bit where I'm meant to tell you how what I'm building gets to the root of all of this.

I can't do that - it wouldn't be true.

What I can say is this...

I want SOMOS to make it easier for people to carry out meaningful social justice work without compromising their ethics, values or integrity.

That feels like a good place to start.

Why I'm Building SOMOS 🤝

For the best part of a decade, I worked in commercial roles I hated to finance community work I loved.

I don't miss being on the inside of corporate law firms, banks or insurance companies but I am grateful for getting a clear understanding of the relentless damage these often spineless organisations do to the world.

The ground-up, community driven change we need isn't going to come from these places - whatever they put in their ESG reports or graduate recruitment websites.

It'll come from everyday people coming together to share their knowledge, experience and energy to build a better future for people and planet.

The issue is that many of the people best placed to do that work are exhausted, underpaid, overextended or forced to leave the work altogether.

Too many full-time roles in social impact rely on insecure grants, temporary funding, political goodwill or leadership decisions that can change overnight. One policy shift, one budget cut, one funder change, one restructure — and whole teams can disappear.

The result?

Brilliant people are forced to leave roles they love (or avoid them altogether!) just to make rent or secure healthcare.

At the same time, the people best placed to drive change are often working across movements, borders and causes.

Someone fighting for migrant rights might also be advocating for language justice.

An educator challenging gender inequality might also be an artist, or a data analyst, or a community organiser.

A social entrepreneur might need to combine paid client work, unpaid community work, advisory roles, teaching, writing and practical care responsibilitie

This kind of generalist, portfolio-based approach isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.

It leads to deeper systems understanding, stronger coalitions, and more holistic change.

We just haven't built enough infrastructure to support it.

What SOMOS is becoming 🌱

SOMOS started from the question of how mission-driven professionals could build more sustainable working lives.

At first, I imagined the answer as a broader platform for independent social impact work: a place to manage services, clients, payments, admin and professional identity.

Some of that thinking still matters.

People doing independent mission-driven work still need better tools for pricing, selling, organising and sustaining their work. They also need more ways to work without handing away too much of their income, voice or control to recruiters, marketplaces or institutions that may not share their values.

Over time, though, the shape of SOMOS has become simpler and clearer.

Rather than trying to build one large platform, SOMOS is becoming a small ecosystem of practical digital tools across two connected areas:

Wellbeing and Work & Income.

That shift matters.

The more I worked on SOMOS, the clearer it became that sustainable mission-driven work is not only about finding clients or getting paid. It is also about having the energy, health and emotional capacity to keep doing the work without burning out.

Wellbeing and income are connected.

If people are undercharging, financially unstable or constantly chasing work, their health suffers.

If people are exhausted, under-fuelled, isolated or overwhelmed, their ability to build sustainable income also suffers.

SOMOS exists in that overlap.

We are not pretending that individual habits can solve structural problems. They cannot.

Practical tools can still help people protect some capacity, make clearer decisions and build more sustainable working lives inside imperfect systems.

That is the space I want SOMOS to contribute to.

The first tools we’re building 🧰

The shape of SOMOS is still early, and I expect it to keep evolving.

At the moment, I am thinking about SOMOS less as one giant platform and more as a small ecosystem of practical tools.

Some tools will support wellbeing.

Some tools will support work and income.

The common thread is sustainability: helping people doing mission-driven work protect their energy, earn more fairly and keep going without compromising their values.

A few of the first tools I’m exploring are:

Food Journal by SOMOS 🥦

Food Journal is being designed as a calm, reflective wellbeing tool for understanding meals, energy and habits.

The idea is simple: food tracking should help people notice patterns, not feel judged by numbers.

For people doing demanding work, this matters because eating patterns can shift quickly under pressure. Long days, emotional load, travel, skipped lunches, late dinners and low-capacity weeks all shape how people eat.

Food Journal is my attempt to build something that supports awareness without turning food into another pressure system.

Breathe 🌿

Breathe is a simple guided breathing tool for short moments of pause.

Not every wellbeing tool needs to be complicated. Sometimes people need a low-friction way to slow down, regulate and return to the day.

This fits into SOMOS because sustainable work is not only about strategy and income. It is also about the small practices that help people stay grounded when the work is demanding.

Rate Calculator ✨

Rate Calculator is a work and income tool for freelancers, consultants and independent professionals.

The aim is to help people think more clearly about rates based on income needs, working hours, costs and sustainability.

Undercharging is not just a pricing issue. It can become a wellbeing issue too.

If people doing mission-driven work cannot price sustainably, they are more likely to overwork, resent the work, leave the field or remain dependent on unstable funding and unpaid labour.

That is why pricing belongs inside the SOMOS ecosystem too.

The Bigger Picture 🌍

SOMOS is a project with ambitious social justice goals.

In addition to developing a customer-centric product offering, I want us to be innovative in our recruitment, governance, community, and co-ownership approaches.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be diving deeper into some of the experiments I’ve been running behind the scenes to help get us where we want to be…

• Build With… Founder-Led Governance + Values-Aligned Investors: how our legal structure puts social purpose front and centre and how that can protect mission-driven founders long-term.

• Build With… Community Co-Owners: how we gifted equity to Conversation Over Borders and the benefits of including grassroots community organisations in your ownership structure.

• Build With… Inclusive Hiring: the process behind hiring, protecting and supporting refugee professionals in limbo.

• Build With… Others: how much it helps building alongside other mission-driven founders through spaces like Startups For All and Entrepreneurs for Palestine.

• Build With… No & Low Code Tools: an intro into how I’m building product at SOMOS.

If you are a founder, activist, consultant, coach, community builder or independent professional trying to build something with care, I hope this series gives you something useful!

Thanks for being here 🙏🏽

Khawar | Founder @ SOMOS 👋🏽

🌱 Subscribe to get new posts straight to your inbox.
📬 Reach out on LinkedIn if you’re building something similar, I’d love to connect.
💚 Check out the SOMOS blog for practical guides on wellbeing, income and sustainable mission-driven work.