Build With… SOMOS 🌱

Why I started SOMOS and what it means to build simple tools for sustainable, mission-driven work.

Hey, I’m Khawar 👋🏽 - I head up SOMOS 🤝🏾, a small social enterprise building practical tools to support longevity in mission-driven work.

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 👋🏽

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💚 Check out the SOMOS blog for practical guides on wellbeing, income and sustainable mission-driven work.