About Maxie
The spark for Maxie came from a feeling I know many parents share.
I was constantly juggling school emails, clubs, birthdays, appointments, holiday dates, and all the little jobs that sit behind family life. I wasn't struggling to remember one thing. I was struggling to remember everything.
So I started building Maxie. I'm proud to be building a product that helps families feel a little more organised, a little less stressed, and a little more in control of the everyday chaos that comes with raising children.
The everyday load
There was always something to remember.
Something to plan ahead for.
Something I hadn't written down.
And no matter how hard I tried, I always felt slightly behind.
Before building Maxie, I spent my career creating digital products used by millions of people, including leading product work at the BBC and other FTSE companies. I've seen how the right systems can help people stay organised and informed. At home, I couldn't find anything built for the realities of family life.
The moment it clicked
One night I was up late making a costume for a school assembly on Egypt, because I hadn't properly read the email about it the week before.
That kind of thing kept happening. Not big failures. But enough small ones that it started to feel like I just wasn't doing a good enough job as a mum, as a partner. I was overwhelmed by the things I needed to keep track of, swamped by the mental load.
In our family, we're a team. My partner is incredibly organised, which made the gap even more obvious. But even working together, we were constantly checking in with each other. "What's happening this week?" "Who's doing that?" "Did we sort that yet?"
Nothing was held in one place. Everything lived in conversations, messages, or someone's head. And that friction adds up.
I have ADHD, which means I can operate at a really high level when I have the right systems around me. At work, I do. At home, I didn't. And I could feel the difference, not just in how organised things were, but in how it made me feel.
There's a huge, often unspoken pressure on parents, especially mums, to stay on top of everything. To be the one who remembers, plans ahead, and keeps things running smoothly. And when you can't, it's easy to feel like you're failing.
The problem wasn't me. The problem was that nothing was built for this job.
What the research showed
I wanted to understand whether this was just my experience, or something much bigger. I ran the Mental Load Survey, speaking to other parents about the real friction points in managing family life. Five themes came up again and again: keeping track of schedules, staying informed, remembering things, coordinating logistics, and planning ahead. Not one of them was well-served by existing tools.
of parents said "remembering everything" was their single biggest family challenge. Not the doing — the remembering that the doing needed to happen at all.
That's the problem Maxie was built to solve.
Why nothing else was quite right
The tools that existed were built for a different problem — and none of them thought about the wider family network: the grandparent doing pickup on Tuesdays, the childminder who needs to know about the nativity costume, the co-parent who shouldn't have to ask every time an appointment changes.
Generic calendar apps
Show you when things happen. They don't help you prepare.
US-focused organisers
Don't understand UK school terms, inset days, or a British school newsletter.
Task managers
Give you more lists to manage, not less to remember.
Maxie is a family organiser app for UK parents with school-age children. It's not just a calendar, and it's not another to-do list — it's a shared layer that helps your family stay one step ahead.
Reads your school emails
Creates events automatically, no copying dates by hand.
Prep reminders, not just events
Swimming on Tuesday means "pack swim bag" lands on Monday night, every week.
Tell it in your own words
Type it or snap a photo of a flyer — Maxie turns it into a plan.
Keeps everyone in sync
Partner, grandparent, childminder, co-parent — without telling them twice.
Other calendars show when things happen. Maxie shows what you need to prepare beforehand — that's the difference between knowing you have a school play on Friday and remembering to sort the costume on Wednesday.
Your family's data is safe
This matters to me personally, not just as a policy. Maxie is invite-only — no public profiles, no searchable directories, no advertising. Your family calendar is visible only to the people you choose to invite, and your data is never sold or shared with third parties.
Maxie is independent and bootstrapped, built by a working parent, alongside a working parent's schedule. It isn't backed by venture capital. It isn't trying to be everything to everyone — it's being shaped by real feedback, and getting ready for its first families.
Family life shouldn't feel like something you're constantly trying to catch up with. It should feel like something you have the headspace to enjoy.
If that sounds familiar, you're exactly who Maxie is for.
Try Maxie free — no credit card required →Questions? Get in touch: contact@maxie.family
