Suzanne Slaughter
CEO & Founder
I live near San Francisco with my husband and our son Hank. After almost 5 years at Meta and 3 years at a VC-backed startup, Hank’s arrival put me right up against a problem I'd been curious about for years: why is it so hard to simultaneously mother and work in the US, and what can we do to fix it?
To answer this question, I decided to take a research-based detour, interviewing women and reading everything I could. I was struck by how lonely each individual felt, as they cobbled together their own unique configuration that worked based on their constraints. But their challenges are based in a shared reality: our system isn't built to value care. And when you don't live near family, when great childcare is really expensive, and when there's no easily accessible middle path between all-in and stepping back entirely, the day-to-day decisions can be really painful.
While I was in the midst of that research, a friend referred me to a (off-market) part-time Head of Marketing role at a Seed-stage company. The women I was interviewing kept stopping me to ask: "Well how did you get that job? That's exactly what I want in this phase." That's when the bones of Groundwork started to take shape.
The thing I always come back to is this: our kids are only going to be little for so long, and our parents are only going to need us for so long. These seasons matter - they will come to be the ones that give our lives meaning. And it strikes me as a massive shame that showing up for them in a way you’re proud of may come with meaningful career risk.
Creating alternative options is what we’re building towards with Groundwork.
Greg Siegel
Fractional COO
The first part of my career looked very different than it does now. I used to be an operator at VC-backed companies - jumping between product, finance, and GTM. The norm was throwing as many hours at work as possible, which was a choice I could make without caregiving responsibilities.
Then, life changed: my wife and I welcomed our first child, and others in my family started wrestling with health challenges. It took me longer than most to realize the importance of balance - and the risks of indefinitely saying “I need to prioritize this work milestone, just one more time.”
When Suzanne and I met through her research, I’d taken a step back from full-time roles. Over the last couple years, I’ve learned how to keep working with great startups, but in a more flexible way that also works for our family - fractional COO, CEO advisory, interim CFO and more.
It's not lost on me that caregiving burdens disproportionately land on the shoulders of new moms over new dads, and on daughters over sons. While our team thinks about new moms most at Groundwork, there's an important opportunity to make sure anyone can explore this kind of career transition - both because it may be right for them personally, and because it can open up options for the rest of their families.
I’ve seen firsthand how this can work for both candidates and employers. As a fractional part of the Groundwork team, Suzanne and I learn everyday how to make this work best.
