Pilar Mcdonald: Project Matriarchs
San Francisco native, Pilar McDonald proves you do not need a background in entrepreneurship to become an innovator. Rather, an entrepreneur is defined by their passion for problem-solving and their willingness to work. As the world came to an unexpected halt in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, McDonald and her childhood friend Lola McAllister recognized that working mothers were disproportionately affected. Both young women grew up with working mothers and realized that with children unable to attend school, the responsibility of primary childcare would fall to the mother, regardless her working status. McDonald recounts that she “had no intention of being an entrepreneur,” she just wanted to respond to this critical social issue. It was through this concern in which the idea for Project Matriarchs arose.
Project Matriarchs provides affordable virtual childcare by matching college students with working parents. The matching process is a Google Form as neither McDonald and McAllister have coding experience. After the college students and parents complete the Google Forms, McDonald will personally interview the college students to ensure a solid fit between family and care-provider. Another middle-school friend of McDonald’s developed a basic algorithm which matches families and college students’ schedules. College students are in charge of tracking their own hours in a spreadsheet and families have a spreadsheet where they track the monetary rate they feel comfortable contributing. Most contributions range between $0 and $20 per hour. Project Matriarchs currently pays all tutors $15 per hour; McDonald and McAllister do not take salaries in order to directly pay all of the employed college students. This is to ensure that Project Matriarchs can subsidise the costs so the low-income families are able to use their services. In order to ensure both parties (tutor and family) are happy with the pairing, a weekly survey is sent out to track the levels of satisfaction; should either party feel the pairing is not compatible, then Project Matriarchs will step in and make a new match for both the family and tutor.
Project Matriarchs is looking to expand in order to ensure a woman’s place in the workforce does not digress. This start-up is looking to pair with larger corporations as they found that these companies are able to pay an hourly rate in which Project Matriarchs can distribute to their employees. McDonald believes it is the responsibility of companies to solve the systemic issue of workplace inequality. “From a fiscal perspective, it is important to invest in females and parents” as parents have amassed unique skill-sets through parenting McDonald recounts. Providing sufficient childcare will not only increase female representation in the workplace, but it will also improve overall morale. By prioritizing employee mental health, productivity increases; alleviating stress within the home is an imperative step towards this goal. What shocked McDonald the most throughout this venture is the large amount of mothers who feel extremely isolated due to the lack of childcare support. This pandemic has been extremely isolating and difficult for working mothers; many feel that this conversation has been left in the dust and overshadowed by many other issues. Society as a whole needs to address the fact that “mothers feel like there isn’t anyone listening.”