Zoe Desmond’s Frolo Story
Zoe Desmond Class of 1999 Founder of Frolo – The Single Parent Community
When my son Billy (who is now 4) turned one, my relationship with his father broke down and we separated. It was a very tough time – I was grieving the dream of the family unit I thought I had created for myself and my son, and despite being blessed with lots of great friends, I found my new single parent experience to be incredibly lonely. I found myself dreading the weekends when all I could see was others having family time and I felt like I was the only single parent in the world. And then the guilt kicked in that I wasn’t being the best version of myself as a mother for my son, because I was struggling and finding it tough. I craved meeting other single parents local to me and loved the idea of being able to form friendships and connections with people in the same boat, and the idea of having my own network of single parents to meet up for playdates, a glass of wine, sunday lunches and weekend adventures became my hope and my lifeline. But despite learning that 1 in 4 families are single parent families in the UK and Ireland, I couldn’t find any way of easily finding single parents in my area, which felt so frustrating to me once I realised they must be all around!
That’s when I started to dream up the idea of Frolo (made up of the words friends and solo) – the first app of it’s kind for single parents. With Frolo you can easily find and connect with likeminded single parents in your area with the Discovery Tab, On the Feed frolos can post seeking guidance or advice or share something inspirational or positive with the community, In the Meetup section, frolos can find or create Meetups and Virtual Meetups (which have proved to be invaluable to the community this year), and then there is the messaging section where you can privately message your connections or join one of the many Group Chats – ranging from Dating Support Group to Recipe Exchange to Single Parenting Hacks.
Frolo is now just over 1 year old and we have 15k users in the UK and Ireland. The community is exactly what I hoped it would become in terms of it feeling like a very supportive, positive and empowering space where people in the community show masses of consideration and kindness to each other. We plan to expand into the US next year and we are launching a Frolo Dating offering next year too so it’s set to be a busy 2021! I could not be more passionate, driven and connected to what we are doing at Frolo because I have experienced first hand the absolutely transformational and positive impact that the Frolo community has had and continues to have on mine and my son’s life.
To learn more about Frolo and download the app go to www.frolo.co.uk or follow on insta @frolo_app