The Caring Founder

The Caring Founder is a blog series about building a tech startup while navigating the everyday realities of being a parent carer. As a first-time founder with lived experience, I’m sharing the highs and lows—what it really feels like to juggle care responsibilities, develop a product from scratch, and try to make a meaningful impact in the social care space. These posts are part reflection, part observation, and fully rooted in real life—the honest journey of trying to build something better from the ground up.

Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Building Trust Is Part of Building the Technology

The conversation around AI is changing. It’s no longer just about what AI can do, but how we use it responsibly, safely and in ways that make a meaningful difference to people’s lives. After a thought-provoking day at the One Health AI Accelerator, I share what Responsible AI means for inCharge, and the practical steps we’re taking next.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

NICON26: Shifting Left, Shifting Mindsets and Turning Reform into Action

I arrived at NICON26 with a touch of cynicism and scepticism. After 25 years navigating health and social care as a parent carer, I’ve heard plenty about reform and putting people at the centre. In this blog, I share what I heard about shifting left, care closer to home and culture change, and where inCharge fits as reform turns into action.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Building technology for real people and ordinary lives: Co-design with us!

Before we talk about technology, data or AI, we need to talk about what all of it is for. Here we share what it means to design technology that supports a good, ordinary life. We're now opening conversations with local authorities to co-design how inCharge intelligence could support Direct Payment and Self-Directed Support reviews, and lighten the load for families.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Work, Life, and Balance

There are never enough hours in the day. This week's blog reflects on watching a second daughter head off to university, the relentless energy it takes to build a business, and what progress actually looks like when your body, your family and your to-do list are all competing for the same moment.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

They Just Get It: What a Year of Co-Design Has Taught Us

This September marks a full year since we started a co-design project focused on strengthening the voice, view and access of the person at the centre of their own care and support. Next week, that work goes live. But one of the things I've learned over the past year is that co-design is about much more than the thing you eventually build.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Caring Founder: Coming Back to Where It All Began

Six years ago, I went to Rathlin Island and came home with the beginning of an idea. This month I went back - and reflected on three lessons I've learned as a caring founder building a technology company from lived experience.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Care and Commerce

Karen McCormick, inCharge Founder and CEO, reflects on the parts of startup life that rarely make it onto social media - the difficult trade-offs, the uncertainty, and why purpose and commercial thinking aren't competing priorities. They're partners.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

What's in an App?

Building an app is the easy part. Building something people trust with the realities of everyday life is something else entirely. Here’s what it really takes.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

No discharge today... until there was

For those following Georgia's journey, earlier this year she fractured her ankle in three places after a fall, requiring emergency surgery. Recovery was progressing, until her body began struggling to accept the metalwork from that surgery. Here's what happened recently.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Three Things That Stopped Me in My Tracks

Three things stopped me in my tracks this weekend on a trip to Boyle, County Roscommon: Collective pride, love in motion, and Matilda, in the red party dress. Let me explain.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

The Power of Community

This week, watching Moville Festival come to life, I was reminded of something technology can never replace: community. A new committee, old traditions, and a shared ambition to bring people together. It got me thinking about how inCharge was built, and why community development, not technology, has always been the starting point.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

The Real Challenge Isn’t Resistance. It’s Inertia.

Everywhere I go, I hear the same conversations. Social care needs to change. We need more personalised support. We need better outcomes. We need to embrace technology. We need to do things differently. The urgency is real. The challenges are well understood. The desire for change is widespread. And yet, despite all of that, what many of us experience isn’t resistance. It’s inertia.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Super Users, Super Community

Our Super Users are exactly that: super important to us. They are the founding families of the inCharge community, the people who believed in what we were building long before it was polished, perfect, or even fully functioning. I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of our Super Users in person including Meabh and her parents in beautiful Culdaff, at Hoist Away.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

“Why Not Just Use Everyday Messaging Apps?”

Because messaging apps are just for chat. inCharge is built for care. Most families coordinating care are juggling multiple tools – messaging apps, spreadsheets, notebooks. It works until it doesn't. inCharge is different. It brings clarity, continuity, and person-centred care together in one place.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

A ‘Joint’ Visit to the Fracture Clinic (pun intended)

We've had so many people asking how recovery is going – Georgia's fractured ankle, and my new hip. Four weeks on, Georgia's running. I'm on one crutch. We're finding our rhythm again. By chance, we were both recently scheduled for outpatient appointments on the same day. Here’s what we found.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

When The Carer Becomes The Patient

I found myself back in the orthopaedic ward – but this time as the patient, not Georgia's mum. What I've learned is that founders and carers have more in common than we realise. Both become very practiced at carrying on until life insists we pause. For now, learning to accept care rather than organise it is the lesson.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

Representing Real People, Reflecting Real Lives

I just caught up with Sarah Kelliher, UX designer with Xwerx and our design partner on inCharge, to take a first look at the newly enhanced personal profile in the app. Not only has that process been a translation of my research, lived and learned experiences, Sarah has carefully, thoughtfully and creatively translated people’s insights into intuitive and accessible designs.

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Rosina Sharrock Rosina Sharrock

In Case of Emergency

Friday started like any other day. Then Georgia took a tumble, and everything shifted. What happened next – the ambulance ride, the hospital, the fractures, the surgery ahead – taught me something about emergency services, about our community, and about why the tools families use to share information matter more than we realise.

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