‘Life Beyond Likes’: Isa Watson On Her Audio Social Platform Squad

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

‘Life Beyond Likes’: Isa Watson On Her Audio Social Platform Squad
Isa Watson

On this episode of Office Hours, Founder and CEO Isa Watson shares the tragic, but inspirational story that led to the creation of her audio social platform, Squad, and the challenges she faces as a Black woman in tech.


“My journey to entrepreneurship was one that was very personal to me,” Watson said.

In 2013, Watson tragically lost her father in a bus accident while he and Watson’s mother were leading an annual trip for upcoming college students. She said it was the loneliest she’s ever felt in her life, but caused a powerful revelation.

“A realization that I had really over invested in my personal branding and my positioning to the world, and under invested in the relationships and friendships that brought me joy,” she said.

She created Squad, an audio communication platform, to ease her own feelings of loneliness and help others connect and build communities offline.

Squad has three core features: asynchronous messaging—back and forth, freestyle—a prompted question where your response is then sent to the rest of your squad, and squad line, which is a twist on traditional phone calls. Squads are limited to a maximum of 12 people to encourage the selectiveness Watson believes is so important to sustained friendships.

“It also just really forces the thought of, ‘Who do I want to talk to every day? Who is bringing me that joy?’” she said.

Watson said what sets Squad apart from other platforms is that each user’s ‘Squad’ is built around them specifically.

“And when you think about some of the things that people want—from a human perspective—when you're looking at a huge scale platform, like a Snapchat or a WhatsApp, you're trying to find your own place inside of it,” she explained. “As opposed to actually organically creating your own world. And from a world building perspective, everything in Squad is customized to you in a way that doesn't exist on these existing platforms.”

Squad’s evolution as an audio platform was one of trial, error and lots of research. Watson and her team originally experimented with text but found that deeper connections were difficult. They also experimented with video, but found it was too easy for users to disengage. Audio became the “happy medium.”

“The other thing was to give the intimacy of the conversation,” she said of her decision.

As opposed to other social communication apps, Squad users can only interact with content from people within their own Squad. And because the idea is to mimic real-life connections, all communication deletes within 24 hours.

“It's double opt-in around you,” she said. “The whole notion is how do we make these networks participatory."

Squad operates on three revenue models: 1) freemium, 2) in-app purchases (which she compares to Roblox) and 3) ad model. As the platform has grown, Watson and her team have expanded their market strategies to include in-app driven growth and outside of the app driven growth.

“So on the outside of the app, we partnered with companies that gave away free food if you had a Squad line call, or things like that,” she explained. “On the flip side, we have a very big high school demographic. We've actually created a high school ambassador program within New York City.”

But as a young woman, and a young Black woman especially, Watson said raising funds was challenging at first.

“[Investors] couldn’t see me being shoulder to shoulder with a 'Jack' or an 'Evan,' and I just thought that was very interesting and very telling,” she said. “I absorbed that energy and it manifested as an insecurity. I felt insecure because I felt like I was perceived as a much riskier founder because I was Black.”

Through Squad’s prime target demographic—late teens—she’s learned to turn those insecurities into strengths.

“The reality is that when I talk to the users and I'm with these high school kids in Brooklyn who are white, Asian, Black, Indian…they actually love and appreciate the fact that I'm a Black woman,” she said.

Hearing the feedback from the younger generation of users helps Watson feel validated in the importance of her work. She believes Squad is positioned to be more than just an alternative social platform, as more and more people crave authenticity.

“People are yearning for that authentic experience,” Watson said, “The data shows, and I don’t have to opine on it, that social media has been very detrimental to our young girls and to people in general, and created this echo chamber of perfectionism.”

dot.LA Reporter Decerry Donato contributed to this post.

Want to hear more episodes? Subscribe to Office Hours on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.

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LA’s Data Center Supply Crunch

🔦 Spotlight

Happy Friday Los Angeles!

The Los Angeles data center market is experiencing a significant supply crunch, ranking 12th in growth among top markets since 2020 with only 265 megawatts of colocation inventory (data centers where businesses rent space to store their computing hardware and servers). Despite this, demand is surging, driven by AI, cloud, and hyperscaler needs, with AI accounting for 20% of new data center demand nationally. This scarcity is creating a highly competitive environment, with vacancy rates at a record low 3% and asking rents rising 13-37% year-over-year. For Los Angeles, this presents both challenges and opportunities in the big picture. The city's strategic position as a global entertainment hub and its connectivity to international markets through subsea cables make it an attractive location for data centers. However, the limited inventory and rising costs could potentially hinder growth and innovation in the tech sector. To maintain its competitive edge, Los Angeles will need to address these constraints through new developments, such as GI Partners' 16 MW addition at One Wilshire, and by focusing on high-connectivity, high-power capacity submarkets. The city's tech community should prepare for a landscape of increased competition for quality data center space, higher costs, and the need for innovative solutions to meet growing demand, particularly in AI and cloud services. While Los Angeles faces a challenging data center supply crunch, its strategic advantages and ongoing developments offer a promising path forward.


🤝 Venture Deals

LA Companies

  • Daisy, a one-year-old startup that designs and installs smart home and office technology systems, raised a $7M Series B co-led by Goldcrest and Bungalow, with previous investors Bullish and Burst Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $13.3 million. - learn more

LA Venture Funds


    ✨ Featured Event ✨

    LA TECH CEO SUMMIT

    LA’s tech leadership is set to reunite after a long break! This two day summit will focus on building strong connections, sharing insights, and fortifying the local tech community.

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    Download the dot.LA App

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    🔦 Spotlight

    Happy Long Weekend Los Angeles!

    Sony Group is making a significant push into the blockchain and Web3 space, leveraging its Sony Pictures and Sony Music divisions along with a new global incubator. The company has developed the Soneium blockchain through Sony Block Solutions Labs, a joint venture aimed at accelerating Web3 innovation. Sony is launching the "Soneium Minato" public testnet and a developer incubation program called "Soneium Spark" to foster ecosystem growth and adoption. The initiative includes strategic partnerships with Web3 companies such as Astar Network, Circle, and Optimism. Sony aims to create a fan community centered on creators and connect diverse values through Soneium, with the ultimate goal of integrating Web3 services into people's daily lives. While the company acknowledges the challenges faced by Web3, including limited user adoption and the need for mainstream use cases, it remains committed to decentralizing the concentrated power of the current internet landscape.

    In completely unrelated and more digestible news Sensible Weather, a leading weather protection provider that we’ve featured many times, has partnered with Kampgrounds of America (KOA) to offer Weather Guarantees at over 450 KOA Campgrounds across the United States. This collaboration allows campers to purchase weather protection for their outdoor experiences, providing peace of mind and potential reimbursements of up to 100% of their nightly rate if weather conditions exceed predefined parameters. The partnership comes at an opportune time, as camping has seen a significant increase in popularity, with active campers growing by 68% over the past decade. If you are looking to do some camping this fall make sure you look into Sensible Weather protections to ensure that unpredictable weather won't dampen (nailed it) your camping experience.


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    LA Companies

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    • Fika Ventures led a $4.55M Seed Round for Revenew, a San Francisco startup that aims to help digital platforms and marketplaces manage their payments and optimize financial operations. - learn more
    • Bonfire Ventures participated in a $25M Series A for Supio, an AI platform for personal injury law firms. - learn more
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      ✨ Featured Event ✨

      LA TECH CEO SUMMIT

      LA’s tech leadership is set to reunite after a long break! This two day summit will focus on building strong connections, sharing insights, and fortifying the local tech community.

      Learn More Here

      Register Here


      Download the dot.LA App

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      Image Source: iEQ9

      Enneagram

      The Enneagram test is a sophisticated personality assessment that categorizes individuals into nine distinct personality types, each defined by unique motivations, fears,and behavioral patterns. This holistic approach enhances team dynamics in a business setting by fostering self-awareness, improving communication, and facilitating conflict resolution among team members. By understanding different personality types, teams can optimize their composition, tailor professional development, and create a more empathetic and collaborative environment. This framework not only helps leaders adapt their styles to better support diverse team members but also promotes inclusivity and effective collaboration, ultimately leading to improved team performance, productivity, and retention.

      Resources:iEQ9. We recommend getting an Enneagram coach to get the most out of the results.

      Key Features: Focus on core motivations. Accounts for personality shifts under stress or growth. Offers practical, actionable guidance for personal growth. Uses a dynamic, adaptive questioning approach. Claims 95% accuracy rate through advanced techniques.


      Image Source: DiSC Profile

      DiSC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness)

      The DiSC assessment is a widely used behavioral analysis tool that categorizes individuals into four primary personality types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. For businesses, DiSC provides valuable insights into employees' communication styles, work preferences, and motivations. By understanding these behavioral tendencies, teams can improve collaboration, reduce conflicts, and enhance overall productivity. Implementing DiSC in a business setting can lead to more effective leadership, tailored communication strategies, and optimized task allocation based on individual strengths.

      Resources:DiSC Profile.

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      Image Source: The Myers-Briggs Company

      The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

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      Resources:The Myers-Briggs Company.

      Key Features: Focuses on preferences rather than traits. Focuses on how people perceive and judge information. Widely used in business and career counseling


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