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XWatch: Parabol's CEO on How to Make Remote Meetings Actually Useful

The pandemic has made remote work a necessity. While going to the office used to be a chore, many of us are now wishing for the day when we can once again return to in-person operations as zoom burnout and awkward remote interactions take their toll. But what if "work from home" is here to stay? How can we do it successfully?
In this installment of dot.LA Dives In, we talk with Jordan Husney, CEO and founder of Parabol, an app that allows remote employees to meet, collaborate and form genuine connections — wherever they're located.
During his days as a management consultant, Jordan met one of his executive clients on site in Fairfield, Connecticut — they were both late because of terrible traffic. She gave him a window into her calendar that was stacked with video conference meetings. It was a trend Husney had noticed at companies, and he couldn't help but wonder why clients did not conduct more business from their couch.
"All of our executive clients were de facto remote workers because their employees were global, and they were showing up to the office out of habit. I couldn't unsee that, and I thought, 'This is going to keep extending'," Husney said.
In August 2015, Parabol was born. With a focus on agile teams, the app seeks to make it easy for employees to have great remote meetings when they don't have the luxury of a conference room.
"The success of a meeting depends on the talent of the participants in terms of their ability to facilitate the time they spend together," said Husney. "We try to break down the meetings into these discrete little activities that you can do that are actually fun, and that lead you to a result that is always useful."
Husney said he sees companies simply taking everything within an office and trying to do the exact same thing virtually — down to virtual lunches and golf sessions to woo a client — rather than focusing on the core aspect of an interaction they are trying to recreate. But the problems extend beyond trying to sign a client virtually.
"When am I on, and when am I off? And how do I broadcast what I actually need from any given day? So many folks came from office cultures where they looked up to the boss to establish the cultural norms," Husney said. "When you're away and the boss isn't looking at you, there is actually a responsibility on you to say, 'I'm starting work, I'm stepping away'."
A big part of the success of remote work is building an authentic culture. Husney believes you can do that with the help of tools like Donut and Icebreaker. But building culture also requires being intentional about how you utilize your employees' time, whether it is a business meeting or a social event.
"What do people hate? They hate having their calendar chewed up with a bazillion meetings," Husney said. "What if, now that you're in a remote context, you could start from a principle where by default there are no meetings, and your work could be fully done on your own time. Then, when you have 'mandatory fun time', people are kind of hungry for the social interaction."
Watch the full interview here:
Jordan Husney: Parabol & the Future of Remote Work www.youtube.com
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Kelly O'Grady runs video and serves as the chief host & correspondent for dot.LA. Find her on Instagram @kfogrady and email her at kelly@dot.LA.
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This Week in ‘Raises’: Improvado Hauls $22M, Clearlake Launches $14B Fund
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
This week in “Raises”: A pair of Web3 platforms for gamers landed funding, as did a Manhattan Beach medical startup looking to bolster primary care via nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, a Santa Monica-based investment firm launched its seventh fund with more than $14 billion in dry powder.
Venture Capital
Improvado, a marketing data aggregation platform, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Updata Partners.
Web3 gaming platform FreshCut raised $15 million in funding led by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands and Republic Crypto.
Medical startup Greater Good Health raised $10 million in a funding round led by LRVHealth.
Joystick, a Web3 platform for gamers and creators, raised $8 million in seed funding.
Open source data protection company CipherMode Labs raised $6.7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors .
Mobile phone charging network ChargeFUZE raised $5 million in seed funding led by Beverly Pacific, TR Ventures, VA2, Jason Goldberg and Al Weiss.
Polygon, a startup aiming to better diagnose children with learning disabilities, raised $4.2 million in seed and pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital and Pear VC.
Pique, a virtual women's sexual health clinic, raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Maveron.
Psudo, a sneaker startup that utilizes recycled water bottles and 3D sublimation printing to create its shoes, raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by SternAegis Ventures.
Funds
Santa Monica-based investment firm Clearlake Capital Group raised $14.1 billion for its seventh flagship fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Kristin Snyder (kristinsnyder@dot.la).Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: New Head of Originals at Snap, New President at FaZe Clan
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
“Moves”, our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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FaZe Clan brought on Zach Katz as the gaming and media company’s new president and chief operating officer. Katz was previously the chief executive officer of the music tech investment fund Raised in Space Enterprises.
TikTok brand factory LINK Agency promoted Dustin Poteet to chief creative officer. Poteet was previously creative director at the firm.
Livestream shopping platform Talkshoplive hired Tradesy co-founder John Hall as its chief technology officer. Universal Music Group Nashville's former vice president of digital marketing, Tony Grotticelli, also joins the company as vice president of marketing.
Anjuli Millan will take over as head of original content at Snap after three years of overseeing production for the division.
Tech and media company Blavity hired Nikki Crump as general manager of agency. Crump joins the company from Burrell Communications Group.
O'Neil Digital Solutions, which provides customer communications and experience management for the health care industry, hired Eric Ramsey as national account sales executive. Ramsey joins from T/O Printing.
Investment firm Cresset Partners named Tammy Funasaki as managing director of business development. Funasaki previously served as head of investor relations for Breakwater Management.
- LA Tech Updates: Artie Closes $10M Seed Round; FaZe Clan Has a ... ›
- FaZe Clan Announces Immersive Pop-Up Shop - dot.LA ›
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Snapchat is preparing to roll out enhanced parental controls that would allow parents to see who their teenagers are chatting with on the social media app, according to screenshots of the upcoming feature.
Snap’s parental controls.
Courtesy of Watchful.
Snapchat is planning to introduce Family Center, which would allow parents to see who their children are friends with on the app and who they’ve messaged within the last seven days, according to screenshots provided by Watchful, a product intelligence company. Parents would also be able help their kids report abuse or harassment.
The parental controls are still subject to change before finally launching publicly, as the Family Center screenshots—which were first reported by TechCrunch—reflect features that are still under development.
Santa Monica-based Snap and other social media giants have faced mounting criticism for not doing more to protect their younger users—some of whom have been bullied, sold deadly drugs and sexually exploited on their platforms. State attorneys general have urged Snap and Culver City-based TikTok to strengthen their parental controls, with both companies’ apps especially popular among teens.
A Snap spokesperson declined to comment on Friday. Previously, Snap representatives have told dot.LA that the company is developing tools that will provide parents with more insight into how their children are engaging on Snapchat and allow them to report troubling content.
Yet Snap’s approach to parental controls could still give teens some privacy, as parents wouldn’t be able to read the actual content of their kids’ conversations, according to TechCrunch. (The Family Center screenshots seen by dot.LA do not detail whether parents can see those conversations).
In addition, teenage users would first have to accept an invitation from their parents to join the in-app Family Center before those parents can begin monitoring their social media activity, TechCrunch reported.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.