PCH Driven: Entrepreneur Sophia Rascoff on Recon Food and How Social Media Is Evolving

At the age of 16, Sophia Rascoff is one of the youngest entrepreneurs to launch a social media app. Her love for cooking inspired Recon Food, an app that brings food lovers together.

On this episode of PCH Driven, Rascoff discusses being a co-founder of the app Recon Food and how Gen Z is changing social media.

During the holiday season, Rascoff and her family make traditional Colombian dishes, including a caldo (a broth-based dish) she grew up on that her grandmother passed down to her mom.

Experiences like that, along with her love for food, gave Rascoff the idea to create an app.

"Recon Food is a vertical social media network for food. So, we aim to create a community where people can bond over a shared love of food," said Rascoff.

With features like adding recipes alongside posts or seeing the restaurants where other users have been, Rascoff wanted to lean into making the community accessible.

When joining the app, it automatically prompts the user to follow Rascoff’s account. But, she says, it’s not designed so that she can gain followers.

"It was to really set the bar for the app. So, we wanted to show people anyone can post on here. It's not for chefs, it's for people who like food and think it's kind of fun sometimes," said Rascoff.

Growing up around other entrepreneurs like her father, former Zillow executive and dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff, the young co-founder believes passion is one of the most important things when it comes to starting a company. For other young entrepreneurs, that's the advice she would offer.

"Find something that you're really passionate about. I've heard a lot that there are no good founders, there's only a good founder for a good problem," said Rascoff.

In the rest of the episode, Rascoff talks about entrepreneurship, the value of intrapreneurship and how a “post-heroic” leadership approach can create more collaborative team. Oh, and we also talk a lot about food.

Click the playhead above to hear the full conversation, and subscribe to PCH Driven on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.

dot.LA Engagement Intern Joshua Letona contributed to this post.