Isa Watson—Founder & CEO of Squad, MIT MBA, tech innovator, researcher, and skydiver—shares her extraordinary journey from small-town North Carolina to the heart of Silicon Valley.
Growing up in a values-centered home, Isa’s early engineering exposure and innate curiosity became the bedrock of her influential career across STEM, business, and social impact. She opens up about how grief, identity, and ambition collided to create Squad, which now serves major sports leagues throughout the U.S. and U.K.
As a grownwoman, Isa emphasizes the fundamental flaws in social media and demonstrates how her patented technology is transforming digital relationships. With striking poise and clarity, she also shares insights on using skydiving to manage stress, maintaining boundaries during fundraising, and nurturing billion-dollar ideas with intentionality.
This conversation between Shannon and Isa speaks directly to anyone whose outward success masks inner chaos. Don’t miss this masterclass episode—build a lasting impact while learning to abandon the performance of perfection!
KEY POINTS
00:00 - MIT, Loss, & Building Squad: How Isa Watson Turned Grief Into Tech Innovation
02:42 - Growing up around research and engineering
04:03 - The influence of her parents’ grit and resilience
08:36 - Working at a research lab at only 14 years old
12:35 - Being Hampton-University-MADE
16:16 - Pursuing a PhD in pharmacology
21:52 - The bus crash that changed her life, and how MIT cared
26:07 - Working at JP Morgan and navigating her grief journey
29:25 - The foundations of Squad
32:25 - Being approached by the NBA and other major leagues
34:27 - The realities of fundraising as a Black woman
36:18 - Staying offline as a tech founder
39:00 - The vision: Squad's technology and evolution within
QUOTES
“The day that you stop learning is a day that you stop growing.” – Isa Watson
‘Social media is actually not social. It's media.” – Isa Watson
“I'm a grown woman who is refined and that is open to evolution, and that is open to continuously iterating on herself and getting to the next version of her, and someone who looks forward to meeting the future versions of her.” – Isa Watson
GUEST RESOURCES
Isa Watson
Website | www.isawatson.com
RESOURCES
Shannon Allen
Grown Website | https://www.grown.org/
IG | @swalkerwil
🌱 Stay Connected & Explore More
🔗 Visit the Grown Website Grown.org
📲 Follow Shannon on Instagram @swalkerwil
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grownwoman is produced by EPYC Media Network