12: MIT, Loss, & Building Squad: How Isa Watson Turned Grief Into Tech Innovation

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 🎧 Like, Share & Subscribe If this episode moved you, inspired you, or made you think, don’t keep it to yourself! Like, share, and subscribe to grownwoman on your favorite podcast platform. grownwoman is produced by EPYC Media Network