Social media app alleviates fear of harassment

The app allows users to video chat and share their screen with a friend in real-time

Spotted: The new social media app, Squad, presents a safe space for women online. The social start-up aims to challenge ‘Tech Bro’ culture and prevent online harassment. 

Founded by CEO Esther Crawford, Squad has collected more than 450,000 users in just eight months, most of them teenage girls. The app allows users to video chat and share their screen with a friend in real-time, as well as browse memes, read DMs, plan a trip on Airbnb, or view a photo album. 

Crawford describes the app as allowing users to do “all the stuff you don’t want to post to Snap or Instagram but want to show your best friends.” It’s a space where friends can hang out digitally without fear of trolls intruding.  The site also allows users to easily report inappropriate behaviours and block trolls, a feature that is still an afterthought on other social tools.

In 2018, Squad participated in Y Combinator’s accelerator program and has recently closed a €4.5 million seed round led by Hayley Barna, the only female partner at First Round Capital. Squad not only bills itself the “anti-bro startup,” but also walks the walk, with a team that is one-third female and one-third people of colour.