Enterprise: Squadify
USP: A national retailer in Australia has rolled Squadify out to 1000 teams and Google in the US is harnessing the platform to support its team-leader development.
Pia Lee and Dan Hammond began in very different fields, with Pia teaching challenging teenagers in the UK while Dan embarked on an engineering career before transitioning to product marketing and working with teams.
“Our paths crossed 15 years and 16,000 kilometres later in Sydney when Pia was CEO of a global leadership consultancy,” Dan recalls. “Our work took us in every direction across the planet, from the shores of Tanzania to the floors of Silicon Valley and we built an extensive understanding of what creates success in teams and organisations.”
The start-up they subsequently co-founded, Squadify, was born from their vision to scale that knowledge through a technology platform, for everyone, wherever and however they work.
“The world of work has seismically transformed, with nearly two-thirds of Australian businesses now working virtually or on a hybrid model,” Dan explains. “Flexibility and freedom are being overshadowed by the cost of high attrition, resource pressures and burnout. One in eight Australians have visited their GP this year with mental health concerns and nearly 60 per cent of managers do not believe their team is achieving its potential. Squadify supports leaders and teams with pragmatic, actionable data and coaching to maximise their performance.”
“Many businesses have ‘rock star employees’ but struggle to build a ‘rock star team’.”
Pia stresses that many businesses have ‘rock star employees’ but struggle to build a ‘rock star team’. “Professional development has historically been available only to the few, but we were determined to change that,” she avers. “Squadify helps any business build that rock star team and enables them to connect, evolve and thrive in today’s working world.”
Squadify was gestated inside a professional services firm that work-tested concept with its own clients. Pia and Dan then spun Squadify out as an independent business in 2021. Today it is a 100 per cent virtual business with team members in Australia, the Philippines, Colombia and the UK, giving Pia and Dan the capacity to hire talent from across the globe and to serve clients anywhere.
Squadify is a SaaS platform that tracks 37 team-success factors, validated by London School of Economics as the key drivers of team performance. The user experience and analytical engine were developed by the Squadify team, mostly coded in Java Script. Working on the basis that they go where the teams are, Squadify is now available through MS Teams and also through Learning Management Systems.
With so few platforms that focus so practically on building team capability and give such fast results, the platform has been well-received. About 20,000 leaders and team members use Squadify and they are seeing double-digit improvements in connection and performance. Clients include teams from all industries and all levels. A national retailer in Australia has rolled Squadify out to 1000 teams and Google in the US is harnessing the platform to support its team-leader development. The Kids’ Cancer Project doubled its fundraising after 10 months of starting to use the platform.
“Squadify now has a million data points into how teams are evolving in the new world of work,” Pia says. “We aim to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning to utilise these insights to deliver individualised guidance and development for leaders and their teams. A mobile app is planned that will deliver skills, ‘hacks’ and coaching insights, which puts teamwork in the hands of anyone. That’s the heart of our vision.”
This article first appeared in issue 39 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
