Ryan Brown recognized a need for a better way to find clean public restrooms when she had a particularly unpleasant experience changing her child’s diaper in a restaurant bathroom. Upon entering, the former clinical research executive realized the facility didn’t have a changing table installed, so she had to make do with a cabinet.
“For me, just knowing in advance what was or wasn’t available or what I could do would have changed the game in that moment. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: ‘I can’t be the only one.’”
To that point, Brown’s research uncovered that, per the American Gastrointestinal Association, approximately 60 million Americans suffer from gastrointestinal-related issues—and 50% of parents avoid outings due specifically to restroom concerns.
“So it doesn’t just impact our first core area of families, which directly impacts me, but it’s a problem that impacts so many, and I want to help change the game.”
Driven by her research and personal experience, Brown began to develop Squadies, a Raleigh startup revolving around an innovative and intuitive app that helps users locate clean, reliable public bathrooms in real time.
The team is also building in a unique feature called the Proprietary Trust Score—a tool similar to a credit score rating but considering categories like the hygiene and accessibility of public restrooms. Any ratings are verified by Squadies’ business partners, ultimately producing what Brown called a “clean access zone dashboard.”
“It’s really like a flywheel effect, where the more data that we can get in, the better we can refine our predictions, and the better outcomes for end users, both on the partnering side, but also for folks like us.”
The Squadies business model
When Brown officially launches the Squadies app in the near future, it will be free to download for the public. Premium upgrades will be provided with a paid plan, but that aspect is still in the works.
Meanwhile, Brown and her team will earn revenue primarily by providing their services to their government and business partners.
“And as a result of some of those partnerships, we’ve been able to exponentially grow our wait list, so we’re really excited to be able to roll this out.”
The Squadies team is currently raising pre-seed funding from early angel investors. Brown noted that they have not received any grants at the moment but are applying.
Expanding the map
Since this past May, Squadies has mapped roughly 248 locations in the Triangle area and verified 40 restroom facilities. The startup has also held discussions with various municipalities throughout Durham and Wake County to bring in pilots.
The team has also conducted market research, working with 10 focus groups from various segments of their market, along with some key personas.
They have also completed their minimum viable product prototype and are testing how AI can help improve location accuracy and optimize hygiene scores for the platform.
Brown shared that Squadies was recently accepted for the Launch Fuquay Varina accelerator, a 10-week training program supporting entrepreneurs. The team also took part in the Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) Forge program, a community of new and experienced founders working to strengthen tech companies in North Carolina with additional resources and tools.
As of this writing, Brown and her advisory team are working on launching their pilot and proof of concept with help from one of their area partners.
The company is also aiming to bring more investors on board and secure more municipal partners in other areas to monetize their dashboard.
Brown and her team have observed that other entities in this market are not as wide-reaching, typically serving only certain regions. With this in mind, one of their goals is to make Squadies as expansive as possible.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Squadies
Founder: Ryan Brown
Founded: 2025
Team size: 1 (plus 5 advisors)
Location: Raleigh
Website: www.gosquadies.com
Funding: Raising pre-seed ($1.5M SAFE)
“Our goal is to start here in the Triangle and scale our clean access zones across 10 metros, integrating [the Squadies app] with other smart city platforms to be able to license our hygiene data to public health, ESG groups, and tourism agencies so we can expand globally.”
The startup is actively tracking a waitlist on its web page for people interested in gaining early access to the platform.
As they continue to grow, Brown wants people to understand that “this isn’t just convenience—it’s a public health, equity, and economic opportunity.”
Those interested in giving insight to Squadies can sign up for the waitlist through earlyaccess.gosquadies.com to get early access.
