Shownotes
More than 600 companies are building autism technology, yet most families have never heard of them. What could change if AI, communication tools, sensory technology, and future neurotechnology reached the people who need them?
Dan Feshbach, founder of Multiple and co-founder of TeachTown, joins Nadia Elkhatib to explore the hidden world of autism technology. They discuss what families actually need from innovation, why strong ideas often fail before they reach daily life, and how technology may support communication, connection, regulation, employment, and independence.
Dan also shares the deeply personal experience that shaped his work. During a letterboard session, his son Reed described his experience in four words: “I live in silence.” His vision of a normal life was not about technology itself. It was about friendship, meaningful work, communication, independence, and being able to move through the world more freely.
In this episode:
• Why more than 600 autism technology companies remain largely invisible to families
• AI and autism, including pattern recognition, faster prototyping, and the limits of current systems
• AAC for autism and communication support for nonspeaking people
• Assistive technology for autism, including augmented reality, sensory tools, haptic devices, distraction-filtering eyewear, and digital support characters
• Why technology should support a person’s life rather than become the life
• What makes a useful tool different from a shiny object
• Why autism innovation faces a “first mile of capital” problem
• What Multiple looks for in founders applying to its accelerator
• What mission-aligned investors, donors, mentors, and limited partners can contribute
• The future of brain-computer interfaces and minimally invasive communication technology
• Why families cannot wait another 15 years for meaningful solutions
CONNECT WITH DAN FESHBACH AND MULTIPLE
Multiple:
https://www.multiplehub.org/
Multiple Autism-Tech Database:
https://www.multiplehub.org/autism-tech-database
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Website:
https://biohackautism.com/
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https://www.youtube.com/@BiohackingAutism
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LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiaelkhatib/
Follow Biohacking Autism on your podcast app, and share this episode with someone who wants a clearer view of the technology, communication tools, and innovation being built for people with autism.
DISCLOSURE
Dan Feshbach is the founder of Multiple and discusses companies and initiatives connected to Multiple’s accelerator and autism-innovation ecosystem. Biohacking Autism has not independently evaluated or endorsed the companies, apps, devices, technologies, or research programs discussed in this episode.
MEDICAL AND EDUCATIONAL DISCLAIMER
This episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health protocol or your child’s protocol. Emerging technologies and research discussed in this episode may be investigational, early-stage, or not yet validated for autism.
ABOUT BIOHACKING AUTISM
Biohacking Autism with Nadia Elkhatib explores complex questions affecting people with autism and the families who love them. Through expert conversations, lived experience, and evidence-aware discussion, the podcast examines communication, nervous-system regulation, caregiver health, emerging research, technology, and the practical decisions families face every day.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
Welcome back to Biohacking Autism,
Speaker:the show about real solutions for people with autism and the ones who love them.
Speaker:I'm Nadia Elkhatib and when I think about Jimmy's future,
Speaker:I keep coming back to a question that is much bigger than any one therapy,
Speaker:a school, or service. So, what's gonna happen when the amount of human support
Speaker:our children need is simply more?
Speaker:Then the system can provide, and our numbers are increasing every day.
Speaker:And could technology become part of the answer?
Speaker:So I asked a version of that question in my conversation with Brian Jacobs,
Speaker:who we're talking about adulthood and employment.
Speaker:And I wondered out loud whether AI could become the great equalizer
Speaker:for people with autism.
Speaker:So I haven't stopped thinking about that.
Speaker:And because I think there may be two enormous opportunities at the same time:
Speaker:one biomedical using AI to make sense of huge messy data sets,
Speaker:and perhaps help us find patterns,
Speaker:biological subgroups, and eventually,
Speaker:frankly, better answers. The other is much more immediate and human.
Speaker:Communication, connection, safety,
Speaker:social navigation, and independence.
Speaker:That is why I wanted today's guest here.
Speaker:Dan Feshbach and I are both in the Bay Area in Silicon Valley,
Speaker:and we have crossed paths so many times over the years through conversations around
Speaker:autism, technology, and research.
Speaker:And Dan is a social entrepreneur,
Speaker:and he is the founder and chairman of the board of ~ the nonprofit called Multiple.
Speaker:It's a nonprofit innovation platform for the autism community that connects.
Speaker:Startups, entrepreneurs, and investors,
Speaker:as well as other stakeholders.
Speaker:His work in autism innovation began after his son,
Speaker:Reed, was diagnosed with autism at age two.
Speaker:So he went on to co-found a company called TeachTown It's
Speaker:a digital education platform for children through adulthood with autism,
Speaker:and later founded again, Multiple to help accelerate promising autism focused
Speaker:companies and connect them with mentorship.
Speaker:resources and investors. So today I want to start with Reed,
Speaker:then zoom all the way out to the future AI,
Speaker:assistive technology, hardware,
Speaker:brain-computer interfaces, adulthood independence,
Speaker:and what the next generation of autism companies could actually make possible.
Speaker:So Dan welcome to Biohacking Autism.
Speaker:Hey,
Speaker:I'm really excited to be here and ~ it'll be I I'm looking forward to your questions
Speaker:Wonderful, wonderful. So before we talk about companies or technologies,
Speaker:I'd love to start with Reed. So can you take me back to when he was diagnosed?
Speaker:What did the world look like for your family then and what was missing that
Speaker:you desperately wished at the time existed?
Speaker:Well that was let's see, that was roughly thirty-one years ago.
Speaker:So the in in those days, first,
Speaker:you get the diagnosis or the word.
Speaker:And you're devastated. I I can't imagine any parent not going kind of like wanted
Speaker:to crawl in a cave, right?
Speaker:And you're just, you don't know what it means,
Speaker:you don't know what's gonna happen.
Speaker:so you kind of pick yourself up,
Speaker:like all parents. we don't have a choice,
Speaker:but we often we all do. And ~ in those days,
Speaker:it was literally a desert. Now you're talking call
Speaker:it 32 years ago,
Speaker:there there were really great people then.
Speaker:They were really pioneers in whether it was therapy or speech therapy
Speaker:or or whatever it was. But you're kind of bewildered and you start you
Speaker:put your head up, you kind of look at your neighborhood,
Speaker:you look at what's going on, where do we start?
Speaker:So with Reed, he was a very curious kid,
Speaker:loved to look at books, loved to he had some language that he lost
Speaker:or pointing that he lost, and the journey began ~ to try to,
Speaker:put something together. I'm an entrepreneur.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:We had ideas early on, but they all centered around,
Speaker:okay, how's this kid gonna get an education?
Speaker:Right? and how are
Speaker:Yeah. Okay, education. focus.
Speaker:we gonna, you know, bring the best tools available to him?
Speaker:And and so, we kind of just we began,
Speaker:Reed's mom and I. and and on that path,
Speaker:we met amazing people that helped our guy.
Speaker:And ~ and we learned a lot from families,
Speaker:primarily families, but also some good therapists.
Speaker:and looking at it then compared to now,
Speaker:I mean we're in the beginning,
Speaker:if not a literal oasis compared to where we were before.
Speaker:and some of it's just by the sheer nature of autism and the number
Speaker:of people affected and the number of people who
Speaker:Basically have, you could say have no choice but to create and build.
Speaker:So I mean that's the beginning.
Speaker:~ and I would add one more thing.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker:His biggest challenge
Speaker:has always been the ability to communicate.
Speaker:So that's been the theme in my life that holds everything I do around
Speaker:is kind of focused around that.
Speaker:Yeah, I unfortunately understand this very,
Speaker:very well because that's definitely an issue we have as well.
Speaker:So then you had this missing piece,
Speaker:was which was his education and communication.
Speaker:And then it became something that you build,
Speaker:but just not something that you wished.
Speaker:Well, maybe you wished somebody would build it,
Speaker:but it didn't happen. So you just built it yourself.
Speaker:So it helped you le it led you to co-found ~ Teachtown.
Speaker:So what problem were you trying to solve and what did building Teachtown teach
Speaker:you about the difference between a technology that looks impressive
Speaker:and a technology families and school will actually use?
Speaker:Well, that's probably several hours,
Speaker:but I'll try to bring it, you know,
Speaker:bring it in tight. first, we started with co-founding a school with four other
Speaker:families for Reed in Marin. And that school had no curriculum.
Speaker:We were making it up as we went.
Speaker:and ~ and out of that was two kind of two general problems.
Speaker:So one was
Speaker:that the rate of learning language for my son was way too
Speaker:way too s low
Speaker:The there's a lot of methodologies and approaches to to language learning that
Speaker:I looked into in s in a lot of depth.
Speaker:And so, we didn't have really access to that kind of expertise.
Speaker:So we started off, building Teachtown to try to really make up for that gap.
Speaker:So, and then your other question was,
Speaker:this question about a shiny object versus what worked.
Speaker:So I'm going to tell you at the beginning right up front,
Speaker:technology was at a point where where you can't experiment like you
Speaker:can today with AI. So when you started to build something,
Speaker:to build a prototype was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker:You didn't get a prototype built.
Speaker:We built it on Macromedia Director.
Speaker:And we hired, you know, programmers and we did a lot of work around that.
Speaker:two things happened. One was my son loved Sesame Street.
Speaker:He loved Disney. He got access to these wonderful living books,
Speaker:and nothing looked like that.
Speaker:That you could build without mil probably millions then,
Speaker:but you know, and we ultimately did spend millions in building the
Speaker:in building this product and the company.
Speaker:But so, you know, we learned the hard way.
Speaker:And the hardest thing for me was that Reed ultimately rejected Teachtown,
Speaker:never wanted to use it, never was interested,
Speaker:and even when we brought in incredible animated characters.
Speaker:from a from the a man named Terry Thoren who who basically created
Speaker:the Rugrats after his own kid's image.
Speaker:And we had the top
Speaker:Mm-hmm. Wow.
Speaker:animation, you know, you couldn't get a better animation producer than Terry Thoren
Speaker:and and no, it we it you know it didn't resonate.
Speaker:The characters didn't resonate with him.
Speaker:And we were, you know, effectively we were pregnant.
Speaker:We were not we were gonna have to deliver the baby.
Speaker:Yeah, we
Speaker:yeah, it's happening.
Speaker:at that point, you know, I had invested a lot of dough.
Speaker:I had brought investors in, ~ some famous investors like Peter Ueberroth.
Speaker:I don't know if that name even rings a bell,
Speaker:but he was at one point head of Major League Baseball and so on.
Speaker:so that journey turned out to be,
Speaker:you know, w when we sold it to Bain.
Speaker:in 2020, let's call it a 15-year journey to get it off the ground.
Speaker:Many arrows in the back. And I like to think that all that cumulated experience gets
Speaker:concentrated at Teachtown. I am an operator,
Speaker:I am a builder, then how do you make sure the thing that you're building
Speaker:really resonates and can work for families right now.
Speaker:I think I mentioned earlier that we think about the speed of family.
Speaker:We don't think about what's going to happen in 15 years from now.
Speaker:But many things that were born 15 years ago that are in the market are awesome.
Speaker:But I'm,
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:you know, we're living it every day.
Speaker:So
Speaker:More like yeah, exactly.
Speaker:I'll just just to kind of try to wrap a bow around that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Today you can build and test so fast with AI.
Speaker:So one of the, you know, there's so many different advantages that AI gives you,
Speaker:its ability to actually write code itself.
Speaker:I use it, I'm building another company for non-speakers.
Speaker:that's a platform that involves the ability to everything from digitize
Speaker:the letterboard all the way through
Speaker:being able to report and monitor sessions and get reports on actually what happened
Speaker:in a session. So all of these things can be done.
Speaker:I prototyped a lot of them myself and we have
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:a small team, tiny team. That would have been,
Speaker:you know, like twenty people when I started
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:on my journey as an entrepreneur.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that's that's amazing. And by the way,
Speaker:that's part of my optimism there.
Speaker:You're saying this and it's literally filling my heart with hope and
Speaker:joy because I can picture it. I can picture all these gaps.
Speaker:And we'll talk about AI in a little bit,
Speaker:but it's giving me a lot of hope.
Speaker:But talking about speed and families,
Speaker:you talked to me about your motto.
Speaker:And so after Teachtown, you did like we said,
Speaker:something really interesting. You didn't s simply build so you exited.
Speaker:Teachtown. That's amazing. That's a that's a huge win.
Speaker:But you did not simply build another product.
Speaker:You decided now to help build the whole ecosystem.
Speaker:Why build one when you can build so many?
Speaker:So you build the ecosystem ecosystem around the product.
Speaker:And so why did you create Multiple?
Speaker:And what was broken in the
Speaker:in the autism and we talked about it a little bit offline,
Speaker:but in the autism innovation ecosystem that a single company could not fix.
Speaker:~
Speaker:well let me just ~ r reference back to my journey.
Speaker:So when we we when we were building Teachtown,
Speaker:when I was at one point I was the CEO and it was very clear that
Speaker:my knowledge of selling the school district rounded to zero.
Speaker:At one point I had in my head when we started,
Speaker:how hard could this be? I built a financial technology platform that had an exit.
Speaker:I I had a team of
Speaker:Coders, I didn't manage them directly,
Speaker:and model builders, financial model builders.
Speaker:And we sold to complex organizations called banks and investment banks
Speaker:and things like that. Well, I I I was pretty much wrong.
Speaker:How hard could it be? Well, it could be incredibly hard because selling
Speaker:to a school district is entirely different.
Speaker:I won't go down that rabbit hole.
Speaker:But then what that led to was some good fortune that you know that I got introduced.
Speaker:To a CEO that first was at a special ed company running
Speaker:it was a roll-up. He had been out of PE named Dave Cappellucci.
Speaker:He he and I were thinking of partnering.
Speaker:Okay, and they they were they were going to invest in us and buy us over time.
Speaker:Very smart man. And then
Speaker:One day one of the people on the board of his company that was looking
Speaker:to acquire when we were at towards the end of due diligence was the head
Speaker:of the school district of New York City,
Speaker:the head, okay. And he said,
Speaker:Mm. Wow.
Speaker:This is a bad investment. There's gonna be a cure for autism with medicine.
Speaker:You just can't make it up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I you know, it just you can't make up honestly stupidity.
Speaker:You just can't.
Speaker:You know, you can't like somebody that just will say in a board meeting something
Speaker:and all of a sudden it's tanked.
Speaker:But from there, Dave left and on his way out,
Speaker:I said, Why don't you run Teachtown?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so, you know, so at that point,
Speaker:which was probably 2013, I was
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:kind of out of a job because I,
Speaker:you know, he knew more about this space than I did by an order of magnitude.
Speaker:I'm still a good idea person.
Speaker:He's trying to manage our cash flow.
Speaker:He's trying to get, he had he brought with him a team of salespeople,
Speaker:of marketing people. He brought a team.
Speaker:And and it was hard even then to raise money.
Speaker:We had a massively down round.
Speaker:I got crushed in that down road round.
Speaker:I won't go down those details,
Speaker:but I ended up with a good chunk of equity out of that.
Speaker:And Dave, you know.
Speaker:Good. Thank goodness.
Speaker:They did great. So then at that point it was two thousand fourteen,
Speaker:fifteen, thirteen
Speaker:I started to have the idea of an accelerator.
Speaker:I got interested in hackathons.
Speaker:I met a
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:well-known professor who's now at Northeastern named Matthew Goodwin.
Speaker:~ he's building amazing tech to predict seizures and meltdowns.
Speaker:yeah,
Speaker:in his lab, he and I sketched out what an accelerator might look like.
Speaker:And while he w he and I weren't able to partner all the way through
Speaker:for many different reasons. so in two thousand fourteen,
Speaker:I was out of a job and I have this idea.
Speaker:How hard could it be to get a you know an accelerator and autism off the ground?
Speaker:Well, it was very hard, but we ended up once I s we had the Teachtown exit.
Speaker:So then what's the problem we're solving,
Speaker:right? At at Multiple?
Speaker:that there's there's three or four things.
Speaker:and at that point when we started it,
Speaker:I had a a really close friend,
Speaker:Sean O'Sullivan, had an accelerator.
Speaker:I got introduced to him and I said,
Speaker:yeah, of course. Mm-hmm. I know.
Speaker:wow, ~ coach me. And he has
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:for a long time, and has given a lot of advice and has given financial support
Speaker:to Multiple. I I met him at Elizabeth Horn's house.
Speaker:Yep. That's where I met them as well.
Speaker:And and the and
Speaker:Uh-huh.
Speaker:the three of us also
Speaker:out of a convening she had, you know,
Speaker:got together and decided that we were going to organize the Autism Impact Fund.
Speaker:I yeah, so and we we did.
Speaker:Mm-hmm. ~ okay. Yes, of course.
Speaker:And I
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and and there was a there's a story there,
Speaker:but going going kind of cycling forward,
Speaker:~
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:the funds that were emerging in the space were not the
Speaker:first mile of capital. So I'm a zero
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:to one person, meaning I like to take things from z nothing and getting them
Speaker:Again. Mm-hmm.
Speaker:started and then bringing in a a team ~
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:along the way. And so it was very clear to me that there were many ideas emerging.
Speaker:I would get just because of my position at Teachtown,
Speaker:you know, I would get inbound inquiries,
Speaker:I want some advice,
Speaker:Started to advise some companies because I was out of a job,
Speaker:because Dave took over. And so,
Speaker:To do, yeah.
Speaker:you
Speaker:know, it it's sort and sort of,
Speaker:you know, based on a lot of things,
Speaker:once we had our exit, you know,
Speaker:it's you can't imagine a founder's journey in an environment where most people don't
Speaker:think autism is a market, the traditional VCs,
Speaker:and where
Speaker:Yeah. Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Many investors
Speaker:who do invest in the space are investing in ABA therapy centers,
Speaker:which is really not it's a it's not the same thing.
Speaker:You're not
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Let's move on,
Speaker:guys. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. It's not
Speaker:it's not the same thing as controversial as is as many have gone bust through
Speaker:the PE process, rolled up and so on.
Speaker:So I looked at that and I looked at founders coming our way,
Speaker:looking for advice, looking for support,
Speaker:ideas
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:that I had had. And so there was just nothing out there for autism startups just
Speaker:getting going that had actual
Speaker:real knowledge, had has you know had access to operators
Speaker:who actually were not in the stands,
Speaker:had been right with them starting,
Speaker:and who might have a kid on you know,
Speaker:might have a kid, might be autistic themselves,
Speaker:So and so there was a big I saw a big gap.
Speaker:I don't think we're the center of the universe,
Speaker:in fact.
Speaker:We don't want to be the center of the universe.
Speaker:We just want to be part of an ecosystem,
Speaker:but we also have created our own ecosystem around early stage innovation.
Speaker:And so that's, you know, I think there's a big space there for us.
Speaker:And we're the first autism acceleration program,
Speaker:but we're still the only independent from a university.
Speaker:You know, Vanderbilt's
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:doing great work and so are others,
Speaker:but you know, we ha and but we only do autism twenty four seven.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Amazing. And look, there's so much work to be done there.
Speaker:So frankly, there should be more than one,
Speaker:but there isn't more than one.
Speaker:So really it all falls back on you,
Speaker:Dan, you know, for now. ~
Speaker:Really, because
Speaker:I do want to give a shout out to Vanderbilt.
Speaker:I do want to give a shout out to a budding program at ~ Arizona State University
Speaker:that's being started. It's called the Spark Center.
Speaker:I do there's so many people that are that are,
Speaker:you know, catalyzing in the space.
Speaker:I we are just part of a much bigger thing that's going on globally.
Speaker:You can see it
Speaker:Just for our perspective, you can see the the beginnings of you know this
Speaker:~ oasis of technology solutions if you just look at our application flow.
Speaker:So when we started, we probably got 20,
Speaker:20, 30. We consistently are now getting 90,
Speaker:and we're trying to figure out how to grow our program to absorb the best,
Speaker:right? The best, the ones that
Speaker:that that meet the milestones,
Speaker:that do the work, that have the teams,
Speaker:and so on. So it's like from my point of view,
Speaker:you know, we we see all sorts of people having ideas about ~ you know,
Speaker:what what would you call them?
Speaker:Venture studios and this and that and like the more the merrier.
Speaker:Absolutely. And that's why I'm hoping that this I like to lead with hope
Speaker:and optimism. So I'm hoping that this episode will fall on so many ears
Speaker:of budding entrepreneurs, but also VCs and LPs that are looking at
Speaker:the field and for them to understand that there is a need out there.
Speaker:There's a huge, huge need. There's so many gaps and so many solutions
Speaker:to be implemented. so now, because of Multiple,
Speaker:of course, you have an unusual.
Speaker:view of the field because of where you are,
Speaker:where almost no one else is, maybe a couple of people,
Speaker:but you are right there at the center of it.
Speaker:So you have an autism tech database and it says that there's more than
Speaker:600 companies across fifteen categories.
Speaker:Can you see patterns that
Speaker:most pattern parents can't see?
Speaker:yeah, for sure. And it's actually quite a lot more than that.
Speaker:More.
Speaker:Because we're a bit
Speaker:bootstrapped, you know, we're a bit bootstrapped
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:as an organization, we've we have cataloged privately more than we've
Speaker:put into the database, which we're in the middle of doing.
Speaker:So, you know, I would expect us to break a thousand.
Speaker:And certainly just in our universe,
Speaker:if you just take
Speaker:Our universe, Autism Impact Fund,
Speaker:the K. Ventures and others,
Speaker:if you take the sum of the portfolios that have gotten backing from a series,
Speaker:you know, a series seed or a pre-seed all the way to series A and higher,
Speaker:now you're talking about vetted companies,
Speaker:ours and theirs.
Speaker:And we are thinking that's in the hundred range,
Speaker:okay? And
Speaker:One hundred.
Speaker:yeah, that the the the fully vetted,
Speaker:but I this is a guesstimate right now.
Speaker:This is at least within our knowledge base that companies we could recommend
Speaker:to a parent or
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:to a caregiver or to a service provider.
Speaker:Theoretically, we can diligence many more than us,
Speaker:like call
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:it a subset of what we have in our database.
Speaker:~
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and then with that, our COO, Cait Russell is building a navigator.
Speaker:So parents and institutions can have curated,
Speaker:not not just going on the on a database and trying to
Speaker:Sort through what the hell is there,
Speaker:but a curated situation where they will know about the companies out there.
Speaker:It feeds the companies, it feeds the parents,
Speaker:Yes. Yes.
Speaker:it
Speaker:feeds the caregivers, it feeds everybody.
Speaker:And, you know, our point of view is:
Speaker:all right, now you built it. Now how do you get discovered?
Speaker:Right? How do you get discovered not only by investors,
Speaker:but how do you get discovered in the market?
Speaker:Assuming.
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:Because if you're marketing
Speaker:in a state and you're a parent in a state where that company is not marketing
Speaker:or not as well known or hasn't been vetted by the school district,
Speaker:you're hard to get visibility.
Speaker:So, you know, we think navigation is a big thing.
Speaker:Knowing about the companies and being able to talk to investors about
Speaker:the space is also important. But we care about getting ~ the word out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So
Speaker:that these great companies that most people have not heard of,
Speaker:except if you're an insider in a you know tech center and you come across them.
Speaker:Yeah. No. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, so that's you know, that's a big thing that ~ that the you know
Speaker:the database is designed to be very actionable and and and we hope to have
Speaker:a proof of concept that's really visible that can be visible and shared
Speaker:2026.
Speaker:we're gonna start slow. Okay, this
Speaker:is our advice to startups, okay?
Speaker:This is all of our advice to startups boil down into one thing.
Speaker:Make
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:sure that people who who benefit from we what you have,
Speaker:make sure that you have a f you know,
Speaker:a number of people who will just kick our ass,
Speaker:okay.
Speaker:This is not about a shiny object going back to the beginning of our conversation.
Speaker:This is about this is about making something that really works.
Speaker:And no parent wants to go into a database and get 10 results and have
Speaker:to vet it themselves, right? Who the hell?
Speaker:Agreed.
Speaker:I
Speaker:mean, no there's so many apps out there.
Speaker:This, by the way, our tech doesn't speak to the many unvetted,
Speaker:unproven apps that have never been
Speaker:reviewed professionally or academically that are you can get,
Speaker:you know, in the App Store or on Google.
Speaker:there's there's many claims that get made.
Speaker:You just have to go on Instagram.
Speaker:Yeah, yes, of course. Of course.
Speaker:And I'm hoping to spread the word also for all of these companies.
Speaker:We'll put in the show notes your database.
Speaker:And I'm hoping our audience now will have access to it very soon.
Speaker:And also I'll reach out to some of these companies.
Speaker:I would love to talk to them and and present their products to to people.
Speaker:So I absolutely agree. I think there's a big connection to be made.
Speaker:I think there's a need and there's a solution.
Speaker:We just need to
Speaker:Yeah, have to bring it together
Speaker:Yeah, right.
Speaker:in some you know, quasi marketplace and and we're gonna do that.
Speaker:So today compared to five years ago,
Speaker:what feels meaningfully different?
Speaker:Like what areas are maybe moving a little bit faster and where are
Speaker:you seeing the most exciting progress for families?
Speaker:Wow,
Speaker:there is
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:so many sectors where we're seeing it,
Speaker:right? So, you
Speaker:Great. Okay.
Speaker:know, if you think about social emotional learning,
Speaker:there's ~ quite a few companies in that space
Speaker:So there's Vanessa Gill has a company called Social Cipher,
Speaker:and it's for she is autistic and was early in her life not a speaker,
Speaker:and she's now a gifted leader,
Speaker:and she's very public about what she uses for herself,
Speaker:by the way, to manage her own emotions in her own situation.
Speaker:she was, you know, she was in our first batch and sh has a partnership with
Speaker:the LEGO Foundation that have given her,
Speaker:you know, at least a couple million in non-dilutive capital and are backing her.
Speaker:Okay, so and they're and they've helped her really amazingly improve her product.
Speaker:And her product itself is for neurodivergent youth to build their
Speaker:own social skills and knowledge.
Speaker:And and she has amazing traction in school districts,
Speaker:much faster than we did at Teachtown.
Speaker:I mean, I think she's a better entrepreneur than I was.
Speaker:Yeah. I think she's no, I think she's a really
Speaker:Just a difference methodology.
Speaker:Yeah, she's really, really an exceptional woman,
Speaker:and that I think highly of. ~ another company that I'm
Speaker:Am I high on so many? Okay. So I you know,
Speaker:I I brought I brought lists of announcements that we made.
Speaker:Okay. But ~ I'm very high on a company called Unique Minds.
Speaker:the founders come out of ~ Microsoft,
Speaker:where the team
Speaker:led the Azure AI stack construction.
Speaker:then they in turn went on to do the same thing at Oracle and also at Dell.
Speaker:And Elad, who's the leader, the CEO,
Speaker:and Corom who was his product guy.
Speaker:Corom
Speaker:Has a cognitively challenged daughter,
Speaker:and he started to build out a product of think of them as digital support animals.
Speaker:So you have your favorite, you know,
Speaker:you might have your favorite bear that you hug,
Speaker:or your favorite thing
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:you go to bed with, or or a character you like,
Speaker:and they have built this incredible capability.
Speaker:To build all sorts of things for families in real time with AI,
Speaker:like you know, whether it's transition to school,
Speaker:whether it's brushing your teeth,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:whether it's so instead of a parent trying to cobble that together,
Speaker:you go there and you it's instant on.
Speaker:it's an app on your phone. Yeah.
Speaker:~ okay.
Speaker:And it's a really great piece of work and available today and built
Speaker:by them with their incredible experience along with their clinical director.
Speaker:They they're based in Redmond,
Speaker:they're great
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:great humans.
Speaker:These these both sound like literally I can see myself using both of them for Jimmy.
Speaker:That sounds fantastic, amazing.
Speaker:Yeah. And again it's the speed of family,
Speaker:you know, the the mindset. Yeah,
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker:the mindset. ~
Speaker:I there's one other one that I'd like there's so many I wanna call out,
Speaker:but I'll call out one more,
Speaker:so there's a neurodivergent founder out of Ireland who has something called
Speaker:the Focus Collective. And he's built
Speaker:Some glasses or eyewear that that dim peripheral vision
Speaker:and filter out distractions and create a calmer work environment.
Speaker:And
Speaker:Yeah, you said.
Speaker:so his company has gotten a lot of backing,
Speaker:both from the Irish government as well as from a whole bunch of different
Speaker:tech company that's been that's been supporting him,
Speaker:but Joel Olympio is just one of these guys.
Speaker:from day one when I met him, it's like this is gonna be a real company.
Speaker:And I really love
Speaker:Wow, yeah.
Speaker:his work.
Speaker:he's very very smart, very fast learner.
Speaker:And
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:these glasses are just represent I mean,
Speaker:you haven't heard of any of these three things,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:No. so I'm I'm just thinking, wow,
Speaker:this would be an amazing acquisition for for a company like Meta
Speaker:I
Speaker:know we're on the same page, Nadia.
Speaker:About 60 companies have gone through the accelerator.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:you know, and look, if you have an application stream of 90,
Speaker:we're actually turning down companies that have potential.
Speaker:And one of our visions for the next year is to grow our support
Speaker:for companies that are not quite ready for prime time.
Speaker:We do have a pre-accelerator that
Speaker:17 companies have gone through,
Speaker:maybe a little bit more. But the fact is that this
Speaker:is a global possible accelerator.
Speaker:And when you think about what we see when we s when we do research looking
Speaker:for companies to be in the accelerator or looking
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:for companies for the database,
Speaker:we
Speaker:see, a real
Speaker:sector that is going to help our kids,
Speaker:you know, and we've got like we've got at least six million only here in America,
Speaker:right? Think about
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:and there's innovation in India.
Speaker:There's in I don't know any country in the world that that we don't know
Speaker:all of the innovation in those countries.
Speaker:we have startups fr from all over the world,
Speaker:from Australia to India
Speaker:to obviously Europe. and and they're all working like crazy.
Speaker:You talk about a hive, they're working like crazy to get solutions
Speaker:out into the market. And
Speaker:that's
Speaker:great. And the fact if they're all connected with you,
Speaker:then yes, you will also have this ecosystem within Multiple where they
Speaker:can share hopefully ideas or or ~ help each other,
Speaker:you know, in the ecosystem basically.
Speaker:yeah, in fact, you
Speaker:know, you know, if you look at us,
Speaker:we're still very much a startup nonprofit accelerator.
Speaker:We ourselves, you know, we're just bound by capacity right now.
Speaker:We have an amazing team, but we're capacity bound,
Speaker:and that's my mission right now,
Speaker:is to grow the capacity of the team
Speaker:grow our own funding, honestly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:we have great funders.
Speaker:Brian Jacobs is one of our is a funder.
Speaker:Sean O'Sullivan is a funder, and on.
Speaker:we have a strategic plan, we have a lot of focus,
Speaker:our COO is exceptional
Speaker:I'll put it
Speaker:out there to your audience. Anybody that's interested in talking to us about us.
Speaker:So our audience, yes, we do have a lot of researchers,
Speaker:but we also have a lot of entrepreneurs,
Speaker:but we also have a lot of VCs and LPs looking at this,
Speaker:like you said, because it's a global issue,
Speaker:anyways, right? So they're looking for where to invest and
Speaker:and what's gonna move the needle.
Speaker:Who are you looking for to support your company?
Speaker:And then what would you do with that funding?
Speaker:So you mentioned a few people that we know in common,
Speaker:right? And you know, they're very much connected to our world,
Speaker:the autism world, and here's Silicon Valley.
Speaker:~ but what would a great partner look like that would that would fund your company?
Speaker:well it's kind of simple. They have the same passion we do.
Speaker:They want they want to make a difference.
Speaker:there if it's if it's funding Multiple,
Speaker:it's like they get it. You know,
Speaker:they don't get it automatically.
Speaker:They have to get to know us. I mean,
Speaker:I've never been a guy that sells,
Speaker:I'm more a guy that tells. so they want to get to know us.
Speaker:They want to see if they could actually move the needle.
Speaker:by their participation as their network.
Speaker:So we don't just care about like fact the last thing we think about
Speaker:is is the actual money. We think about compatibility culturally and
Speaker:we think about like all of our board,
Speaker:all of our our supporters, we always try to think about their social capital,
Speaker:not just their
Speaker:personal capital and also their own passions because there's a lot
Speaker:of opportunity to really solve problems that are close to you or your loved ones
Speaker:or your family. So it's it's really looking for you know a mission driven person.
Speaker:And if they're interested in our fund,
Speaker:that's a different path, but that's a great path.
Speaker:They can be an LP in our fund,
Speaker:or they can support you know, the mothership.
Speaker:Great, great. So Multiple
Speaker:Others.
Speaker:is a nonprofit mothership and then you also have the fund and of course
Speaker:you have basically the portfolio of companies that will be raising money
Speaker:at some point.
Speaker:They are. In fact,
Speaker:I've often thought, why wouldn't investors want to
Speaker:be involved and participate and be able to watch
Speaker:and listen be involved in the accelerator itself,
Speaker:right? And it's pure diligence,
Speaker:right? You can see who commits to what,
Speaker:you can see how involved they are,
Speaker:you can see who delivers.
Speaker:you get the whole picture. And so there's we do have a a group called
Speaker:the Founding Fifty, which has has the ability to go to those events.
Speaker:And also we do a special demo day where they can practice their pitches
Speaker:to a group of sophisticated investors ahead of the big demo day,
Speaker:and they get a lot of feedback,
Speaker:and you can see the pitches turn really fast after they get that feedback.
Speaker:So there's many ways to be involved with us.
Speaker:And ~ it, you know, and I'm I'm we're just grateful to have the support
Speaker:we have today. we've got 90 in the pipeline that would apply,
Speaker:at least. So we admit 10, we should be admitting at least 20.
Speaker:Then we should
Speaker:Well double.
Speaker:have a program that incubates these businesses,
Speaker:and then of course we have the database.
Speaker:You know, we have a lot of places to grow and we're very targeted
Speaker:and and focused and thanks to the team I don't run this thing day to day.
Speaker:You know, I do I'm very involved.
Speaker:but I'm not the CEO. I'm the board chair.
Speaker:Amazing, amazing. And and of course you're in Silicon Valley.
Speaker:And like you said, you are surrounded by these amazing people that in the valley,
Speaker:in Silicon Valley, were, you know,
Speaker:one the the initial investors in some of the largest companies.
Speaker:You mentioned some of them, but some of them invested in companies like Zoom
Speaker:and Salesforce. And so these are the the caliber of people that you're working with.
Speaker:So these new partners would basically be working alongside you and
Speaker:And all these fantastic people.
Speaker:So I'm sure, I'm sure that everybody will hear your passion for this
Speaker:and your hunger to solve problems.
Speaker:We just need to reduce the friction basically by finding the right partners for you.
Speaker:we're not gonna be satisfied until we can have superscale impact,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:our the companies that have graduated we don't give enough support to.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:but we will.
Speaker:it's a problem, but it's a s it's a good problem to have.
Speaker:It's a solvable problem. It's it's a solvable
Speaker:Yeah, it.
Speaker:problem. We just need the right all these more people in in the right rooms
Speaker:to be able to solve these problems and we'll be able to move things along
Speaker:and and success builds on success.
Speaker:Super smart people, 'cause, you know,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:we we're
Speaker:getting incredible contributions from so many people that are willing to,
Speaker:you know, review a plan, review a pitch deck,
Speaker:talk to the companies, be a mentor.
Speaker:we have an amazing community. We in fact I think of it as a superpower.
Speaker:Like we're powered by the autism community itself.
Speaker:unfortunately, now with autism,
Speaker:there's barely a two-degree of separation.
Speaker:So everybody's impacted somehow,
Speaker:either directly or through a loved one.
Speaker:So this needs everybody's eyes on this problem.
Speaker:And we can work on all of this together.
Speaker:And together, there's no reason we're not going to succeed because there
Speaker:are solutions.
Speaker:There are solutions, they just need to be implemented.
Speaker:And I see several ways that it could happen.
Speaker:One, of course, is biomedical,
Speaker:where AI may finally help us make sense of enormous fragmented data sets
Speaker:and see patterns. Human researchers just can't hold all at once,
Speaker:or definitely not parents either.
Speaker:Another is, and we talked about it a little bit,
Speaker:I would like to go a bit deeper,
Speaker:is assistive technology where AI could help the person with autism interface with
Speaker:the world around them. And then there is
Speaker:Again, another thing we spoke about a little bit,
Speaker:but maybe from a different point of view,
Speaker:and it's companionship, something consistent that could support communication,
Speaker:social skills, connection, independence,
Speaker:and maybe a little bit loneliness.
Speaker:So let's take those one at a time and let's start with the biomedical side.
Speaker:So on the biomedical side, autism research generates ~ enormous amounts
Speaker:of data across
Speaker:Of course, genetics, we know that,
Speaker:but also immune function, metabolism,
Speaker:microbiome, environment development.
Speaker:You spoke about seizures, behaviors,
Speaker:and clinical history. So do you think AI can help us connect those data sets,
Speaker:identify meaningful biological subgroups?
Speaker:~ what do you think AI can realistically change in in that field?
Speaker:wow. Okay, so I think of that possibly I think of that in a number of ways.
Speaker:Firstly,
Speaker:I think the potential of AI is only limited by imagination.
Speaker:And because it basically it it can do things that no human can do.
Speaker:I I use AI to do a first scan over applications.
Speaker:You know, we get this rich data about companies.
Speaker:And who can really get the patterns in that?
Speaker:No one can. So I I've created my own little agent that will analyze applications
Speaker:for me and feed me the data that I think I need in order to really review them.
Speaker:But that's like that's that's a mundane use.
Speaker:But to your, you know, to to to finding patterns where you have incredibly smart
Speaker:researchers, physicians, specialists in all those areas,
Speaker:whether it's microbiome, whether it's
Speaker:the brain. So I think there's a just a lot going on in major university centers
Speaker:around the country and there's a lot there and I I think that's gonna yield results
Speaker:faster possibly. we're I'm hoping that it's not going to
Speaker:be fifteen years before before insight,
Speaker:No. Not acceptable.
Speaker:right? And before solutions. Right.
Speaker:No, we can't. Come on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's way too long. Unacceptable.
Speaker:I mean, Sergey Brin's
Speaker:family office is funding a very big initiative,
Speaker:as you probably know. And so hats off to his family office and him
Speaker:and the people behind him who are d the thought thought leaders that
Speaker:are leading that. we need more of that.
Speaker:There's there's more people in Silicon Valley,
Speaker:maybe not with his wealth, but with significant wealth.
Speaker:that can be part of this, maybe there he'll form a coalition and
Speaker:get more families involved or or other families will get involved and do that.
Speaker:So I'm very optimistic that that's happening and you can't when
Speaker:you have a non-speaking son or daughter,
Speaker:that's a super challenging. I don't know if you call it the most challenging,
Speaker:because every parent that feels pain,
Speaker:their pain and their challenge
Speaker:is severe.
Speaker:I will just I I love the fact that as a community more money is being invested
Speaker:in research. We have a a great partnership at the University of Calgary with
Speaker:a professor ~ named Diwakar Krishnamurthy who
Speaker:is building AR/VR solutions
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:where ~
Speaker:There's a communication coach or practitioner there is an avatar and a board
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:in in virtual space. eventually,
Speaker:you can do letterboarding and not just letterboarding,
Speaker:but also things that regulate the body,
Speaker:regulate the adult or child through his work.
Speaker:And it it's also he is de he's come up with his own methodology based on research.
Speaker:So there's a committee of non-speaking autistic adults who
Speaker:it who are paid and advise and give feedback on the work.
Speaker:And he's a specialist now. he is a specialist now in understanding
Speaker:how to engage people that do not have speech or have limited speech and so
Speaker:on in the process.
Speaker:And it can work
Speaker:that's
Speaker:and that work can also work if somebody's not comfortable with the concept
Speaker:of a spelling and a letterboard.
Speaker:It can work with, any kind of device that requires pointing.
Speaker:Pointing and body movement,
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:you know, so it could work with a traditional AAC device or anything.
Speaker:Yeah. ~ my god, I would love to see that.
Speaker:So yeah, we he would be a great guest for your show.
Speaker:Yeah, that sounds amazing.
Speaker:He you talk about breakthrough
Speaker:technology.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:you know, like myself person like you know,
Speaker:I'm the new company I have, plus myself personally,
Speaker:you know, I'm backing his lab a I am a supporter of his lab.
Speaker:his lab is is exceptional and he has a federated relationships with
Speaker:similar academics in the US at the University of Virginia and and at Rutgers
Speaker:so in general, basically you're talking about AI that would become kind of like
Speaker:an assistive like interface between the person with autism,
Speaker:because that's it basically what you're talking about is in general,
Speaker:our kids are kind of isolated and in this bubble.
Speaker:So this technology would be an interface between the person with autism
Speaker:and just the outside world, whether it's translating social cues or literal words
Speaker:or ~ yeah, or helping them kind of adapt to transitions,
Speaker:which I it might sound very simple to most people,
Speaker:but we know.
Speaker:transitions are difficult for our kids.
Speaker:so like basically how do you see these products?
Speaker:What could real stick realistically like live on a phone?
Speaker:And then you talked also about VR,
Speaker:so of course wearables, ~ glasses,
Speaker:~ wearables like, you know, we all have something that we're wearing.
Speaker:my God, there's so much. I mean,
Speaker:and and by the way, you know, I'm kind of bouncing around between your three
Speaker:different, you know, questions because I see them very interrelated.
Speaker:I mean the
Speaker:research side is the research side and and the the the ability of AI
Speaker:to do things that we can't do harnessed maybe with nanocomputing in the future.
Speaker:Right? So, but then
Speaker:there's a company that's building a mindfulness ~ sensory app that has no interface.
Speaker:It's just these sticks
Speaker:that young kids hold and helps them in emotional activity
Speaker:and regulation and and even
Speaker:with no screen. Yeah,
Speaker:Do they vibrate maybe? Is is that yeah.
Speaker:they do. They vibrate. They have different
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:haptics and different things. ~
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:and they're in the UK and they're not fully in the US yet and everybody that gave
Speaker:them feedback on their business is like please go adult
Speaker:Yes, of course. I would use something like that.
Speaker:I mean, my younger son also would like ha always has fidgets,
Speaker:so I d I just think now, what does the future hold?
Speaker:Well I you know,
Speaker:firstly, I want my son to have
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:friends. I've I've actually w one of his most most emotional sessions with
Speaker:the letterboard was how he described what a normal life was to have.
Speaker:So pardon me if I get a little
Speaker:teary about it, but he basically told his mother,
Speaker:you know, you know, I live in silence.
Speaker:I'm so sorry. This is so hard.
Speaker:And but but but the
Speaker:So
Speaker:other thing he said which was so great,
Speaker:he said I want a normal life.
Speaker:My normal life is I have I I go independently between mom and dad's.
Speaker:I have friends, I have a real job and and
Speaker:I can speak normally.
Speaker:yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And
Speaker:w and we know our kids want that,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Of course. ~ how I mean, I can't even imagine how it must feel to be stuck
Speaker:in this body understanding what's around you,
Speaker:but you you can't talk and then have everybody looking at you as a black
Speaker:box because you don't know what's happening in here if there's no output.
Speaker:And by the way, then challenging
Speaker:So then
Speaker:that. Then the academics
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:and the people who have financial interests in AAC devices that
Speaker:are associated with ASHA, that and they prompt them,
Speaker:right? Do you think a speech therapist doesn't do prompting?
Speaker:Right. Yeah,
Speaker:Of course, hundred percent, one hundred on top of the yeah.
Speaker:but I'm glad they do. I'm glad
Speaker:they do. The whole concept, you know,
Speaker:is like you have academics hiding their financial interests.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Right? And that and
Speaker:and and that's insane. You know,
Speaker:the the thing is how what powers us,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:what? Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker:Authorities is our kids and when what they want,
Speaker:not what we
Speaker:impute what they want.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly. And that's why,
Speaker:frankly, like we were saying offline,
Speaker:we have to power this. We have to lead this effort.
Speaker:And if anyone wants to help us out,
Speaker:great. Would love the help. But you know,
Speaker:we're just gonna have to do it ourselves.
Speaker:And exactly our focus, it's not dogma,
Speaker:it's not financial interest, it's having our kids not be so isolated and
Speaker:so sad. I mean it's just really,
Speaker:really sad. They're living beings that are just in a very difficult situation.
Speaker:We love them. And we're not probably not suffering as much as them,
Speaker:but they are our kids. So it feels very difficult to see them go through
Speaker:all of this and not be able to just fix it.
Speaker:Yeah, that's why I love the work you're doing,
Speaker:your show, the whole ~ the whole thing.
Speaker:And the fact is it can be done.
Speaker:So tech supports those goals.
Speaker:it's not a life in and of itself.
Speaker:Like I don't want my kids' life mediated by technology.
Speaker:I want my I want Reed to be able to
Speaker:you know, improve his ability to communicate and hopefully speak.
Speaker:That's what he wants, right? And I think it's can be done,
Speaker:Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Speaker:right? And w whether that's
Speaker:Well
Speaker:biomedical, whether however that happens,
Speaker:what's the combination?
Speaker:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker:and, you know, we there's just so much that tech can help him.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And and we'll get to that in a little bit.
Speaker:It's it's funny because literally this morning I was having this conversation with
Speaker:my husband, and I think he's gonna be okay with me sharing this,
Speaker:but we regularly touch base on what's next for Jimmy,
Speaker:what's next? And again, I was explaining to him,
Speaker:I'm an engineer, I love exact sciences.
Speaker:I never did medicine or biology because ew you know,
Speaker:I love exact sciences, but really maybe our bodies,
Speaker:our our biology.
Speaker:Isn't exact science. There's just so many parameters that we don't know.
Speaker:And now, hopefully, again, with the help of AI,
Speaker:for our kids to be able to speak,
Speaker:if physically they have everything that's needed,
Speaker:then maybe there's just these few chemical reactions that are not happening.
Speaker:There's some friction somewhere that I'm hoping will help them on that side,
Speaker:but also something that basically
Speaker:I wanted to talk to you about,
Speaker:and that's going to be in the future,
Speaker:and hopefully might help them talk.
Speaker:is ~ of course, there's the AI software,
Speaker:but there's also the hardware and the connection between the hardware
Speaker:and the nervous system, right?
Speaker:So the thought of the thinking is neurotechnology and BCI,
Speaker:brain-computer interfaces.
Speaker:for autism, because there's been a lot of work done for strokes and
Speaker:for ~ traumatic brain injuries and and things like this.
Speaker:But there's a lot of work being done there.
Speaker:So what are your thoughts on that for our kids?
Speaker:Well, you know, you you have to pursue every every option,
Speaker:right? And it's shown, you know,
Speaker:it's clearly shown for stroke patients they can get they can communicate that way.
Speaker:And they can the you know, their words get displayed and get shared
Speaker:and get get heard. So we want that.
Speaker:Like I think, you know, how invasive do you want this to be?
Speaker:You know, we don't we we'd like it to be minimally invasive,
Speaker:of course. Those are the you know,
Speaker:long term investments and it's really human capital and human brain power,
Speaker:that is harnesses the tech to get the insights and to get
Speaker:where we need to go with that.
Speaker:but you, you know, I'm curious,
Speaker:which companies that are getting are there companies that you know
Speaker:of that are getting stood up specifically for autism?
Speaker:No, so trying to ~ to get as connected as possible on the longevity
Speaker:and the biohacking side of things.
Speaker:They're not for autism specifically.
Speaker:They're actually more focused on Alzheimer's,
Speaker:but also brain TBIs and and things like this.
Speaker:That's really the focus because like you were saying at the beginning,
Speaker:unfortunately
Speaker:A lot of the investors and even the entrepreneurs don't understand this
Speaker:nonverbal autism situation and how hard it is and how prevalent it is.
Speaker:It's not, it's not one kid in 10,000.
Speaker:It's a lot of our kids. So they don't understand that.
Speaker:But TBIs and strokes are more well known.
Speaker:Hey, we can extrapolate that.
Speaker:That's fine. They can do the work there,
Speaker:but we can extrapolate it to our kids.
Speaker:So I think for right now it's gonna be extrapolation.
Speaker:It's the same tech and the same IP and the same software that's supporting that
Speaker:tech. But that's actually where we need to go to those people.
Speaker:And I just interviewed ~ Ronjon Nag,
Speaker:~ and he has a longevity venture capital fund and and he's working
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:also with Stanford, you know, Mike Snyder,
Speaker:of course.
Speaker:So there is movement there, there is a demand there.
Speaker:And there are different tools,
Speaker:like you know, some of the neurotech that I have that right now
Speaker:is getting attention for the longevity world and for Alzheimer's.
Speaker:So very few of ~ this neurotech is going from our people,
Speaker:from the autism world to the longevity world.
Speaker:It's that that's where it's starting,
Speaker:and that's okay.
Speaker:We can work with these guys. I I really think there's there needs to
Speaker:be an interface there.
Speaker:I think I'm aware of a of some explorations and some people.
Speaker:But you know, this is the kind of thing that the work of Sergey Brin
Speaker:and others could, you know, really make the difference to really explore that.
Speaker:You know, there's so many fronts to fight on.
Speaker:You know, I I imagine, you know,
Speaker:the question that we all have.
Speaker:Is you know what can help us now and where we actually just have
Speaker:to be friggin' patient, but find the research teams,
Speaker:which is like the BRAIN Foundation is doing and others are doing,
Speaker:but BRAIN Foundation is taking that new science,
Speaker:the the non-mainstream researchers and supporting their work.
Speaker:I think the their work is is important as well.
Speaker:it's like it's impressive
Speaker:So yeah, Pramila is doing a fantastic job and we'll have her also on the podcast.
Speaker:~ so yeah, I think that's amazing.
Speaker:I think there's a lot patience.
Speaker:Ooh, I don't know. I don't know,
Speaker:Dan on this side of the screen.
Speaker:I don't know if I have the patience,
Speaker:No, it happened you know, I
Speaker:fortunately.
Speaker:I could argue against myself, okay,
Speaker:because you know
Speaker:there are areas in my own mind where does this make sense,
Speaker:but there are people that have birthed important diagnostic
Speaker:tools in autism.
Speaker:and ~ that have taken in forty million dollars between grants
Speaker:and capital that ~ are really important work
Speaker:and need to exist forty million if we take that number many tech companies
Speaker:raise way more than forty million bucks and we're competing with AI returns.
Speaker:where does the talent go? Where is it recruited?
Speaker:Where is it paid its highest return on the talent itself?
Speaker:It's not in autism right now.
Speaker:I'm just saying if if talent drives creation,
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:then we need to be having to do the recruiting,
Speaker:and that's where the community matters but it's still a rough trade-off
Speaker:for so many people.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely. But I would say that if we are solving a real problem
Speaker:and if we are able to get enough adoption,
Speaker:then maybe that's not an issue anymore.
Speaker:So really it's really about the numbers.
Speaker:And there's so many people with autism.
Speaker:So maybe the biggest gap is about before adoption is discovery.
Speaker:So let's make sure that these companies are discovered.
Speaker:And let's also make sure that these founders that are maybe trying
Speaker:to solve the problem for themselves because they're on the spectrum themselves,
Speaker:so they have a child with autism,
Speaker:then that they can find people like you and come to you.
Speaker:So you can in turn introduce them to these VCs
Speaker:and also these mentors that could help them,
Speaker:right? So so yeah.
Speaker:Sure. I that's our game, right?
Speaker:That's the game
Speaker:we're playing. And you know, and that's the world we're in and and
Speaker:and from like from my point of view,
Speaker:that's the job, right? That is the literal job that ecosystem builders like
Speaker:us have and venture capital has who's in the space and we clearly need more
Speaker:venture capital to enter this space.
Speaker:I'll talk to anybody. We have the data to be able to show where
Speaker:the opportunities are from a both an impact perspective as well as a as well
Speaker:as a return perspective. But I like to think of impact as a high standard that
Speaker:we hold ourselves to, because then you could invest in an
Speaker:ABA revenue optimization company.
Speaker:Is that
Speaker:What we want, what we need, no.
Speaker:I mean, they need it, but that's like that's what they need.
Speaker:But we our community needs something different.
Speaker:you know, I'm bullish.
Speaker:Period. Yeah, I'm really bullish.
Speaker:So they so Dan, if you have founders and entrepreneurs that are listening right now,
Speaker:who would be a good fit for Multiple?
Speaker:Who who should come and talk to you?
Speaker:That's a great question. So I'll talk about it on three levels.
Speaker:Our accelerator, you have to have
Speaker:A an MVP or a minimally lovable product,
Speaker:you know, you have to show some traction.
Speaker:you you're ~ you may have very few customers,
Speaker:but if you have zero customers and say you're not working full-time on this,
Speaker:you're better off at our pre-accelerator and other programs that we're imagining,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:and we will give very good feedback to you through the process.
Speaker:But having some traction, having,
Speaker:you know, a plus is an experienced founder,
Speaker:but that's not a requirement. An important plus is that you have
Speaker:an autism connection or that you're that you're a frontline caregiver.
Speaker:That's a plus.
Speaker:You have experience, you know the ecosystem's enough.
Speaker:that's part of our screening process,
Speaker:you know, the team, the problem,
Speaker:but the actual product having been partially or working well enough that
Speaker:you have customers or beta users and you know,
Speaker:you're on you have some traction.
Speaker:Amazing. Okay. And you're okay if it's is it typically single founders
Speaker:or do you prefer having co founders?
Speaker:No, we don't care. I mean we you know we don't care.
Speaker:You don't care. Okay. That's amazing.
Speaker:we we don't look at
Speaker:that. sometimes somebody might recruit a co founder or have somebody
Speaker:in the waiting but
Speaker:They themselves need more traction to attract a co-founder potentially.
Speaker:we've done single founders.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay, that that's really great.
Speaker:So really that opens the door and and I guess the founders,
Speaker:the entrepreneurs can be remote,
Speaker:they can be all over the world.
Speaker:And as long as they have a very clear mission and connection to the autism world
Speaker:and an MVP and some sort of traction,
Speaker:whether it's actual paying customers or beta users,
Speaker:previous experience, of course,
Speaker:is better.
Speaker:But you would give them the ecosystem so they can grow and hopefully
Speaker:go on to raising capital funding.
Speaker:Our
Speaker:accelerator, someone comes in,
Speaker:they go through a boot camp. They don't
Speaker:Bootcamp, okay.
Speaker:just get pitch coaching, they get business model challenging.
Speaker:They get the experience of, our CEO,
Speaker:who is a founder is a builder and a veteran in startups,
Speaker:as well as a really amazing
Speaker:call it coach they get that's Keevin O'Rourke and then they get Cait Russell
Speaker:who runs all operations but is also you know it's also they're all
Speaker:in the trenches for 12 weeks and it's intense.
Speaker:Twelve weeks.
Speaker:I mean if
Speaker:that's another one full time commit do not apply and get in and hold a spot
Speaker:and then tell us you don't have time.
Speaker:Of course. yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Like that doesn't work. Yeah.
Speaker:We need what I call the passion and that hunger.
Speaker:You need to be all in. Of course.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there's
Speaker:Absolutely. Abs
Speaker:there's a world there where we know we have amazing mentors,
Speaker:all the things we've talked about.
Speaker:and you know, and we live it, right?
Speaker:We live it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, especially now in the AI era where the cycles are so much faster,
Speaker:development
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:is much faster, and frankly, even exits are much faster.
Speaker:So you do need that ~ maybe obsession almost.
Speaker:You need to be like really honed in.
Speaker:So I I absolutely love that. So Dan before I ask you my last question,
Speaker:where can people find you? And we'll put all this in the show notes,
Speaker:but where can people find you?
Speaker:And
Speaker:Multiple specifically for an entrepreneur who's building something
Speaker:for the autism community, but also for the investors and the LPs that would love
Speaker:to partner with you.
Speaker:Well first, we filter different things to different people,
Speaker:right? Because you know, the team that's running the accelerator
Speaker:are the right people to talk to about the accelerators.
Speaker:So that would be Keevin O'Rourke or Cait Russell It's it's [email protected]
Speaker:or [email protected] you know,
Speaker:someone reaches out to me,
Speaker:I will typically refer them to the team.
Speaker:I won't necessarily take calls because I,
Speaker:I get a lot of inbound and we try to figure out the best way to triage that.
Speaker:When it comes to funders and and investors,
Speaker:I also think that the team is a great place to start,
Speaker:but I'm obviously involved in that.
Speaker:the financial lifeblood of Multiple's you know,
Speaker:sits at the board level. yes, the CEO has to raise dough.
Speaker:Yes, we have to do those things,
Speaker:but you know, the you know, the board and myself are very involved
Speaker:and very interested in talking to anybody that wants to back Multiple
Speaker:in any form and fashion.
Speaker:And it doesn't have to be a big dollar amount,
Speaker:honestly. I'm come from the private sector.
Speaker:I'm figuring out how to run a nonprofit.
Speaker:I rely on Cait and
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Keevin, who have experience in that,
Speaker:and the board, who has more experience than me.
Speaker:I have the school, Oak Hill School.
Speaker:So this is a new experience, but
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:we're learning very fast and we're having a lot of success and fun.
Speaker:And it's great. It's great to have both.
Speaker:I I love that you have both because one will power the other,
Speaker:frankly.
Speaker:For sure. Yeah.
Speaker:You
Speaker:know, so I I think that's wonderful.
Speaker:Well, Dan, I like to end my episodes on a note of optimism and hope.
Speaker:So I have this magic wand that I'm gonna give you and cross
Speaker:the Golden Gate Bridge all the way up to you.
Speaker:And if every company that Multiple helped accelerate.
Speaker:had the resources, talent, technology,
Speaker:capital, and opportunity, maybe not time,
Speaker:but all the other things to succeed beyond their wildest expectations,
Speaker:what would you want the world to look like for people with autism
Speaker:and their families?
Speaker:Well
Speaker:This is a combination of business and hope,
Speaker:right? We need
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:big brands. We need trusted brands.
Speaker:So we can't just do it only with point solutions that don't can't
Speaker:get the visibility of millions.
Speaker:Okay, so
Speaker:Okay, okay.
Speaker:the brand big brand potential is critical.
Speaker:sustainability is in the ten million in recurring revenue where
Speaker:you could be acquired or you can sustain your vision and you have a great thing.
Speaker:But you know, to reach to reach the scale of people,
Speaker:the number of people, just say non-speaking community,
Speaker:easily two million humans in America,
Speaker:and their parents and their, you know,
Speaker:so on.
Speaker:And then if you think about autism in general,
Speaker:well, you gotta believe there's six million,
Speaker:and then
Speaker:So
Speaker:from there you can just say, okay,
Speaker:let's say there's five intensely affected,
Speaker:if not more, family members. So you got a a world,
Speaker:that could be fifty million. And to reach those people,
Speaker:most people are not early adopters of technology.
Speaker:Most people are on the other side of the of the chasm of adoption.
Speaker:They
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:they want a proven product. They want to make sure they're not making
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:a mistake. And that's all the way up the line,
Speaker:but some people are more are early adopters and understand that.
Speaker:That's a huge group of people.
Speaker:And then there's a late majority,
Speaker:they may not adopt ever. you've got to be able to,
Speaker:think about the famous term cross the chasm.
Speaker:So being a brand
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:is a really important being a brand,
Speaker:being associated with a platform.
Speaker:Teachtown is a great example ~ that was bought by Everway.
Speaker:it's larger largest competitor.
Speaker:to be able to get into all the school districts in America or 80% or 70%,
Speaker:I love the point solutions because they can't be a
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:brand unless they can do they can solve a pain point
Speaker:then grow to some number that can
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:attract bigger capital.
Speaker:Absolutely. I just see all of this in terms of adoption,
Speaker:friction, and and just frankly,
Speaker:like marketing, just people knowing about all of this.
Speaker:Because the number of people affected and the number of people that would benefit
Speaker:from it, because like you said,
Speaker:it's not just the kid with autism,
Speaker:it's the whole family and extended family.
Speaker:I mean, absolutely, it will make such a huge difference.
Speaker:Dan, this was such a great, great conversation.
Speaker:Thank
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:you so much. it moves the conversation beyond just technology,
Speaker:just for technology's sake. It's for families like yours and mine,
Speaker:but it's also hopefully people listening to this are going to be founders,
Speaker:but also investors listening that on will hopefully understand now that there
Speaker:is an opportunity.
Speaker:inside the needs. So there's an opportunity,
Speaker:but in inside this very real need.
Speaker:So families are solving problems manually every single day and they're still waiting
Speaker:for someone to build a better tool.
Speaker:And that's what Dan is doing. So Dan,
Speaker:thank you so much for the work you've done for Reed,
Speaker:but also for the companies you're helping build and for the wider autism community.
Speaker:Thank you. It's I wanna just add one thing.
Speaker:It's not it's not a heroic effort.
Speaker:You know, I I do it with helping hands.
Speaker:I know you are. I know you are.
Speaker:And thank you for everything that you're doing.
Speaker:So hopefully
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:in a few years we'll be able to have a totally different conversation,
Speaker:you and I. So we'll be celebrating.
Speaker:Sure. Thank you.
Speaker:So
Speaker:and to everybody listening, if this conversation helped you imagine
Speaker:a different future for someone that you love,
Speaker:please share it with someone else.
Speaker:And don't forget to follow us wherever you listen or watch.
Speaker:I'm Nadia Elkhatib This is Biohacking Autism.
Speaker:Take care of yourselves and each other,
Speaker:and I'll see you on the next one.
