Shownotes
More than 600 companies are building autism technology, yet most families have never heard of them.
This 20-MIN ESSENTIALS edition condenses my conversation with Dan Feshbach, founder of Multiple and co-founder of TeachTown, into the core ideas families need most.
Dan and I explore AI for autism, AAC, assistive technology, communication tools, sensory technology, and what it will take for useful technology to actually reach families.
We also talk about why autism technology needs to move at the “speed of family,” why families need trusted tools rather than more shiny objects, and how emerging technology could support communication, work, connection, and greater independence.
Dan shares the deeply personal reason this work matters to him. 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 ESSENTIALS EDITION:
• Why autism technology needs to move at the “speed of family”
• How AI can accelerate development and testing
• Why 600+ autism technology companies remain largely invisible to families
• The “first mile of capital” problem in autism innovation
• Why families need trusted tools, not more shiny objects
• AI-powered communication and support tools
• Sensory eyewear and screen-free regulation technology
• AAC and communication support for nonspeaking people
• AI and biomedical pattern recognition
• Brain-computer interfaces
• Why technology should support a person's life, not become the life
• Why waiting another 15 years for meaningful solutions is unacceptable
WATCH THE FULL 67-MINUTE CONVERSATION:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZjnQwfAhk0
CONNECT WITH DAN FESHBACH
Multiple:
https://www.multiplehub.org/
Multiple Autism-Tech Database:
https://www.multiplehub.org/autism-tech-database
CONNECT WITH BIOHACKING AUTISM
Website:
https://biohackautism.com/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/biohackautism/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiaelkhatib/
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.
DISCLAIMER
This program is for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional 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.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
He basically told his mother,
Speaker:I live in silence.
Speaker:I want a normal life.
Speaker:I have friends, I have a real job
Speaker:and I can speak normally.
Speaker:I'm building another company for non-speakers.
Speaker:That's a platform
Speaker:to digitize the letterboard.
Speaker:600 companies across fifteen categories.
Speaker:Digital support animals.
Speaker:Glasses or eyewear.
Speaker:A communication coach or practitioner
Speaker:in virtual space.
Speaker:You haven't heard of any of these three things, right?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:I think the potential of AI is only limited by imagination.
Speaker:It's literally filling my heart with hope and joy.
Speaker: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 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: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:and ~ it'll be I I'm looking forward to your questions
Speaker: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.
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. 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 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: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: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: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:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Today you can build and test so fast with AI.
Speaker:there's so many different advantages that AI gives you,
Speaker:its ability to actually write code itself.
Speaker: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:So then what's the problem we're solving,
Speaker:right? At Multiple?
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.
Speaker:Our 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: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: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?
Speaker: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: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: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'm very high on a company called Unique Minds.
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: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: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:immune function, metabolism, microbiome,
Speaker:environment development. You spoke about seizures,
Speaker:behaviors, and clinical history.
Speaker: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: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.
Speaker:We have a great partnership at the University of Calgary with
Speaker:a professor named Diwakar Krishnamurthy
Speaker:who is building AR/VR solutions
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.
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:what does the future hold? 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:the fact is it can be done. 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:there's the AI software, but there's also the hardware and
Speaker:the connection between the hardware and the nervous system,
Speaker:right? 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.
Speaker:I'm hoping that it's not going to 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: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:So there's an opportunity, 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.
