Brian Jacobs left Emergence Capital to start his own venture firm and invest in companies that are making people on the autism spectrum more employable.
Rajesh Anandan and Arthur Shectman, two engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded the company in 2013. Anandan said he was drawn to the concept through conversations with his wife, who'd been a child psychologist and had a number of patients on the spectrum. She talked about a system in place that focuses on the challenges the so-called neurodiverse face rather than one that works to harness their innate skills.
"What if we focused on peoples' strengths and redesigned the system so people are not penalized for being different?" Anandan said in an interview. "We've been able to prove we can build a team that includes colleagues who are on the spectrum who don't have previous work experience in the field but are extremely capable, and groom that raw talent into skilled engineers.
Anandan calls it a competitive advantage, not a charitable pursuit. At the same time it does create opportunities for financial independence for people on the spectrum and addresses a problem they face after age 21, when they're generally no longer eligible to receive special government services. Byran Dai, a data scientist and the CEO of Daivergent, has a 20-year-old brother on the spectrum. Dai said his younger sibling has some tech savvy, but the vocational programs available to him don't take advantage of his abilities."I see my brother, he has an aptitude for computers but he's stocking shelves at CVS," said, Dai, who started Daivergent in 2017.
Daivergent's employees provide technical and detail-oriented services to companies developing AI products. The start-up also has a work-readiness system to help the neurodiverse prepare for jobs and match them with companies looking to tap into the community., which happens to be the same company that hired Jacobs's son as a software developer last year. SAP launched its Autism at Work program in 2013 with a goal of employing 650 people on the spectrum by 2020.
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