Interested in starting a pro AS company.

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What's a "dodo" ?

It's too big to fly. Dodo ugly, so dodo must die. Don't they teach kids anything these days? http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/1676/

Seriously, though, what would the next step to be to get this project off the ground? I would say an idea, something that would be of interest to investors. Mobile apps. An application of Hadoop. Something hot enough to get attention, and difficult enough it would take specialized skills. Plus you'd have to be able to generate a revenue stream, if the goal is to employ people with AS. If I had any good ideas, I'd go off and do it on my own and keep all the loot Seriously, though, the idea would be to start somewhere and grow a company that could sustain employment over the long term.

It think from a business sense it's better to hire people with AS in a setup not where you are just being nice. But make use of those particular strengths each one has to get an advantage over other businesses less aware of strengths of AS and the importance of straightforward communication. That means making sure people do what they are good at and avoiding interfering office politics.

Sounds like some sort of advocacy group or job placement service is the nucleus around which something like this would be built. Would need a name that describes what it's all about like "Asperger's Excellence", and a brief tag-line mission statement like "matching your business with the creative people you need", and a web site that matches employer needs to individuals, with a dose of coaching for both sides. The value added to businesses who use the service would be reliable, dependable workers who can crank out a lot of work. The value to someone with AS would be a supportive job-placement framework in which to function. (Especially since job hunting seems to involve a bingo-card of AS weaknesses.) This thing would support itself by placement fees, where the business would pay $x and the placed worker would pay y% of the first few months' salary.

Many, if not most, successful and high-functioning AS workers are involved with technology, an industry which views people as disposable resources who are an expense, so I am not sure who the idea business would be that uses the service. Most consulting firms view workers as interchangeable drones for six-month contracts.

I suppose the real target would be small startups where having one really capable technical expert can mean the difference between success and failure.

More interested in some type of consulting or sub contract, likely in some form of manufacturing or production as it seems like the type of work that can be done in any city.

Also the fact that it's based on predictable concrete needs makes it much easier to develope a need business culture.

Essentially it'd be like a workplace for the deaf, except it would be for those facing mind blindness.

The main focus would be networking highly skilled Aspies, and really seeing what each indivisual is capable of. Instead of the typical one job fits all kind of thinking.

It isn't. It is a detailed style of managing where you cater to the strengths of your employees and NO NOT force them to spend most of their time trying to improve their weaknesses. This is actually accepted at many major companies and was the basis many years ago (almost forgotten now).

If this is an interest of yours you might want to take a look. It is much easier to have a company that universally encourages and embraces the talents of its employees without holding social norms against them than to try and reverse discriminate against NTs. Investors don't like that so much.

One idea I've been turning around in my head is if what if an internet business was set up that would employ (or contract out specific tasks) to people who would do the work at home, on their computers. This is kind of the ideal environment for us. On the one hand it is good to try to learn social skills that don't come naturally (via working at a real job where proper interactions with coworkers are required), it also is DAMN comfortable to not have to worry about any of that stuff and just focus on a task that's in front of you in the pixels on your screen.

I've looked at this myself, but it's a race to the absolute rock bottom. Anything you could do in front of your computer, someone in a non-Western country could also do for less money than you would need just to pay for an Internet connection. I've seen such lowball bids on projects that I don't know how even people in non-Western nations could work for so little. You can't sustain life with such low amounts of pay, particularly for the work involved, especially considering you need to pay for computer gear and an Internet connection just to do the work. When I started looking, I expected low pay, and might have been willing to accept that, but I found pay where you couldn't even sustain life.

@Trencher93, So where did you look. And what did you do then to get a living?

Starting a business isn't gambling. Businesses fail because people lack knowledge and commitment, not because they are unlucky. Chance plays almost no part in it.

I've outsourced software development overseas and it can be a complete disaster. When I've seen it work, it has been for very top-down projects where requirements and interfaces are very well defined. I have not seen successful agile-style development efforts that involve significant overseas outsourcing.

I think that employing (or subcontracting) home-based software developers on the spectrum could work very well. It would take a special kind of management, but it may be easier than managing NTs. Aspergers behaviors are really predictable. The company would have a very loyal workforce and would have the potential to capture some real genius.

I'd like to see an experiment like this take place. Software developers with the right skills (and track record) could attract interest from companies which need work done. If there really is a shortage of software developers (and I'm not convinced there is), this would be a way to tap into a vast, untapped resource.

This all goes back to what the first step would be in creating such a group. This could be a nonprofit, but they don't attract much capital. This could be a startup, but it would need an initial focus to get investors interested. You'd also need software developers. I assume something like this would center on software, since it can be done remotely and leverages AS strengths. I'm certainly open to other ideas.

Agreed.

Especially about the loyalty factor.

But organizations don't care about loyalty these days. They treat employees as disposable and interchangeable. I don't think that would be a good point for advertising an AS consulting group. I'd take the angle that deliverables will be produced on time and actually work. If a company likes what they get, they'll come back for more.

I've never worked with a company that doesn't value loyalty. Employees are almost invariably the top expense in a company and turnover is a huge portion of that cost. Human resources departments in big companies are very much tasked to improve retention in order to help control these costs. In small companies, high employee turnover can put you out of business very quickly.

Your statement may be true for some outliers that are running sweatshops, but it's not a valid generalization.

I can assure you that there is a shortage of quality software developers, even in this economy.


Depending on the person, information technology would be another option. I did remote IT from my home for several years. Some people may not be able to handle the occasional high pressure, though.