Interested in starting a pro AS company.

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I'm sold on the idea of unlocking the vast potential of people with AS by providing some sort of service that matches talent, probably software development at least to begin with, with organizations which need talent, probably focusing on smaller companies. Job hunting combines just about every weakness of someone with AS (going in cold, interviewing with people-person HR types, having to improvise during conversations, etc) so a service that facilitates and structures the experience would be useful and helpful. If there is a shortage of software talent (I'm still not convinced), such a service ought to be welcome by organizations which would be able to find talented people that fall through the typical HR/interview process.

I think the goal of the service would be to explain about how AS people work and why they're effective in certain roles. And showcase the talent, providing a sort of brochure/resume for each member. And probably economy of scale, letting members have access to otherwise unattainable stuff for individuals like MSDN subscriptions and other developer programs, and maybe discounted hardware. Regular blogs from members would promote the image of AS people as leaders in their field by showcasing the depth of their technical knowledge.

I see this as a revenue-generating business, since the goal is to help people with AS get employment, not make money off of them like a society would (with membership dues, etc). The employer would pay the referral fees, and the member might pay a % of the first month's salary (or so).

To organize this would require a lot of work. At the very least, such a service would need a few key members to get off the ground, and to attract investors. A business plan for recouping investor's money would be necessary. One of the Linux groups sells a partnership deal where you can be a gold, platinum, etc member - maybe corporations who want a talent pipeline would help bankroll the service at first.

I'm not saying this would be exclusively for software developers, but that's probably a good starting place. I could see it expanding to computer game designers, writers, etc.

I've never done anything like this, and wouldn't really know where to start.

This is a two way streat, and it very much depends on the job. Alot of jobs prefer short term workers, because all the competent indisivuals leave the company after a few years, and all the lazy folk who want to ride the system stick around.

This is especially true with jobs that are super dull, and when companies lack the size to rotate thier employee's from department to department.

Software develope is a good starting point, however I think it's well established that as types are well adapted for this environment.

Ideally, I'd like to see the visual abilities of aspies and more autistic types, to be used for a variety of different tasks. I'm a strong believer that most aspies, with proper training can perform at pseudo sevant levels. I can imagine in the not to distance future, that most analytical forcasting for business will done by at least partially austistic peoples. There are so many ways that are different minds can be used it's truly wild.

Anyhow to be more pragmatic, and on topic, I'd like to be involved in some sort of logistic's planning, for either the service industry, or manufacturing. As it's my chosen career path, and the simple fact that it seems to possess alot of untapped potential.

I think a simple thing we have an advantage at is understanding human behavior in a more imperical way than our counterparts.
Simply because we're not overly caught up in emotional content and are more focused on predictive understandings. This can be very useful in simple tasks such as creating staffing/scedhuling, for hospital workers for example. Or planning bus routes, without the use of some complicated computer generated algorythm.

Maybe could you expand on this, and then get together with someone who is good at grant-writing (or you if you like writing) could create a proposal for a grant funding the experiment. It may have to be something other than software development standing alone, but what if the overall goal of the software benefited a group or groups of folks with disabilities?
For example there is nothing that I know of that can inexpensively help kids who stutter or can't speak in school.
Perhaps coming up with software for helping differently-abled people in general like with job interviews, school, speeches, etc. - all situations where speaking and getting across one's ideas is vital.
So the grant might attract funds aimed at not only on employing those on the spectrum but benefitting others as well.
(I'm not that great at seeing huge flaws in my ideas so sorry if it's all wrong.)

Then if it went well it could continue as a company, looking at this optimistically.
It's weird this thread turned up because I was just thinking about this yesterday.

I think the company should only pipe services to other companies not the people themself. Or one will end up with the HR/boss vs AS friction eventually. By offering service and not people it's possible to act like a firewall. And move on faster when the clue carrier is lost at remote host.
It doesn't exclude other offerings like referals, but headhunting might end up bad for the referred one. Besides an AS person might find other AS company more laid back. At least that's my experience from AS meetups.

Lucky you.

I compliment you and your roommate on your business! You are helping individual persons on the spectrum. You are hopefully encouraging companies to broaden their hiring practices. And, you are getting parents used to the idea that adults on the spectrum can be a real resource.

I still want to see---and participate with---Spectrum Self-Advocacy groups where the majority of voting members are themselves middle-functioning adults on the spectrum. And I really like the political slogan, "We are all middle-functioning!"

A bit off-topic but...
I couldn't help noticing that Google Glasses will eventually create a new opportunity.

Just imagine a network-connected app that videotaped and recorded facial expressions and tones in real time. And did some processing to give simple summary's of the emotional state of the people you're talking too. And a warning for highly visible upset? And maybe a lie detector too? And a joke detector?

Sure, maybe it'd need a high bandwidth connection to a local processor (high-end cellphone), but it sounds handy and vaguely feasible.

Make it work poorly, and it'll be useful for AS. Make it work well, and it'll be useful for sales.

--Argyle

Good point very pragmatic, and I being a consultant/inbetween is the way to go.

However I do think there is room for autistic people in certain sales positions.
We have capacities, to know nearly everything about a specific product, were absolute horrid at lieing, and are great at keeping a very professional attitude. This is something customers want, therefore there is room for it, as long as it's done through exstensive branding. Ironic this is just another number in the 10,000 opportunties we can create, through some forum of autistic branding.

AS people can certainly be good sales people but rather by applying the skills on body language reading and knowing the customer. Sometimes you may have present the facts in another way than the normal AS mindset finds good.

The customer might want the truth, but the employer usually wants sale$$. So the thing about truth only works if the branding is powerful. And it still leaves the possibility that your employer is less than truthful with facts to their sales people.

Exceptionally true, but it's a great example of why there needs to be aspie specific businesses.

True, and it's come full circle, and the question is how to go from a good idea to something tangible with paychecks.

And I understand that undercapitalization is the biggest reason. That the person does not really have enough money for the type of business they are starting and that the fixed expenses eat them alive before they really get rolling with the sales revenues.

The lesson I draw from this is to try and avoid a fixed location with employees, rent, insurance, utilities, etc.

Instead, be open to service business ideas you can run out of your home or car, and test whether there's enough of a market in your particular area, and whether your sales methods are connecting to this market.

And neither undercharge nor overcharge (for both are mistakes), just accept that it's going to take a while to find your clients.

Certainly true, and the killer is usually debt. Someone without liquidity uses debt until the business succeeds or collapses, and it's normally the latter. But most businesses have very high fixed startup costs. (Think about a restaurant and how much sheer stuff you'd have to buy to open the doors, then think how often restaurants go kaput.)

A software services company would require much less overhead. All you really need is a laptop and Internet access.

Still, to get something like this off the ground, a visionary leader would be required, and a lot of logistics would have to be worked out. You'd also need a dozen or so core people, the kind with resumes whose contents would show a track record that would inspire confidence. Later on, you could expand, obviously, but just to launch the thing with a chance of success, you'd need that core. The thing would also need to be structured around generating solid revenues.

Since this thread has kind of died out, organizing something like this might be difficult.

It sounds like it will take an NT to do the organization and setup of such a company. Setting up a structure is something us aspies have trouble with (well, at least I can say that's one of my biggest problems). But once such a structure is in place, the NTs could figure out how to make it easy for the aspies to participate in the projects ... and it could be a completely seamless operation.

Lots of aspies love to struckture things (hello, trainrouts??) and to also rely on NTs to then make it aspi friendly? Doesn't that go straight away from the point to show that we are as good workers than anyone?

I really like ideas like this one, I'm thinking about it more practiclly and if I find a way that it could work / be structured I will present the idea.