Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / Tackling Social Isolation: Building a Safer Social App for Autistic Adults with Jamie Pastrano

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Tackling Social Isolation: Building a Safer Social App for Autistic Adults with Jamie Pastrano · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:05
  Best part, I think is the part that I didn't expect.
• 0:07
  So, you know, the low hanging fruit answer would be.
• 0:09
  The best part is just knowing that I'm feeling a need for such an amazing community that I know will really deserve it.
• 0:15
  But the less obvious answer and the thing that surprised me was how much I was going to enjoy working with all of our specialists and our partners, my two founders, our marketing team, and our app development.
• 0:30
  Today we sit down with Jamie Pastrano, a dynamic mom, licensed social worker and former executive sales director who spent over two decades in corporate America before taking the leap into tech entrepreneurship.
• 0:44
  In today's episode, Jamie shares her inspiring journey of building Synchrony, the very first AI powered social app designed specifically for neurodivergent and autistic adults.
• 0:57
  We dive into the challenges this community faces with mainstream social platforms.
• 1:02
  The heart behind Synchrony's innovative features like AI social coaching and the power of building inclusive, interest based communities.
• 1:11
  If you want to hear how passion, grit and bold vision are coming together to solve loneliness and redefine social connections, you won't want to miss this episode.
• 1:22
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:27
  All right, Jamie Pastrano, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:31
  Thanks.
• 1:31
  Thanks for having me here.
• 1:33
  Absolutely.
• 1:33
  It is my first podcast, so I'm feeling super excited today.
• 1:37
  Oh, wow.
• 1:37
  We are honored and happy to have you.
• 1:40
  Thank you.
• 1:41
  And Jamie, the reason you're doing podcast is because you've been hard at work for the past year and a half building an app that is the first of its kind and is going to be launching soon.
• 1:54
  So, so if you would, for everyone, tell us about your app.
• 1:57
  Sure.
• 1:58
  So we are currently in Belvadeva.
• 2:00
  The app is Synchrony and it is the first of its kind social app that uses AI to help address a lot of the social deficits that our neurodivergent and autistic adults struggle with.
• 2:11
  So it's the first of its kind AI supported social app for neurodivergent and autistic adults.
• 2:17
  Okay, all right.
• 2:18
  And what made you build this app?
• 2:23
  So, you know, I think with most things that comes from kind of seeing a problem and not being able to find a solution and getting frustrated and just saying, you know what, I'm going to take this on myself.
• 2:32
  So I'm a mom of two kids, two amazing kids, actually, one soon to be an adult.
• 2:38
  But my son Jesse was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, and as he got older, I stopped being able to find solutions for some of the emerging problems when he was younger, it was really easy to
• 2:51
  find therapists for digestion issues, for fine motor issues, for almost any issue, I could find a solution.
• 2:58
  But as he graduated high school, I really started to think about his adult social life and think about how he would find his people and how he would form community and what that would look like.
• 3:09
  And it really was terrifying because I couldn't really find any sustainable resources that provided him and a million others like him with an opportunity to really find friends, to find people like minded, to really support them.
• 3:23
  I mean, there's a million apps out there which I won't name, but they, they're fast paced, they're transactional, they're intended to have you on and off the app pretty quickly.
• 3:34
  And there was nothing that would really encourage long term community building, foster belonging.
• 3:40
  And so I just decided to try to tackle it myself.
• 3:43
  Initially brought on two partners, hired app developers and app designers and marketing.
• 3:50
  And we've been at it for about a year and a half.
• 3:52
  It's really exciting to see.
• 3:54
  Okay, all right.
• 3:55
  And we're going to dive into that startup journey, are familiar with and have gone through that, but just want to set the stage with a couple things for those that may not be familiar or may not know.
• 4:11
  Just talk about some of the challenges that neurodivergent people have, particularly when it comes to using like a mainstream social app.
• 4:19
  Sure.
• 4:20
  I mean, to dial it back.
• 4:22
  I mean, autism is such a spectrum and then you add on neurodivergence.
• 4:26
  So the overarching theme in this entire group is really a struggle with social abilities, inference.
• 4:33
  What is somebody really saying?
• 4:34
  Are they joking?
• 4:36
  Social awareness, and a lot of times significant social anxiety.
• 4:41
  So I can just tell you, even with my son, he will ask me probably 10 times a day how to communicate something.
• 4:48
  He'll ask me to help him write a text for a friend because he struggles with social norms.
• 4:53
  When's the right time to ask for plans?
• 4:56
  How do I ask for plans?
• 4:57
  What does that look like?
• 4:59
  The main struggle with the entire population is really a difficulty with social anxiety, social cues and social norms.
• 5:06
  And I think there's a misconception that this demographic doesn't want those connections.
• 5:11
  They do, they very much do, but they struggle with how.
• 5:14
  What do I say?
• 5:15
  How do I say it?
• 5:16
  When do I say it?
• 5:19
  Okay, all right.
• 5:22
  And so you mentioned to you, you know, you made the decision, I'm going to build it, brought on a couple, couple partners, you got a developer, you've been doing the whole process.
• 5:35
  So you hadn't had Any prior startup experience before this?
• 5:41
  None.
• 5:42
  So I.
• 5:43
  Yeah, it was pretty terrifying, but it was a leap of faith I just decided to make.
• 5:46
  I was in corporate America for about 26 years.
• 5:51
  I was an executive sales director in insurance and benefits.
• 5:54
  But while I was in sales and while I was responsible for my income, I was not responsible for running a business or the ins and outs of it.
• 6:03
  So taking a leap and starting this, it was really the first.
• 6:07
  First time I'd ever done anything like it.
• 6:09
  I didn't know any of it.
• 6:11
  How to get an llc, who to talk to, how to get a lawyer, how do you find an app developer, how do you find a designer?
• 6:17
  I mean, literally everything started from ground zero.
• 6:21
  Like, started with going to lunch with other people that started businesses and asking them how to.
• 6:26
  And what do I do and how much money.
• 6:28
  It was probably eight months of just picking brains and really trying to assess if I could do it before I took that leap and said, you know what?
• 6:36
  I'm going to try.
• 6:37
  I have really nothing to lose but my time and obviously, money.
• 6:43
  Gotcha.
• 6:44
  Okay.
• 6:44
  All right.
• 6:45
  So you took your time, you talked to a lot of people.
• 6:48
  You.
• 6:49
  You did some, you know, your research and whatnot, and then you finally started.
• 6:53
  I mean, what.
• 6:54
  What was the biggest surprise once you got things going from putting this together?
• 7:01
  You know, it's funny because I'm sure other founders would say this.
• 7:07
  In many ways, I think the biggest surprise was really understanding how difficult it would be and the complexities in building an app.
• 7:17
  I think that one of the recipes to success is probably a little bit of ignorance or putting blinders on and just knowing that you care more about the do and the finished product than all the intricacies involved.
• 7:29
  So I would say the biggest surprise was realizing how complicated it was.
• 7:32
  Things like getting permission just to even put an app in the App Store is a whole process in and of itself.
• 7:38
  If I knew then what I know now, I might have paused.
• 7:42
  And I think that's probably a really important thing to think about.
• 7:46
  Sometimes all that extra noise and all those extra obstacles get in the way of really just saying, you know what?
• 7:51
  I'm committed.
• 7:52
  I see the need.
• 7:53
  I see that there should be a solution, and I'm just going to tackle it one step at a time.
• 7:59
  So everything was new.
• 8:00
  Everything.
• 8:01
  Everything was a surprise, but in a good way, because when you break it down into little steps, you're able to accomplish it, right?
• 8:07
  You're able to tackle without really overthinking it.
• 8:10
  And, you know, passion and commitment, I think, and Hard work, I think, always kind of overcome all those little obstacles that we create in our analytical minds that can maybe stop us from.
• 8:20
  From doing what we really want to do.
• 8:23
  Yeah, that's such a good point too.
• 8:25
  And you know, because so often, right.
• 8:27
  If you, if you overthink it or you spend too much time or you don't take action quick enough, your mind can convince you just not to do it.
• 8:34
  Because like you said, if you would have known all that, you might not have done it.
• 8:38
  Right.
• 8:38
  But look here you are close to launch because you just went into action and did it.
• 8:43
  Or you think you need an answer for every little thing before you start, and then you never start and five years go by and you know you've lost that opportunity.
• 8:50
  So I'm fortunate that I have risk tolerance and that I'm very motivated and somewhat myopic in my focus when I want to get something done.
• 9:01
  Okay, as far as the timeline, did you think you'd have it out sooner?
• 9:06
  I did.
• 9:06
  That's another one that was a bit of a surprise.
• 9:08
  You know, you never know how long something's going to take.
• 9:11
  We were thinking six months to a year.
• 9:14
  But as we started to develop and we realized the significance of AI and how much time we needed to fine tune that, it definitely packed on some extra months.
• 9:23
  Okay.
• 9:24
  We need, we need to take our time with this where we're less focused on the when and we're focused on making sure it's right.
• 9:31
  When you think about, you know, the audience that we're looking to serve, we really need to make sure that the app is going to do what we say it's going to do and that we've had ample time testing.
• 9:41
  Okay.
• 9:42
  And so talk about like kind of what the.
• 9:45
  If someone's out here listening to this and they.
• 9:48
  They know someone, have a relative or a child or someone that.
• 9:52
  Yeah, exactly.
• 9:53
  Right.
• 9:54
  Yes.
• 9:55
  What could people expect as far as a user experience from this app?
• 9:59
  So you have to.
• 10:01
  What can they expect?
• 10:02
  They can expect it to be user friendly.
• 10:04
  So we're building this from the perspective of I'm a mom, so I know this audience really well.
• 10:09
  I'm also a licensed social worker, but we also have on our team neurodivergent people that are actually helping us write copy and helping us with the wording.
• 10:20
  And we have an autism specialist.
• 10:22
  So what they expect are features to really be built for them.
• 10:25
  For example, quiet mode, blocking out noise, simplicity, not multi step, too much information on one page, really skinny down, pared down sensory input so that it's not overwhelming.
• 10:39
  They can also expect it to be a friendly, safe, supportive place where they can unmask and be who they are without worrying about judgment, without worrying about not feeling fitting in, they can expect to find people similar to
• 10:54
  them.
• 10:54
  Because we are interest based matching.
• 10:57
  So we're going to match our members based on their common interests.
• 11:00
  That's a really key there.
• 11:02
  Right.
• 11:02
  My son Jesse can be friends with you if you like sports, that's enough for him.
• 11:07
  Sports or music and he's in there.
• 11:09
  So if you're going on the app, you can expect to be safe, supportive, you can expect to be able to meet people with common interests.
• 11:15
  And the key here is you can expect to get that help when needed if you're struggling with social anxiety.
• 11:22
  Because we are offering an AI on demand social coach named after my son Jesse.
• 11:29
  So when you're on the app, if you are autistic or you're neurodivergent or you struggle with social anxiety and you do get matched with somebody that likes the same things as you and you don't know what to say
• 11:41
  next, you can have on demand help through a social coach and simply they can help you figure out what to say next, help you understand the social interaction of this person.
• 11:53
  Joking, are they not?
• 11:54
  And it's really on demand help so that you're never alone in that app when you're struggling with what to say next.
• 12:00
  Ultimately to find deepened connections and form your community and find your people.
• 12:06
  Okay.
• 12:06
  It's hard to visualize when you can't see it, I'm sure, right?
• 12:10
  Yeah, I mean, I was, I was, you know, I saw some of the promo for it on your, your LinkedIn page.
• 12:15
  But yeah, like not, not seeing the actual app is.
• 12:18
  Well, if you picture, if you picture a comparable app and then picture kind of a button at the bottom of the screen, that's a help button and that's like your on demand social coach for you.
• 12:28
  For listeners that are out there have seen love on the spectrum.
• 12:30
  If you can imagine one of those dating coaches that kind of gives practical tips and advice that's built into the app through an on demand social coach.
• 12:39
  Okay.
• 12:40
  All right.
• 12:41
  And so you're launching this in January of 2026, is that right?
• 12:46
  Goal.
• 12:46
  Yeah.
• 12:47
  Okay.
• 12:48
  And how is in terms of the, the markets, are you in specific markets?
• 12:54
  Is it going to be nationwide?
• 12:55
  Well, how's that look?
• 12:56
  Yeah, so that's a great question.
• 12:59
  So our intent is to be national and to go into other countries initially.
• 13:02
  So we're not be.
• 13:04
  We're not doing this on a local measure.
• 13:05
  We are partnering with autism advocacy groups nationally so that we're really trying to spread the word in as many places as we can.
• 13:13
  So one of our ways in which we're trying to grow the app is really by partnering with those groups, partnering with universities that specialize in autism and neurodivergent young adults.
• 13:25
  So we're using them to help us get the word out.
• 13:27
  We're offering references and reference codes so they can invite members who are appropriate and maybe having, you know, some issues with loneliness or social isolation to explore our app to help them.
• 13:39
  Okay, all right.
• 13:40
  And, you know, you just mentioned there the loneliness and the social isolation for people that may not know, right?
• 13:48
  Like, how big of an issue is that today for this community?
• 13:53
  It's pretty significant.
• 13:54
  I mean, if you look into, you know, the neurodivergent population, the comorbidity rate is huge.
• 14:01
  I would say it's probably close to half of.
• 14:04
  Of all people on the spectrum have some other mental health issue, whether it's depression or loneliness.
• 14:10
  You know, for my son, we're fortunate.
• 14:12
  We live in Manhattan.
• 14:13
  He's got access to tons of people all the time to talk to.
• 14:16
  But when I talk to some of the other moms as parents that, you know, my son was friends with growing up, almost, I would say more than half of them are dealing with at this age, 21 and 21
• 14:27
  plus of, you know, my son or my daughter is just so sad.
• 14:30
  They can't find their people, they can't find their friends.
• 14:33
  They don't have a friend to go out with.
• 14:35
  I.
• 14:35
  Very close friends whose son was diagnosed fairly late, and he's really, really struggling.
• 14:42
  He had, you know, a couple of issues, real scares, hospitalizations where he was so depressed he couldn't find his people.
• 14:50
  He can't connect, he can't.
• 14:51
  He.
• 14:52
  He can't relate.
• 14:53
  But he's on mainstream apps, and he's really having a hard time, you know, connecting.
• 14:59
  It's.
• 14:59
  It's.
• 14:59
  It's quite challenging.
• 15:00
  It's.
• 15:00
  It's more common than not.
• 15:02
  Way more common than not.
• 15:05
  Okay.
• 15:06
  All right.
• 15:07
  And partnering with so many advocacy groups and so many professionals within the industry, and this being the first of its kind type of app.
• 15:16
  What's the response been from.
• 15:18
  From those people?
• 15:19
  So far, it's been phenomenal, thankfully.
• 15:22
  What's difficult for.
• 15:23
  For me, I'm.
• 15:24
  I'm director of sales and marketing in our position.
• 15:28
  What's difficult for me is that I don't have the app available yet, so I Have a lot of interest in a lot of very organizations that are just waiting to get it in their hands and do beta.
• 15:37
  You know what I've been hearing more than anything is oh my God, I can't believe finally we've been waiting for something like this.
• 15:44
  There's excitement, more excitement than anything else.
• 15:47
  I just need to get the app out and really available so that they can spread that word.
• 15:52
  And that's another, I think, important point when you're thinking about the app or what the experience is.
• 15:59
  We're not looking to roll this app out and just get members on initially.
• 16:03
  We're really trying to grow this safely, organically, and with the help of trusted partners that can help us find the people that are appropriate for the app, that are really going to need it, that are going to use
• 16:12
  it wisely and effectively.
• 16:15
  Okay, all right, so you mentioned the, the advocacy, advocacy groups and then also, also universities as well, because of the age.
• 16:25
  I mean, any other types of, whether companies or any other types of institutions that, that would be a good fit for this.
• 16:34
  So right now we're really focusing on what we think the best fits are, which are those organizations, autism advocacy groups that really specialize in that young adult space.
• 16:44
  So groups that are providing jobs, that's a great demographic and there's really tons of them out there.
• 16:51
  And the universities, because of the age group, you know, down the line, will probably expand and try to really make that focus a little bit less narrow.
• 17:02
  But I think initially, not, I think, I know initially we really need to keep this authentic and keep it to the age group that I think will, will use it it best and the word will spread from there.
• 17:12
  Okay.
• 17:14
  All right.
• 17:14
  And so with the launch planned in January, when, when do you expect app available for beta and for, for some of these people to see what it really looks like.
• 17:26
  So we are going to do a very small beta with a tightly controlled group of individuals in late November.
• 17:34
  The earliest that any audience member would be able to really get their hands in the app would be late January at this point.
• 17:45
  But what we really want is people to join our waiting list and to show interest so that we can offer when we launch promos and get the word out.
• 17:54
  So on our website, joinsynchrony.com there's a waiting list and there's people that are shown interest.
• 18:00
  So if it's a parent listening or a therapist in the area, that's another area, obviously that we're partnering with.
• 18:07
  Therapists, ABA therapists, physical therapists, things like that.
• 18:11
  If there's Anybody that's listening, we would want you to encourage to join the waiting list because we would love to invite you to be a partner on our portal so that we can refer out and get the word
• 18:20
  out to as many people as possible.
• 18:21
  But for it won't be sooner for the, for the audience in January, we really need to keep it tightly controlled before we release.
• 18:28
  Okay.
• 18:29
  All right.
• 18:30
  And Jamie, throughout this whole process, right, you're very close to getting it out there and it's been a long road and clearly a lot of passion around this.
• 18:38
  What's been the best part of this whole journey for you?
• 18:44
  You know, interestingly enough, I think the best part, I think is the part that I didn't expect.
• 18:50
  So, you know, the low hanging fruit answer would be.
• 18:52
  The best part is just knowing that I'm feeling a need for such an amazing community that I know will really deserve it.
• 18:58
  But the less obvious answer and the thing that surprised me was how much I was going to enjoy working with all of our specialists and our partners, my two founders, our marketing team and our app development.
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• 19:58
  It's been amazing because on our app development team there is somebody whose wife is neurodivergent and autistic and was so excited and was sharing this passion and helping him kind of do app designs with her neurodivergent mind.
• 20:13
  And one of our marketing team is another mom who has a son who's 16 who has autism.
• 20:18
  And seeing that excitement internally, I didn't anticipate that.
• 20:22
  I didn't expect that personal touch and having so many people rooting for us, it's been amazing.
• 20:29
  You know, you think when you start a business, your, your partners, your marketing team, your, your app team are going to just be straight business, but it's been like a family and they're all so invested in our success.
• 20:39
  It's pretty amazing.
• 20:41
  You know, actually on the app design side, it was really sweet when we decided to name the social coach AI Jesse after my son.
• 20:50
  His wife was going around, you know, every weekend saying, I don't know how to do this.
• 20:54
  I need a Jesse.
• 20:55
  Where's Jesse?
• 20:56
  You know, so that part was such a really unexpected.
• 21:00
  Just pure joy to see people rooting for you like that.
• 21:03
  Who expects that?
• 21:04
  I certainly didn't.
• 21:06
  Wow.
• 21:06
  Amazing.
• 21:07
  Okay, and so joinsynchrony.com is where they can go to the waiting list.
• 21:13
  Yes.
• 21:13
  Okay.
• 21:14
  And to hear more about our story and, you know, read, we have some really relevant blogs on there, content related for anybody that's neurodivergent.
• 21:22
  Just, you know, to, to get a feel for kind of how involved we are in the community and how vested.
• 21:28
  Okay.
• 21:29
  And Jamie, if people want to reach out to you, whether to learn more about what you're doing, potentially partner up or some other type of collaboration, what's the best way that people can reach out to you?
• 21:39
  LinkedIn.
• 21:39
  So it's again, Join Synchrony.
• 21:41
  We're posting quite frequently.
• 21:43
  We're also on Instagram, but for me personally, LinkedIn would be the best way.
• 21:46
  It's Join Synchrony, managing that account.
• 21:49
  We're posting quite often.
• 21:50
  We'd love to talk to anybody that's interested in being a referring partner or anybody that's just interested for a loved one.
• 21:58
  Okay.
• 21:58
  And we'll link all that in the show notes for everyone.
• 22:01
  Right.
• 22:01
  All right, well, Jamie, thank you so much to take the time to be here sharing all this valuable wisdom from, with, from your journey with our audience and excited to see your progress.
• 22:11
  And we're certainly rooting for you as well as you get close to launch.
• 22:14
  Thank you.
• 22:15
  I love that.
• 22:15
  Appreciate it.
• 22:16
  Thank you so much.
• 22:17
  All right, thank you.
• 22:19
  And you too.