After writing a best-selling book about his family's journey with his autistic son — which has now been adapted into a documentary — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind has raised $7.1 million for a new Cambridge-based startup that aims to improve communications with children on the autism spectrum.
The Affinity Project — which does business as Sidekicks, the name of the startup's app — disclosed the funding in a Form D filing on Wednesday, indicating that the funding round's first date of sale was Aug. 2. Twenty-two investors are listed.
Currently in a free, invite-only pilot program, Sidekicks is a mobile app that serves as a communications intermediary between parents and their autistic children who may otherwise have difficulties speaking directly with people. The app uses a cartoon avatar of the child's choosing that parents can communicate through.
On Sidekicks' website, it describes children as heroes and parents as Coaches.
"The service uses the Hero’s affinity for films or, eventually, other content to help Coaches connect and communicate in transformative ways," the website says. "Coaches are now able to use film and other content to reach, teach, and support their Heroes and help them achieve social, emotional and practical goals."
In a video about Sidekicks, Suskind, who worked at the Wall Street Journal for 10 years, described how his own experiences with his son, Owen, who was the subject of the best-selling book, "Life, Animated." The 2014 book has now been adapted into a documentary that hit theaters in July.
When his son was three years old, Suskind said, Owen lost all speech. Soon enough, a diagnosis revealed regressive autism, where a child loses speech and social skills after initially appearing to develop them. But Suskind and his wife, Cornelia, soon discovered that Owen's continued love for Disney movies allowed them to talk with him using dialogue from the movies. Eventually that's what led Suskind last year to found Sidekicks, which he serves as CEO.
"All of a sudden we realized that we have tapped something enormous."
"What we find is that these affinities tap a deep well of not only passion, motivation, but a desire to express who you are," he said, "and all of a sudden we realized that we have tapped something enormous, that we were not alone, that there were parents all over the world who were wrestling with these same questions, and so over the next two years we built Sidekicks."
In the video, Suskind said he has assembled a team of leading technologists and neurologists to build the app. That includes Mark Fanty, who previously was a senior national language processing and AI researcher at Nuance Communications.
Bonnie D., a woman who appeared in the same video, said using Sidekicks has allowed her to communicate with her autistic son when she otherwise wouldn't be able to.
"Before working with Sidekicks, Will would come up against an obstacle or conflict or problem and he would just shut down," she said, "but with the Sidekicks application, what we've been able to do is if he comes off the bus upset about something, he'll oftentimes ask to speak to his avatar."
Sidekicks didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Photo of Ron Suskind via Chatham House on Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0).
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