Nascent Stage Development (NSD) was founded by CEO Bob Etzel. It is an education company using landing-edge technologies for knowledge transfer and social skills development. The company’s focus is on the needs of the Autism Community of Interest (ACOI).
NSD was founded in 2017 and is a group of four brands with a common goal of helping ACOI youth socialize and expand their future opportunities for meaningful employment.
The company turns early-stage innovations into marketable technologies. This is possible because NSD is supported by both tech leaders and academic research leaders, with PhD researchers working on its various programs.
NSD is comprised of four business units. The first is iSocial, which improves socialization through 32 lessons conducted in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Art and Logic is active in helping to convert the lessons to a Unity platform.
The second is iSocial Adventures, which is a library of web-based interventions for parents, including VLE, animations, short form videos with parental guides, and real-time communication.
The third is Routine Success. This uses an Apple Series 3+ watch for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to stay in touch with their parents via geofencing, heart monitoring, push routine reminders, and students reporting back during the day.
The fourth is Pupillary Light Response (PLR). This provides a simple way to detect autism during well baby visits for children as young as 6 months old.
Etzel discussed his company’s goal of radically improving the lives of people with autism with KC Digital Drive’s Health Innovation Team on November 28, 2018.