Autistic founders were told to aim for the places where budgets are set

The advice one panellist recalled receiving from an investor was not gentle. As the panellist remembered it, the investor said, “It’s great to be kind, but if you’re poor, you’re not really going to get very far.” At Think Autism Sydney in May 2025, the panellist used that line to push back against a strand of the panel’s own discussion, and to argue that autistic people who want to change the system should aim for the places where its money and rules are decided.

The warning came when Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, asked what the panellist had first wanted to share when invited onto the panel, a question the captions do not show being put to anyone by name. The answer was that a “you versus me” narrative had been running through the conversation, and the panellist wanted to caution against it. It was put directly. “Running a business is something that is of another skill set.” It is not enough to dive into an interest and build from there. The panellist recalled being, ten years earlier, a very angry 20 year old, resentful of the world and wanting to tackle every problem at once, and being taught quickly that this would not get anywhere. Instead, the panellist said, you have to go through a mapping exercise: identify the problem to be solved, identify the audience to solve it for, and then work through a more neurotypical world to get there.