Manhattan – ULTRA Testing is a new software company founded by two MIT graduates that almost exclusively hires employees who are on the autism spectrum.
Following graduation, Rajesh Anandan and Art Shectman sought to tap into the abilities of a generally underused segment of the workforce. As there is an 80% unemployment rate among adults with autism, the pair felt that developing a for-profit company that utilizes the superior pattern recognition skills that are inherent to the disorder, would be a recipe for success. So far it has been.
The firm has hired 10 staff members and projections indicate that the company will make $1 million dollars by next year. Anandan and Shectman assert that their business model focuses on growth and the quality of the services they provide as opposed to profit margins.
The Business Insider state that Testers un the company, have at times;
“…had difficulty with the fluid nature of the advertising business, where clients can at times be unavailable and meetings can be moved or cancelled on short notice.”
This can create anxiety for some of the testers, who then may not report their discomfort because the prospect of doing so may lead to more stress. Anandan responded by saying that this is one of the questions that the company had to ask itself. How to implement enough structure within the company while being responsive to clients and delivering an efficient service?
“The structure we’re implementing is just taking more time within the internal team and not being visible to the clients. It means we’re not as profitable as another business would be, but we’re not trying to maximize profits, we’re trying to maximize the quality of the service and how quickly we can grow.”
The original article by Aaron Taube on the Business Insider website can be read here