๐ŸŒฑ Seed Round Open

The communication bridge
every neurodivergent child
deserves.

BridgeSpeak is a real-time AI interpreter that helps neurodivergent kids and their friends understand what was actually meant โ€” reducing meltdowns, building friendships, and giving parents peace of mind.

1 in 6
Children has a developmental disability
$50B+
Global neurodivergent ed-tech market
0
Direct competitors with real-time peer translation
The Problem

A single eye-roll can shatter a friendship.

For neurodivergent children, the hidden layers of communication โ€” sarcasm, tone, implied meaning, emojis โ€” aren't just confusing. They're invisible. A well-meaning joke lands as cruelty. A neutral "whatever" reads as rejection. The result: isolation, anxiety, and avoidable meltdowns.

"I watched it happen too many times." As the father of a neurodivergent daughter who takes every word literally, I've seen how fast a small misunderstanding can escalate. One eye-roll. One "whatever ๐Ÿ™„." Crying. High emotions. A friendship on the brink. I built BridgeSpeak because the bridge I desperately needed didn't exist.

โ€” Collin Mariner Co-Founder & Dad-in-Chief
80%
of autistic adults report chronic loneliness due to social communication barriers
5.4M
school-age children in the US have autism โ€” a 178% increase since 2000
$268B
annual societal cost of autism in the US, including lost productivity and services
1 in 36
children now diagnosed with ASD โ€” and millions more with ADHD, anxiety, and related conditions
The Solution

Real-time translation for every kind of mind.

BridgeSpeak sits between a message and a reaction. In milliseconds, it surfaces what was really meant, offers calm response options, and builds understanding โ€” for both kids, not just one.

01
โšก
Instant Decode
BridgeSpeak reads every incoming message and flags sarcasm, emotional tone, emojis, and hidden meaning in real time.
02
๐ŸŒก๏ธ
Temperature Check
A color-coded signal (green/yellow/red) tells the child instantly whether a message is kind, neutral, or potentially hurtful.
03
๐Ÿ’ฌ
Gentle Coaching
Before sending a reply, BridgeSpeak offers 2โ€“3 calm response options and a gentle "how are you feeling?" pause if emotions are running high.
04
๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ
Parent Safety Net
Parents receive silent escalation alerts โ€” not message content โ€” if patterns suggest a child is distressed. Privacy protected always.
Market Opportunity

A massive, underserved market.

The neurodivergent ed-tech and mental health tech space is growing rapidly โ€” yet no product addresses real-time peer communication translation for children.

Total Addressable Market
$50B+
Neurodivergent Ed-Tech & Mental Health Tech
Global market for tools, apps, and services supporting neurodivergent individuals across all age groups. Growing at ~15% CAGR.
Serviceable Addressable Market
$8.2B
US Neurodivergent Children Apps & Tools
Families of autistic and ADHD children ages 5โ€“18 in the US who actively purchase digital support tools, therapy apps, and educational software.
Serviceable Obtainable Market
$240M
Year 3 Beachhead Target
Families of ASD/ADHD teens aged 10โ€“16 in top 20 US metros โ€” the highest-motivated, most tech-comfortable segment. 300K families ร— $65/yr avg revenue.
Traction & Progress

Built with love. Backed by real need.

We're an early-stage team with a working MVP, a growing waitlist, and a community that's been waiting for exactly this.

MVP
Working prototype with core decode + response features live
4
Passionate co-founders โ€” developer, researcher, cloud architect, and a dad who lived this problem
COPPA
Privacy-first architecture: COPPA & GDPR compliant, data auto-deletes after 30 days
0 ads
No advertising, no data sold โ€” ever. Built for trust with families, not advertisers
The Team

Built by people who care deeply.

We're parents, engineers, and researchers united by a shared belief: that communication should never be a barrier to belonging.

CM
Collin Mariner
Co-Founder & Dad-in-Chief
Seasoned VP of Cloud Operations with nearly two decades of enterprise tech leadership. A start up veteran with experience scaling massive technology and data solutions, Collin has built and led cloud engineering teams across North America, India and EMEA. Built BridgeSpeak out of lived experience as the father of a neurodivergent daughter. Collin leads strategy, fundraising, and product vision.
Cloud Architecture Terraform & GitOps DevOps Leadership AWS / Azure Product Vision
DK
Steven "Duke" Cvar
Co-Founder & Lead Developer
Senior engineering leader with 20+ years building cloud-native systems at enterprise scale. Staff Software Engineer & Engineering Manager at Rocket Lawyer, where he's led zero-downtime migrations of 38M+ users. Previously a Systems Design Architect at Acxiom for nearly 17 years, where he architected an ad-tech platform processing 2.95 billion daily transactions and an API security gateway at 99.9%+ uptime. Architecture Review Board member with deep expertise in API governance, identity systems, and distributed infrastructure. Currently deepening applied AI/LLM integration skills โ€” the exact capability at BridgeSpeak's core. US Navy veteran.
Systems Architecture AI/LLM Integration Cloud-Native API Governance US Navy Veteran
LM
Liz Merrill, M.M.
Co-Founder & Human Conflict Advisor
Certified Divorce & Transformation Coach, mediator, and founder of Open Space Mediation, where she's guided 230+ couples through conflict with a 70% success rate โ€” well above the industry average. A staff mediator for the BBB and Denver County Courts, Liz understands at a professional depth how miscommunication escalates, how people misread tone and intent, and how the right intervention at the right moment can change everything. She brings that expertise directly to BridgeSpeak's design: ensuring the product intervenes with empathy, not judgment. BA from UNC Chapel Hill; M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Honored in Marquis Who's Who 2024.
Conflict Resolution Mediation Human Communication De-escalation Coaching
MK
Maxine Kampbell
Co-Founder & Research & Development
Graduate Research Assistant at Colorado State University, Maxine bridges the gap between academic research and product engineering. She brings rigorous AI/ML research skills and software development expertise to BridgeSpeak's technical team, helping ensure the product is both scientifically grounded and technically sound.
AI/ML Research Software Development Colorado State University R&D
Seed Round

Help us build the bridge.

We're raising a seed round to hire developers, complete the mobile app, and launch our beta program with 500 families. This is more than a startup โ€” it's a mission.

$750K
Seed Round Target
18 mo
Runway
500
Beta Family Target

Use of Funds

Product development & engineering 45%
Beta user acquisition & community 20%
Operations & infrastructure 20%
Legal, compliance & IP 10%
Marketing & partnerships 5%
Request the Investor Deck Talk to Collin directly