“Don’t worry dad. I am used to disappointments all my life”, said Siri

“Don’t worry dad. I am used to disappointments all my life”, said Siri, my non-speaking autistic daughter, using a letter board.

That sentence hit me like a ton of bricks!

Here I am, a caring and protective father, professionally successful, living in Silicon Valley, who would do anything for her happiness, sitting there helpless with tears in my eyes and the realization that I failed miserably.

Siri is such a wise, caring and gentle person, beautiful both inside and out. She should not be facing so many disappointments. Her condition made it impossible for us parents and the rest of the world to know her.

She has been non-verbal all her life, unable to communicate until a few years ago when we introduced the letter board. Now she is in college on her way to becoming a neuroscientist!

I have been busy with my career in emergency medicine, research and population health, building technology tools that have helped millions. I was hoping that science and research would catch up soon and solve this challenge. But it did not happen. My wife had tried everything until something clicked.

According to the CDC, there are about 7 million autistic people with autism in the US. For 20+ years, I have not seen any movement in diagnostics, biomarkers, therapies, imaging, or improvement in long term outcomes, especially for people with profound autism.

So, I am taking up the fight. I have dedicated my time to solving this challenge.

I don’t want to see brilliant minds ending up with disappointments, and millions of families beaten down, fatigued and helpless with no hope.

On this Autism Awareness Day, we at Sirica Therapeutics and SiricaAI, re-dedicate ourselves to bring fulfillment and joy to individuals and hope and peace to the families. We want to replicate the success that Siri has achieved in overcoming the challenge of autism.

This summer, we are opening the Sirica Center for Autism Innovation here in the San Francisco Bay Area to build, test and deploy technology tools to help autistic individuals.

If you are an investor and want to join us in this fight to help millions, DM me. We are closing our pre-seed round this month.