Employment Panel 3: Entrepreneurship for Independence

Click Here to Watch the Webinar Recording - Employment Panel 3 - Entrepreneurship for Independence

Entrepreneurship for Independence

Moderator: Cathy Farmer

Objectives:

• Understanding of key skills for Entrepreneurship
• Explain the unique skills of neurodiverse entrepreneurship
• Discuss options for how to get started as a neurodiverse Entrepreneur

Rob Edwards, CEO, Neurodiversity Entrepreneurship Association

Rob is CEO of the NEA, the Neurodiversity & Entrepreneurship Association. The NEA provides a meeting place for all those with an interest in neurodiversity and entrepreneurship, creating a safe and nurturing environment for neurodivergent entrepreneurs to get the help and support they need to start their own businesses, and get ongoing support to keep them up-and-running and earning them an income. Based in West Yorkshire in the UK, Rob himself is a neurodivergent entrepreneur, and has worked with membership groups, academics and businesses for over twenty years, holding senior roles in academic publishing before becoming self-employed in 2014. He advises about marketing, events, business development and board strategy, and has also been an Associate Lecturer in creativity and innovation.

Ariana Rodriguez, Founder and CEO, CORXLY

Ariana Rodriguez is a three-time founder, operations strategist, and the CEO of CORXLY—an adaptive productivity tool built for neurodivergent brains. With over a decade of experience in tech operations, Ariana has led teams across startups, healthcare systems, and educational institutions. Her entrepreneurial journey is deeply informed by her own late-diagnosis of ADHD, a discovery that reframed years of burnout and overwhelm not as personal failings, but as a lack of systems designed with neurodivergent minds in mind. Driven by a mission to build more inclusive tools, Ariana launched CORXLY to address the cognitive overload so many neurodivergent entrepreneurs face. Instead of rigid templates or shame-based productivity hacks, CORXLY offers emotional infrastructure—tools that adapt to how you feel, not just what you do. Ariana is a passionate advocate for inclusive innovation, accessibility in tech, and the radical idea that productivity should support people, not the other way around. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Create & Cultivate, and Buffer, and she’s built a vibrant community of founders, freelancers, and change-makers who are redefining what success looks like—on their own terms.

Chloe Duckworth, Co-founder and CEO, Valence AI

Chloe Duckworth is the co-founder and CEO of Valence Vibrations, an emotion AI startup building the emotional subtitle of the internet for conversational intelligence. Valence models analyze vocal tone to help teams better understand customers and coworkers across screens and demographic differences. Chloe has a background in computational neuroscience and previously worked in neurotech at BrainMind. Chloe is the co-founder of Hope Hearted, a California nonprofit providing supplies and PPE to keep unhoused people safe from COVID and other viral infections.

Dani Bowman, Founder and CEO, DaniMation Entertainment

Dani Bowman, an entrepreneur, educator, and advocate on the autism spectrum, founded DaniMation Entertainment at just 14 years old in 2009. Expanding globally, she launched DaniMation UK in 2019. She holds a BFA in Animation (2018) and an MBA in Global Strategy and Leadership (2020) and is currently pursuing a Ph.D., focusing on the impact of her animation education programs within the autism community. She also gained widespread recognition as a cast member of Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum. Dani has premiered 15 animated short films, a PSA, and a music video at San Diego Comic-Con. Over the past 16 years, she has been a driving force in animation education, teaching over 3,000 students with autism and other different abilities through one-on-one classes, summer camps, and workshops across the U.S. and the U.K. – including partnerships with Joey Travolta's Inclusion Films, the University of South Florida, Plymouth University, and Brunel University London. Through her work, Dani continues to break barriers, champion inclusion, and demonstrate the power of animation as a tool for self-expression and career development for individuals on the autism spectrum.