Rick Fiery and Tom Bergeron created InventiveLabs, a business designed to find and develop creative, nontraditional thinkers who might have “slipped through the cracks” of colleges and big corporations. The Amesbury, Massachusetts-based business incubator focuses on neuro-divergent entrepreneurs—those with conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD and autism—and helps them create a business model around their ideas. The incubator has helped launch 8 startups since opening in 2014.
“We’ve come to realize that acceptance is such a powerful component of what we do,” Bergeron says. “Acceptance fuels creativity and breaks down many barriers. There is still a stigma around neuro-diversity. We find the individuals who are willing to stand up and say they view the world differently are the ones who make great entrepreneurs.”
Related: 6 Scientifically Proven Creativity Boosters You’ve Probably Never Heard of
This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
