From Amazon to Autism Tech: Vijay Ravindran’s Journey to Founding Floreo
Vijay Ravindran is an engineer, a leader, and a CEO. At the heart of all those titles is his most significant role: a father. When his son was diagnosed with autism, Vijay responded in a way that came most naturally to him: by building a solution. That solution became Floreo, a clinically designed immersive virtual reality platform. What began as a deeply personal mission quickly evolved into a powerful professional calling and passion.
Before Floreo, Vijay worked as a software engineer at Amazon and as Chief Digital Officer at The Washington Post. Donald E. Graham, then CEO of the Washington Post called him “one of the top innovators in the field,” emphasizing the company’s confidence in his ability to modernize media operations. “Working on big tech or even just in the early days of Amazon gave me the confidence to jump into anything,” Vijay shared.
Following his corporate career, Ravindran turned to entrepreneurship where he founded Floreo, a startup focused on virtual reality therapy for neurodivergent individuals. Used by schools, therapists, and families, Floreo has gained attention for its innovative use of immersive technology to build real-world skills.
How Floreo Works: Immersive Learning Through VR
Floreo is more than just a tech product; it’s a therapeutic platform designed to make skill development more engaging, personalized and effective. Users access the platform through a virtual reality headset. “We clinically design immersive 3D content for different types of areas of skill acquisition that range from early communications skills to safety areas, to conversational skills with peers all the way up to independent living and job preparatory skills,” Vijay explained.
Therapists, clinicians, parents, and other users can chaperone the experience and deliver specific content through the virtual reality headset. Through supervising, the adults are able to provide advice and support and create some of the social dynamics where a skill can be conveyed to the user, whether that be a child or an adult. Floreo offers 200+ lessons that range from using the public bus to TSA lines to more basic areas like imitating someone else.
Recently, Floreo just introduced two new AI persona characters. Through voice recognition, the learner is able to talk to the character through the VR headset. “We use generative AI so that the character is able to respond, and what’s really exciting about that modality is that the character is capable of talking about all sorts of subjects,” Vijay mentioned. In Floreo, it’s all about meeting the learner where they are and talk about their interests in detail.
Built for Neurodiversity, Designed for Inclusion
What sets Floreo apart from mainstream VR platforms is its intentional and individualized design for neurodivergent users. Every aspect, from pacing and visuals to the user interface, is carefully crafted to minimize sensory overload and accommodate diverse needs. The platform incorporates limited motion, calm environments, careful color and light design, and health-conscious considerations (e.g., reducing seizure risk and motion sickness). “The important thing is that there’s a lot of virtual reality being created. Ours is purpose built for this population,” Vijay noted.
Floreo is also built for people on every step of their skill acquisition journey. “We think each individual is on their own developmental timeline,” Vijay pointed out. “There’s some content that might be too juvenile for an eight year old, but may be appropriate for a 22 year old, depending on their support levels. We create a wide range of content and work with kids as young as four and with adults.”
Collaborative Design and Community-Led Innovation
Floreo’s content creation process is incredibly interdisciplinary. “Our staff is made up of a combination of engineers, game developers, people with clinical therapeutic background, and autistic adults with lived experience,” Vijay shared. New content in Floreo is inspired by real-world challenges faced by users. Many of Floreo’s most impactful features have been inspired directly by parents, teachers, therapists, and users themselves.
Expanding Access and Affordability
A major issue in modern technologies built for neurodiversity is the lack of accessibility of the products. However, Floreo has got that covered with prioritizing affordability and inclusion in therapy access. For one, they offer Medicaid reimbursement in numerous states, including Tennessee. Families can access the Floreo platform and equipment through a self-directed waiver.
Floreo also offers an equipment leasing program that makes it easier for schools, clinics, and families to integrate VR into their practice without a significant investment. The company also has an exciting partnership with the University of Virginia’s Children’s Hospital. They’ve also had a multi-year partnership with the NIH on an ADHD version of the VR platform.
To support successful implementation, Floreo offers training in many ways. For clinics and schools, they offer online training and for parents, they offer sequential videos where they can train themselves at home.
The Power of VR as a Therapy Tool
Ultimately, Floreo has proven that VR is so powerful for neurodiverse learners compared to traditional therapy methods. “You can recreate environments, like a person’s home or a therapist’s office, and you can create a repeatable practice environment that does not judge nor create embarrassment and allows neurodiverse individuals to practice, to the amount that they want to, to gain a skill,” Vijay added.
In a field where therapeutic progress is often slow, Floreo represents a shift where technology doesn’t replace therapy but enhances it, empowering individuals to learn at their own pace, on their own terms, and in ways that feel meaningful to them.
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