Helping people with special needs help themselves
January 24, 2026
We have fun with technology... and believe it can help people with special needs. It can come in various forms. It might allow a person with special needs to live by themselves. It might help them be or feel safe. It might help with coping through a tough day. More to come!
January 17, 2026
Many charitable organizations will do job-training. Or they will volunteer at businesses big and small (paid or unpaid). The big issue with this approach is it's difficult to find businesses that want to engage. Often the business owner or the senior VP has some connection to people with special needs and wants to assist... which is great. But when times get tough, these opportunities often fade away.
Nicolas Ventures sort of turns this on its head. The idea is more along the lines of running a regular business and always trying to have people with special needs work there in some capacity whenever possible. It's sort of built into the DNA. This is absolutely aspirational! We know how hard this is. So instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, we think "going small" works too. That's why we ask: how many people with special needs have you hired — for big or small?
January 10, 2026
Here at Nicolas Ventures we want to help people with special needs help themselves. This blog will be describing some of what we're doing to make this happen. It's a work-in-progress. Both Nicolas Ventures and this blog itself have much work to do, but it's better to start small and grow than wait for perfection. More to come!
We believe in empowering individuals with special needs to help themselves. These might be big steps or baby steps. Either way, they count.
We're finding creative ways to help folks with special needs help themselves. That might mean social entrepreneurship in its many forms, technology (we hear this AI thing might be big someday), or simply showing up — person to person, hands on, no platform required.
More to come!