Have Purpose, Will Profit BEAVER SHRIVER WAS STANDING INSIDE THE COMMERCIAL SPACE on State Street where his new business venture, Rise Coffee Co. & Nye’s Cream Sandwiches, would soon operate when in walked a young man and his mother to inquire about a job. Shriver remembers he showed them around the space, pointing out where the coffee equipment would go, how the ice cream machines would work and his general vision for the operation. “The guy was really quiet and polite the whole time,” says Shriver, “but when they left and thought they were out of earshot, I heard him go ‘woo-hoo!’” The young man had every reason to be excited at even the prospect of a job; he has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 80 percent of people with that diagnosis are unemployed. Shriver thinks that number is unacceptable. And he aims to change it. Rise Coffee Co. & Nye’s Cream Sandwiches was founded specifically to employ the broad array of neurodivergent individuals who for too long have been viewed as unemployable. Shriver himself comes from a long line of champions for those with ASD, beginning with his aunt and founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, as well as his cousin Anthony, founder of Best Buddies International, an organization that seeks to increase awareness
and inclusion for those with ASD. But one of the biggest challenges in hiring employees with special needs is job training. To that end, Shriver strung together a web of nonprofit and for-profit outfits who could commit their resources and energy to his vision. The first one is EasterSeals Southwest Florida. “We’ve got leading-edge training for individuals with autism and other disabilities,” says Tom Waters, president and CEO. The nonprofit offers an extensive menu of services, job training among them. Through its extensive network of funding streams, EasterSeals managed to secure a state grant specifically to expand their job training offerings. With that grant, Waters and Shriver enlisted the other player in this endeavor, Three Six and Zero, Inc., a virtual reality (VR) design firm based in Sarasota. “We met Beaver at a Ringling College event and he told us about his business,” says Alex Guerra, executive producer for Three Six and Zero. Along with business partner Tim Conway, the two started their design outfit to transition out of their Hollywood careers as visual effects designers and into something that satisfied their need to do good. Guerra and Conway had already found their niche in health and wellness with contracts from Moffitt Cancer Center
“This is a really unique collaboration of divergent expertises, but it shows what can get done when nobody cares about taking credit.”
and Sharecare, the medical platform started by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold (founder of WebMD). Between their rapport with Shriver, their portfolio and their desire to be a part of something good, Guerra and Conway formed the third part of this social enterprise. The three pieces then set out to collaborate on immersive virtual reality training modules for the coffee shop. “For the first four or five months, we developed the coffee grinder module,” says Guerra. In it, candidates already working with EasterSeals could try out the module, which featured a VR version of the actual Bunn grinder used in Shriver’s coffee shop. “We were able to collaborate with the specialists to draw data analytics,” says Guerra, “and that helped us understand what was working and what was not.” Later versions of the module added the ability to up the stakes with the emotional and social components of the task like irate customers. “VR is a remarkable way to get somebody comfortable with a task,” says Shriver, “especially someone who may have learning issues.” Each piece of this collaboration has high hopes for the project. “To my knowledge, there has never been anything like this where the job training is so specific,” says Waters. It bodes well for EasterSeals’ ability to place its clients in jobs, but the implications are much larger. “This is about giving dignity and pride to a population that has been kept in the shadows for too long,” says Shriver, “and I think the future of business should be more mission-oriented.” SRQ —Andrew Fabian
—Tom Waters, EasterSeals
Pictured: Rise Coffee Co. & Nye’s Cream Sandwiches Colab Shot EasterSeals - Tom Waters (right most) EasterSeals - Don Herndon (left most) EsterSeals - Katie Carnes, Rise Coffee Co- Beaver Shriver (center) Nye’s Cream Sandwiches - Christian Nye, Three Six And Zero - Tim Conway Three Six And Zero - Alex Guerra, Adam Carmona and Mercedes Mathews .
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