Timothy A. Zercher (00:00)
All right, well thank you so much for joining us, Adam. We really appreciate having you on. We're excited to learn a little bit more about you, Bueno Ventures and some of your other partnerships and programs. I know you're involved in a lot of stuff.

Adam Ventura (00:12)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for the invite. I'm excited to chat with you today.

Timothy A. Zercher (00:17)
So our first question — you are in a pretty competitive space. How does your team go about gaining new clients, new partnerships, and what's working for you best right now?

Adam Ventura (00:28)
Sure, absolutely. So actually, our primary organization is Intraverbal AI. So we're really in the AI space inside the ABA space, which means we're in the artificial intelligence inside the applied behavior analysis space. And as you pointed out, ABA has become much more competitive, especially over the course of the last five to ten years since the insurance mandates came out.

And yeah, things are much more competitive amongst behavior analysts, private equity, and all of the folks that are working in our space. And AI is all the rage right now. So between those two things overlapping, it certainly makes for an exciting workday every day, I would say that.

Timothy A. Zercher (01:13)
I bet it does, I bet it does. What is working for you best in actually acquiring new clients in this space?

Adam Ventura (01:19)
In reference to acquiring clients, so we're really, we're in a new space. Artificial intelligence is a new space and it's new for everybody right now, but everybody's excited about it and everybody is using some form of it right now. And most people have good experiences with it — you know, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity — these are not perfect systems, but for the most part, a lot of people use them because they're useful in some way to people's professional and personal lives.

People are interested. I think there's a mystery element to what we do. People want to know how we're blending applied behavior analysis and artificial intelligence together. So they'll at least try out a free version of our system. And then most people that try out the free version of our system end up with the paid version of our system because it's unique and it offers them value. It's easy to use. So we hit on all of those points and we're able to convert interest into free sign-up and to paid sign-up.

Timothy A. Zercher (02:33)
Awesome, that's awesome. Being able to show the impact of the tool before they have to sign up for a contract is always a huge advantage, which not all software can manage, right, so that makes complete sense. What have you found is the hardest part of growing your organization as a whole — any of the organizations that you've been part of?

Adam Ventura (02:53)
Yeah, I've started a lot of organizations in my professional time. And it just depends on the space. You know, it's interesting because applied behavior analysis therapy — ABA therapy — is easier to get clients than it is to get workers, whether they be board certified behavior analysts or registered behavior technicians. There's more work than there are workers right now.

If it's in the ABA therapy space, getting the business is easy, but getting the people to work that business that you get is really the challenge. In the AI space, I would say the biggest challenge that we have is customer education — explaining to them exactly what we do, how our technology works, how it works with the literature and research in our field, how all that stuff combines. So I would say the biggest challenge we have is certainly customer education.

Timothy A. Zercher (03:54)
Absolutely. And it's harder and harder to do that customer education when the tool is newer and AI is still very, very new for people. You sold your very first product at age seven — how has that early hustle shifted the way you approach scaling ventures like Intraverbal?

Adam Ventura (04:17)
Yeah, I should give some context around that. And that's great — you did your background research. So when I was a kid, I had an entrepreneurial mindset. I wanted money for the things that I wanted when I was seven — sweets, toys, going to the arcade.

Yes, we had arcades when we were kids. And we had this really cool place called Hot Wheels Something where people went to skate. This was in the 90s when I was a kid. But my parents said, “If you can make money yourself, then we'll buy you the things that you want.”

I lived in a condominium complex with decorative smooth rocks in the courtyard. I grabbed the rocks and thought, “If I can make the rocks attractive, people may want to buy them.” I decorated them with markers and crayons, and since I couldn’t design and sell them at the same time, I recruited my best friend Robert to help. We split the profits and sold them for 25 cents each.

People wanted to support kids doing something clever. I made about $12.50 in one day — around 40 or 50 sales. My parents were proud, took me to the arcade and Toys R Us, and I learned about inventory, hiring, profit sharing, finances, sales, and that the worst someone can say is “no.”

Timothy A. Zercher (07:09)
Sales are easier when you're a cute kid, for sure. Throughout your career, you've also taught over 8,000 students — how has being in the classroom influenced your entrepreneurial mindset, especially in the ABA space?

Adam Ventura (07:11)
Yeah, absolutely. You become really good at presenting, and sales is such an important skill set that includes presentation. Presentation involves preparation and the ability to think on the spot.

I taught the intro course at Florida International University for 12 years, sometimes two or three large auditorium courses per semester, with 250–300 students each. Over a decade, that’s 7,000–8,000 students. Intro students ask unexpected questions, which forces you to think quickly.

That skill translated to business — when people ask you about your products, you need to know your material and value well so you can answer quickly. The shorter the latency between question and answer, the more confident you appear, and people want to buy from those who are sure about their offering.

Timothy A. Zercher (09:39)
Absolutely. And they want to be sure that the thing that's important to them is something you actually understand.

Adam Ventura (09:46)
Exactly. Entrepreneurship is problem-solving — either bringing a new product or service to market, or improving an existing one. If you can’t communicate that you’ll solve the customer’s problem, they won’t give you their money.

Timothy A. Zercher (10:16)
Absolutely. With Intraverbal AI, you’re fusing tech and behavior analysis. What is one myth you wish people would move beyond or understand better when it comes to AI working inside of ABA?

Adam Ventura (10:18)
One myth is that AI will take everyone’s jobs. It will eliminate some repetitive jobs, but AI and ABA should mean augmented intelligence — making behavior analysts’ jobs easier so they can focus on the human element. ABA is deeply human, and it will always need human beings.

Timothy A. Zercher (12:18)
Makes complete sense.

Adam Ventura (12:30)
Even with impressive AI systems, you still need to tell them what to do. Two critical skills for the future are knowing what you want and being able to ask for it — prompt engineering. In 20 to 50 years, almost everyone will need that skill.

Timothy A. Zercher (13:34)
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Adam.

Adam Ventura (13:47)
Thank you so much for the invite, Tim.

Timothy A. Zercher (13:51)
Absolutely.