SKILLS FOR LIFE
New Mobile App Helps
People with Different Abilities Develop Authentic Friendships By Ron Sandison
“EVERYONE DESERVES SOMEONE AND EVERYONE DESERVES A FRIEND.”—JULIANA FETHERMAN
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uliana Fetherman is the creator of Making Authentic Friendships (MAF), a mobile app that helps individuals with special needs (age 13+) connect and make friends based on their age, diagnoses, shared interests, and geological location. She was inspired to create the app by her younger brother Michael, who has special needs and, at the time, difficulty forming friendships. Making Authentic Friendships’ abbreviation (MAF) also happens to be Michael’s initials. Michael was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age two and autism at age eight. As the older sibling, Juliana’s parents always kept her in the loop with Michael’s therapy and the resources he needed, which inspired her to dedicate her life to helping people with autism and disabilities. Juliana and her parents wanted to find a way for Michael to meet new people as they knew it would help him develop social skills. Juliana shares, “I felt bad doing things and going places without him. When I left Michael behind, I felt guilty because I felt like I was leaving him by himself. I desired to teach him skills to start conversations and keep them going.” Juliana decided to develop the app during her junior year studying business at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. The first step was to produce a web-based version of the app to get feedback from users’ experiences. Next, Juliana re-
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searched the cost of building an app. With a startup cost of $200,000, she developed a plan to raise money to build the app and website. Juliana raised $15,000 in donations through Crowdfunding, a GoFundMe for businesses. She raised $25,000 through private investors and another $25,000 in golfing charity events. She had a plan to update the app, continue to raise money to keep it going, and a plan to market it through interviews and podcasts. Juliana shares, “We did much of our marketing with old-fashioned hard work. Putting postcards in mailboxes around town and speaking at local autism events. We also shared on podcasts and TV interviews. I received national TV interviews by pitching our story.”
