One observation.
One big idea.
In 2012, long before artificial intelligence became a household word, John Mina noticed something that troubled him.
Working with children in his MA program, John could create real progress in a controlled therapeutic setting, but the moment those same children stepped onto a playground, the skills didn’t follow. The environment changed, and so did everything he’d worked to build.
He began wondering whether virtual reality, paired with intelligent prompting, could recreate the nuance of a skilled therapist’s interactions inside an environment that felt closer to real life. Not a simulation of therapy, but an extension of it.
The idea stayed with him. So did the problem. There simply aren’t enough skilled clinicians to meet the need, and the ones who exist spend too many hours on documentation that pulls them away from the patients they trained to serve. For therapists and educators, charting is the constant companion nobody asked for.
VIZQ is John’s answer to both problems — a platform that extends the reach of great clinicians without replacing what makes them great, and that captures data automatically so the people who chose this work can spend their time on exactly that.
See it for yourself — request a demo today.
Benjamin Albaum, Co-Founder & CEO
Benjamin brings two decades of experience at the intersection of healthcare and human potential, including years as the founder and operator of outpatient therapy clinics in Southern California that served over 15,000 patients. That work gave him an unfiltered view of a system where therapists and families are routinely asked to do more with less and where the gap between what children need and what they actually receive continues to grow. He co-founded VIZQ because he believes two things deeply: that every neurodiverse child deserves access to the kind of skilled, consistent practice that builds real independence, and that the technology to finally deliver it is here. VIZQ is his answer to both.
John Mina, Co-Founder & Inventor
John is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist who has spent more than fifteen years working with neurodiverse children in some of California’s largest school districts, including LAUSD and Glendale Unified. The idea behind VIZQ grew out of something he kept seeing in his own practice: children who made genuine progress in a clinical setting, only to struggle when those skills needed to carry over into the real world. He founded VIZQ because he wanted to build a tool that could extend a clinician’s work beyond the therapy hour and give every child more opportunities to practice, grow, and succeed.
Mash Syed, M.S., Computer Science, AI/ML & Data Science Architect
Mash has spent his career helping organizations put artificial intelligence to work in ways that matter. As an AI and machine learning engineer at Google and previously at Microsoft, he’s designed and deployed enterprise-scale AI systems across some of the world’s most complex environments. At VIZQ, he brings that same depth of expertise to a worthy mission: building the intelligent architecture that makes adaptive, individualized learning possible for every child who uses the platform.
George Bailey, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships:
George has spent much of his career building things for and alongside the autism and special needs community to serve children like his autistic son. As a co-founder of zPods — a nationally recognized provider of safety and sensory sleeping solutions for individuals with autism and sensory processing needs — he learned firsthand what it takes to bring a mission-driven product to market and earn the trust of families and clinicians who have high standards and real stakes. At VIZQ, he leads the partnerships and relationships that connect the platform to the schools, clinics, and organizations where it can do the most good.
Now that you know about us, we’d like to get to know you.