Birdhouse techies developing apps for autism

Ben Chutz's new start-up, Birdhouse, is a little personal for him. The West Bloomfield-based company specializes in developing a mobile app and website that helps parents of autistic children better track and manage the developmental disorder. Chutz's girlfriend has a daughter with autism, which has led to Chutz having firsthand experience of interacting with a child with the disorder and all of the trials and tribulations that come with it. That experience turned on the CFL over his head and prompted him, his girlfriend and one more close friend to start building Birdhouse last fall. "I figured there had to be a better way to monitor the variables that needed to be tracked for autism," says Ben Chutz, founder of Birdhouse. Chutz explains that autism at its base causes people to have an abnormal response to everyday stimuli. Parents and caregivers of autistic kids have to keep track of these interactions as they figure out the best way to help their children deal with the disorder. Birdhouse is developing software that makes tracking these interactions, aggregating that data and making sense of it easy. "It's important to track how the child is responding to different interventions," Chutz says, The trio is still working to develop the software, which Chutz expects will be done in the next two months. He plans to execute a soft launch of Birdhouse's software this summer and make it available to everyone by the end of this year. The start-up is also looking for funding. Chutz is tackling Birdhouse as his full-time job now. Before that he worked for the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. Previous to that he helped ReCellular, an Ann Arbor-based cell phone recycler, build its e-commerce platform. Source: Ben Chutz, founder of Birdhouse Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.