Why I Started VerbaNexa

Every company starts somewhere

When my son was around 18 months old, I began to notice he wasn't developing the way I expected.

At his two-year check, a nurse mentioned the word autism for the first time and said he would be referred for support.

I had no idea what autism meant for my son.

So I did what every parent does.

I googled everything.

If you have ever searched for things like speech delay activities or how to support a child with developmental delay at home, you will know what I mean.

The information online was overwhelming.

And that was when I first realised how important early intervention really is.

Then we waited.

Three months passed.

I heard nothing.

When I followed up, I was told the waiting lists could take years.

Nobody could tell me when he would be seen.

I was shocked.

I was upset.

And I was determined to do something.

Trying to build support ourselves

I found a private speech and language therapist.

It was expensive and difficult to sustain.

He also needed occupational therapy.

I was told he had complex needs, but I was given no real roadmap for what that meant.

We enrolled him in a specialised preschool for children with language delays.

He thrived there.

For a while it felt like we were finally moving forward.

Then Covid hit.

Like so many families, we lost every support we had overnight.

So I built a home plan myself.

I took course after course.

I tried to piece together conflicting advice.

I tried to make sense of overwhelming information.

In 2021 he was finally diagnosed with autism.

I thought things would improve after that.

They didn't.

The space between appointments

It would be five years from that first referral before he was finally seen by the public system.

He was seven years old.

I fought every single one of those years.

And I was sick to my stomach that my son, that any child, could be left without support simply because a system couldn't keep up with demand.

That wasn't good enough.

It will never be good enough.

The moment the idea appeared

One evening, after our son had gone to bed, I was sitting on the couch thinking about all of this.

And the thought arrived very clearly.

Someone should build this.

A place where parents can find activities grounded in developmental knowledge.

Where what you do at home connects to what professionals are working toward.

Where the guidance is credible, the approach is personal, and the whole thing fits into real life.

Not around it.

Not something that replaces therapy.

And not something that works around the system.

Something that works alongside it.

A companion for families while they are waiting for therapy.

And something that continues to support them once therapy begins.

That thought sat with me for a while.

And eventually it became a plan.

That plan became VerbaNexa.

Three years of building something families deserve

The years that followed were spent turning that idea into something real.

That meant speaking with parents.

Listening carefully to their experiences.

Learning from therapists, clinicians, and professionals who work with children every day.

It meant understanding what families actually need while waiting for therapy, and what support at home realistically looks like in the middle of busy family life.

It also meant competing for a place on the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme, something we are incredibly proud of and deeply grateful for.

New Frontiers gave us the structure, support, and network that helped accelerate VerbaNexa from an idea on a couch into a real platform being built today.

There were hard days too.

Days when the scope felt overwhelming.

Days when the timeline felt impossible.

Days when the gap between where we were and where we wanted to be felt very wide.

But we always came back to the same reason.

The parents searching at midnight.

The families doing their best in the spaces between appointments.

The mums and dads trying to support their child's development at home without a clear map.

That was always the reason to keep going.

Where VerbaNexa is today

Today, VerbaNexa is close.

Not live yet.

But close.

The platform is being built carefully, with families at the centre of every decision.

The goal is simple: to help parents feel more confident about how they can support their child's development at home while waiting for therapy or diagnosis.

If you are on that road right now, waiting, wondering, and doing the best you can for your child, please know that you are not alone.

And VerbaNexa is being built for you.