Our Story
FOUNDER/CEO
Celest Austin, MD, PhD
While growing up with her autistic sister, Amanda, Celest Austin grew to appreciate her sister’s way of thinking. Dr. Austin was alarmed how most resources available did not nurture her sister’s unique way of thinking but instead tried to reprogram her with products and services labeled as “cures” and “treatments”. With such limited resources available, Dr. Austin’s family made sure to celebrate whenever Amanda accomplished anything with the cheer, "GoManda! GoManda!'
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From then on, Dr. Austin decided to dedicate her life to autism and studied the uniqueness of autism. After obtaining her MD/PhD from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2016, Dr. Austin knew she wanted to do more and walked away from further medical training to found a company called GoManda, named after her sister Amanda. Inspired by the unique learning style of Dr. Austin’s sister, GoManda is a company dedicated to celebrating the unique mind of autism. GoManda has created a platform that teaches vocabulary using strength-based teaching - a teaching method that works with autism's unique learning style rather than against it.
GoManda Founder Celest Austin (left) with her sister, Amanda (right)
Mission
To accept, nurture, and cheer for all types of learners by building products that are tailored for neurodivergent learning styles.
Vision
To serve neurodivergent students around the world with our premier education technology.
Our Core Values
Neurodivergent Voices First
We believe in listening to the community of neurodivergent people. Their voices help drive our mission and vision. Their experience is not our own to speak for. We put the lived experience of neurodivergent individuals as our highest priority.
Quality & Innovation
We are not a company that sees what we do as a set of checkmarks. We know that our services are impactful and can make a difference in the lives of many neurodivergent students. That's why each step we make is driven by the highest standards of quality and innovation .
Integrity & Curiosity
We are in the business of building trust with our users by being ethical, transparent, and well-intentioned. Our curiosity drives understanding and compassion to the people we serve - educators, schools, students, and famillies.
Diversity & Inclusion
Fostering belonging is the culture of GoManda. We believe our company's mindset can drive the skills and behaviors to take diversity deeper than demographics.
Who We Serve
The GoManda app serves both educators and students in building receptive vocabulary skills.
​We serve the neurodivergent community by providing premier learning software designed for the learning style of autism and other neurodivergencies.
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We also serve the ecosystem around a neurodivergent child which includes families, teachers, school administrators, and therapists.
How We Serve Them
By building an app that saves time for the support team of a child, we help everyone focus on what’s important.
We pride ourselves in combining the science of learning for autistic and neurodivergent children with the input of actual autistic and neurodivergent individuals.
Science supports neurodiversity and we are proud to be one of the first neurodiversity-affirming learning apps aimed at foundational skills like early literacy.
