We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Antoinette Banks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Antoinette, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I remember sitting at my kitchen table at 2 AM, surrounded by sticky notes and IEP documents, and my daughter finally asleep upstairs. As a single mom to a nonverbal child, I’d just spent hours preparing for yet another IEP meeting, trying to memorize terms like ‘present levels of performance’ and ‘procedural safeguards.’ Despite my MBA and professional background, I felt lost in an educational maze that seemed designed to confuse rather than help. That night, fighting back tears of frustration, I decided to create something that would make sense of this chaos.

I started building a tool for myself – a prototype that could analyze IEP documents, break down the jargon, and help me understand exactly what I was agreeing to for my daughter. Every meeting, every challenge became an opportunity to refine this system. As I used my background in technology to create something that could make sense of these complex documents, I began to see results. Not just in the tool’s effectiveness but in my daughter’s progress. Today, she isn’t just speaking – she’s thriving as a neurodivergent advocate, preparing for college visits, and showing me daily what’s possible when parents have the right tools to fight for their children.

But my daughter’s success story highlighted a painful truth. In support groups and community meetings, other parents kept sharing the same heartbreaking stories: A Hispanic mother who couldn’t get translation services for her son’s IEP meetings. A Black father who felt dismissed when he questioned the school’s recommendations. A single parent who had to choose between paying rent or hiring an advocate. With over 7 million students on IEPs nationwide and families of color facing disproportionate barriers, I realized the tool I’d built for my daughter could help solve a much bigger problem.

That’s when Expert IEP truly began taking shape. I expanded what I’d built, combining AI technology with my real-world advocacy experience to create something revolutionary. We’re not just translating documents – we’re analyzing thousands of successful IEPs to identify what works, just like I did for my daughter. We’re not just simplifying language – we’re providing step-by-step guidance customized to each family’s unique situation. And crucially, we’re building this with a deep understanding of cultural competency and the real challenges families face.

But what truly excites me is the future we’re building. Every time I see my daughter – whether she’s confidently presenting about neurodiversity to her class or just laughing with friends at the mall – I’m reminded that what started as a desperate solution for one child has grown into something much bigger. Expert IEP isn’t just about creating better documents – it’s about empowering every parent to dream bigger for their child’s future and giving them the tools to make those dreams a reality. We’re creating a movement where no parent has to feel alone in this journey, where every family has access to the knowledge and support they need to secure their child’s educational rights.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As an award-winning cognitive scientist, Ford Fellow, PhD candidate at UC Davis, and the Founder and CEO of Expert IEP, I bring both academic rigor and lived experience to the transformative work I’m doing in special education. I authored ‘Better Than a Diagnosis: A Single Parent’s Guide to Autism,’ inspired by my journey as a single mother to a neurodivergent daughter. This journey led me to develop Expert IEP—a platform that uses AI to empower families navigating the complex IEP system, reducing the burdens of bureaucratic processes that too often sideline parents from meaningful participation in their children’s education.

My work has been recognized across the field, including winning the $1 million grand prize from Pharrell Williams’s Black Ambition Prize, which allowed me to scale Expert IEP from a prototype I built for my own daughter into a life-changing tool for families nationwide. My team and I are reimagining what IEPs can be: dynamic, culturally sensitive, and responsive to each student’s evolving needs. Expert IEP is grounded in the belief that families deserve more than compliance-focused paperwork; they deserve accessible, empowering tools that put them at the center of their child’s educational journey.

My vision is to create a future where families are no longer overwhelmed by a system that should be supporting them. I am committed to fundamentally shifting the role of families in special education, ensuring that students not only achieve academically but also thrive in every aspect of their lives. With Expert IEP, we are leading the charge toward a more equitable and inclusive future for students with disabilities, one where every child has the opportunity to succeed beyond the classroom and experience the full joy of learning and growing.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As a Black woman founder with a background in cognitive science, I wanted to put myself in a position to build Expert IEP strategically. Years of negotiating in IEP meetings had taught me valuable lessons about advocacy, preparation, and the power of data-driven decisions. When I decided to build Expert IEP, I knew I needed to approach funding with the same methodical mindset. That path led me through pitch competitions, grants, and personal investment as my primary sources of funding.

I started with my own savings, bootstrapping the initial prototype because I saw how urgently families needed this solution. As I worked to grow the platform, I took advantage of every opportunity I could find. The validation came steadily – winning UC Davis’s Big Bang! Competition and the Carlsen Center for Innovation pitch competitions showed me that others could see the transformative potential in what I was building. My work gained the attention of NewSchools Venture Fund, becoming part of their prestigious portfolio, and I also received support from the Yass Prize. Winning the $1 million grand prize from Pharrell Williams’s Black Ambition Prize transformed what was possible for Expert IEP, enabling us to scale from a prototype built for my daughter into a powerful tool serving families across the nation.

This journey has shown me that with persistence, a mission-driven approach, and the right opportunities, you can build something meaningful. Each pitch competition wasn’t just about funding – it was a chance to refine our message, show our impact, and build relationships that continue to fuel our growth. Now, with proven product quality and significant traction, we’re preparing to open our first investment round in January 2025.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was waiting for someone to show me the way. This hit home when a special education attorney had the nerve to tell me me, ‘Black families often don’t care enough about things like being autistic. Plus, you’re not married. Find a facility and drop your daughter off to give her the best chance.’ Being a Black single mother of an autistic child has been a defining and transformative experience, and those disrespectful words – from someone who was supposed to help – sealed my commitment toward social justice for Black neurodivergent people, especially in a classroom setting.

I realized it was all on me. No one was coming to guide me through advocating for my daughter or creating new pathways in special education. If I wanted change, I had to create it myself.

Looking back, that revelation was transformative. It pushed me to trust my instincts, use my background, and turn my experiences in IEP meetings into a blueprint for change. Instead of waiting for permission or validation, I started building Expert IEP. Instead of following established paths, I created my own.

This mindset shift didn’t just change how I approached building my company – it changed how I saw my role in the world. It’s what drove me to develop the prototype, enter pitch competitions, and keep pushing forward even when the path wasn’t clear. When you truly understand that no one is coming to pave the way, you stop looking for permission and start creating solutions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.expertiep.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antoinetterbanks/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abanksr/