Rising Stars: Meet Kathy Long of Boulder, CO

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathy Long.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started in nonprofit fundraising after graduating from University of Toledo in ’94 with a Communications degree, then earned my MA in Organizational Leadership from University of Arizona. Along the way, I discovered my real talent in sales, first in radio, then riding the telecom boom of the ’90s, handling National and Strategic Accounts for Fortune 500 companies.

When my first son Jack was born in 2000, I stepped away from corporate. Had three more kids and started my own diaper service company because I wanted control over my schedule and my priorities. Eventually returned to tech sales leadership roles, then pivoted to operations at Farmshare, running revenue operations for an AgTech disruptor. I found my sweet spot in building systems from scratch.

My career is meaningful and enjoyable, but my priority has always been my family and I’ve had to shift between family support and career aspirations over the years. My son Jack has autism. High school went smoothly, then he hit that cliff every neurodivergent kid faces at graduation, when all support systems vanish unless you’re wealthy enough to buy new ones. After watching him navigate crisis after crisis in a world built for conformity and unspoken rules, he came home to rebuild.

One night at 2AM, I was spiraling. Who would remind him about doctor appointments if something happened to me? Who would help him navigate insurance claims? He’s a super smart guy, all four of my neurodivergent kids are, but this world punishes different thinking.

That’s when NixIt was born. I’ve been building (with help from my team) an AI assistant specifically designed for neurodivergent adults who need support when their ecosystem is asleep or unavailable. Someone who won’t judge, won’t get frustrated, won’t require reading between the lines.

I know what it takes to advocate fiercely especially after spending a year as a CNA at Children’s Hospital between corporate roles. Every shift, I supported floors of kids facing everything from genetic conditions to cancer to abuse. That job broke me open and rebuilt me stronger. It taught me that children, especially the ones society overlooks, are brilliant. CNAs don’t earn nearly enough for what they do, but that experience showed me that I am a fighter and that is why I’ve put so much passion into building NixIt this past year.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I started off being born to teen parents who weren’t ready to raise me. They made the difficult choice to give me to a family who wanted me fiercely. We didn’t have much, one pair of shoes and 2 pairs of pants to last the year, but I learned that hard work matters, family is everything and you stand up for people society overlooks.

One of my first friends was my grandparents’ neighbor whose child had Down syndrome. While my parents worked odd jobs on the weekends, she and I would play for hours. She was creative, loving and fun as hell. She taught me early that different isn’t less thank, it just means different.

The real battles came later. When my son Jack hit that cliff after high school graduation, when his support system vanished overnight, I watched the world try to force him to mask and medicate to be more palatable. That’s not living, that’s performing. The hardest part has been to fight for his right to exist as he is and not as the world wants him to be.

He recently found his tribe, people who don’t require him to pretend. He is thriving for the first time. Not because he changed, but because he found people to accept him. Th truth no one wants to admit is that you can’t thrive by conforming. You thrive when you are the best version of yourself, not someone elses version of normal.

My husband losing his job around the time I launched NixIt tested our family financially but also clarified my mission. We discovered we aren’t building a simple no-code tool, we’re building what’s essentially an ND specific LLM with multiple agents. More complex than we set out to build, but exactly what family’s like ours needs.

Every struggle, from that one pair of shoes to wear for the year to fighting for Jack’s right to live authentically, led me to this point.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m the CEO and founder of NixIt AI, building the first AI ecosystem that supports neurodivergent authenticity instead of forcing conformity. After three decades in enterprise tech sales and operations, I’m using everything I’ve learned to solve a problem that affects millions of families like mine.

I specialize in building revenue operations from the ground up, taking disconnected systems and creating infrastructure that actually works. At Farmshare, I architected their entire revenue operations as they disrupted AgTech. Before that, I handled National and Strategic Accounts for Fortune 500 telecom companies during the boom years. I’m known for seeing patterns others miss and building systems that scale.

What sets me apart? I’m not theorizing about this market, I’m living it in real time with four neurodivergent kids. I know the difference between tools that check boxes and tools that change lives. Most founders in this space either lack the technical operations experience to build complex infrastructure, or they lack the lived experience to know what actually needs building. I have both.

I’m most proud of refusing to accept “that’s just how it is” when systems fail neurodivergent people. When investors tell me the market is “too fragmented” or families “won’t pay consistently,” I show them data: 450% increase in adult autism diagnoses, families already spending $20-50 monthly on broken tools, 1.8 million young adults aging out of services annually with nowhere to go.

We’re building what’s essentially a neurodivergent-specific LLM with multiple agents, far more complex than we initially planned, but exactly what families need. Eight coaching companies want to integrate it, schools are asking for pilots, and parents literally cry during demos because someone finally gets it.

I’m not the typical founder profile: age 53, no Ivy League pedigree, no FAANG background. But I’ve run hospital floors as a CNA, built businesses while raising four kids, and learned that real innovation comes from understanding problems viscerally, not theoretically.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My refusal to accept broken systems as permanent.

When I spent decades watching mediocre men get promoted over me, everyone said “that’s just how corporate works.” When my son Jack hit the cliff after high school and every support system vanished, everyone said “that’s just how it is for neurodivergent adults.”

Fuck that.

I don’t see obstacles, I see systems that need rebuilding. This isn’t toxic positivity or naive optimism. It’s pragmatic stubbornness. When something is fundamentally broken, I can’t walk away from it. I have to figure out how to fix it, even if that means building entirely new infrastructure from scratch.

This quality is why I went from one pair of shoes lasting a year to running revenue operations for tech companies. It’s why I started a diaper service when I needed flexible work instead of accepting that moms can’t have careers. It’s why I’m building a neurodivergent-specific LLM when everyone says it’s too complex.

Most people see the world as it is and adjust themselves to fit. I see the world as it is and figure out how to rebuild the broken parts. That’s not always comfortable for people around me, but it’s the only reason NixIt exists.

My four neurodivergent kids don’t need me to accept that the world wasn’t built for them. They need me to build them a better one. That refusal to accept “that’s just how it is” – that’s everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nixit.ai
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adeptexec-nixit

Image Credits
Leland Kessler for professional team shots and the Boulder, CO shots (Justin Fern, Lillith Long, Rich Long featured in some)
Chelsey Pas, Friends & Lovers Photography for Guitar pic (daughter Rayos Long featured)