Ben Branson: from early trauma to Seedlip founder and neurodiversity advocate

Ben Branson, an entrepreneur who said he was diagnosed autistic at 39, told an online World Autism Awareness Day audience that his diagnosis reframed how he understood his childhood behavior and later work as a founder. He traced early years of bullying, repeated hospital visits and psychiatric care to a period of substance use and several attempts to end his life before deciding to change course in his mid‑20s.

Branson said time working with brands and a return to nature and gardening led him to distill herbs and develop what he described as the world's first non‑alcoholic spirit, Seedlip, which he grew into an international business. "I distilled the world's first non‑alcoholic spirit called Seedlip from my kitchen," he said, describing rapid expansion into multiple countries and venues. He said that understanding his brain has been "immensely empowering," allowing him to leverage strengths such as intense focus and pattern recognition while managing sensory challenges and periodic shutdowns.

Branson said his neurodivergence informed both his commercial work and a charity he founded to promote neuroinclusion. He said the charity had completed its first piece of research and aims to "include every mind, find and share the truth and break this cycle so that autistic people like my daughter who's six have a very different kind of upbringing and future." He framed autism as an identity that has been overmedicalized and said that greater understanding of individual brains should be more widely available.

The talk combined personal history, business milestones and advocacy goals. Branson emphasized both the economic and social potential of neurodiverse minds for innovation, and urged broader acceptance and structural change so that future generations can grow up with better support.