Two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts alumni who turned an idea developed at a startup business competition into a successful company have taken the next step — selling their business to a larger company that will help them expand their audience.
Canon Reeves and Rex Hearn, both members of the Class of 2016, created MORE Technologies with two fellow University of Arkansas classmates in 2018. MORE, which stands for Modular Open-Source Robotics Ecosystem, developed programmable robots and educational tools using items that could be inexpensively 3D printed or found in store aisles.
In March, Reeves, Hearn and their partners Peyton Smith and Kaushik Ramini announced they sold the company’s assets and patent to Sphero, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that makes programmable robots and educational tools based in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
Since MORE Tech’s inception, the company has shipped robots to more than 23 countries and most of the United States, Reeves said. They built an in-house 3D print farm to produce the robot parts. The 12 printers were in operation almost 24/7 for two years, he said. MORE Tech raised around $100,000 in funding through grants, accelerators and angel investors.
But the team realized they were reaching their limit to be able to grow the company and continue to produce the product on their own. They created an advisory board and invited Paul Copioli, the CEO of Sphero, to join the board in the summer of 2020. Once Copioli met the team, he made an unexpected offer.
“He kindly said yes (to serve on the advisory board), and upon meeting, he threw out the idea of us joining together to take our product to the next level,” Reeves said. “Admittedly, we were a bit surprised but very open to the idea.”
Reeves, who served as CEO of MORE Tech, said they had considered Sphero as a potential partner since the early days of the company, but they had not planned for it to come to fruition so soon. Hearn said it was simultaneously a huge relief and a little terrifying.
“We’ve considered partnerships and the like for the last year or so, but the acquisition was a bigger step than we had talked about,” Hearn said. “It was a wonderful move with the time though, we could continue to work on the educational robots we love but with more support and without the hassle of the slow business side of things.”
Over the course of the three years the company has existed, they have sold robots to various customers such as summer camps to classrooms around the world. They had to quickly learn the business side of the company quickly — “everything to wo with the logistics and supply chain while we were doing it,” said Hearn, who served as MORE Tech’s chief technology officer.
“I’m very proud of how my partners and I managed to form a unique process of rapid ideation, prototyping, manufacturing and delivery all within our office. Turning an idea into a new product or improvement in weeks, and sometimes even days. It’s the rare intersection of passion and talent of each of us that has formed this environment; that is what I am most proud of,” he said.
The timing of the offer from Sphero may have been unexpected, but it was also timely. Besides the production limits the company faced with its print farm, the COVID-19 pandemic also impacted their sales since schools were the majority of their customers. Reeves said they spent much of 2020 in research and development mode so they would be ready with an improved product when schools reopened.
Each member of MORE Tech will have a spot at Sphero to work on their product. Sphero’s purchase of the company will allow Reeves, Hearn and their partners the opportunity to redesign its platform that will allow their robots to be more easily mass produced.
“As far as upcoming products go, I can’t say too much, but I can say we’re working on some really exciting stuff and creating a far better version of our platform,” Reeves said. “The team and I are still very involved in the new product and are able to create things we never would have been able to if it weren’t for Sphero.”
While Sphero is based in Colorado, Reeves and Hearn will remain in Northwest Arkansas for now. Hearn, who graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in biomedical engineering, said the acquisition will allow him to move into a career of professional engineering and take some time to enjoy the stability it brings.
Reeves said he plans to stay in Fayetteville and complete work toward a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Arkansas. He said he realizes that achieving what his has in his early 20s, including a successful sale, is the result of the work of not only their team but contributions from many others.
“Startups are incredibly tough, and the percentage that achieve any sort of exit is very small,” Reeves said. “ That being said, I am keenly aware of how much of this success was the result of help and support from mentors, friends and family.”