Reserve nowReadySight robot navigates rocks, rugs and all sorts of indoor and outdoor terrain.
Company Six recognizes that we are only as strong and capable as are each individual on our team. We are lucky that so many of us have nearly a decade of experience working together, building and selling more than five million robots.
This month as we welcome a new member to the Company Six team, I have a chance to reflect on one of the Company Six core values, that of teamwork. People join our team to do their best work while also living their best life. In order to build a reliable robot for people with dangerous jobs, to provide a solution and safety to those who keep our communities safe, we need each team member to bring their full self to their role. That means fostering an environment where each team member can shine, collaborate, and innovate until we reach our collective goals.
I am excited to announce that Carie Lemack is joining Company Six as our Chief Operating Officer. She has experience growing innovative, impactful teams, as well as a passion for the safety and security sectors in the U.S. and abroad. Carie’s ability to distill messaging, grow ops teams, and do whatever is needed to succeed will help our team as we grow.
I and the entire Company Six team are thrilled to have Carie join us on our mission to provide the tools first responders and others with dangerous jobs need as they keep our communities safe. We have other openings - if you are someone who cares deeply about creating robots that help save lives, who is a team player and enjoys wearing many hats to achieve our goals, and finally who has a commitment to being part of a thoughtful, ethical and inclusive workplace, we invite you to apply.
BOULDER, Colo. (May 20, 2020) -- Sphero, the industry leader in edtech programmable robots and STEAM-based educational tools, announced today that it has successfully completed the spin-off of Company Six into an independent company to commercialize intelligent robots and AI-based software applications for first responders, government, defense, and those who work in dangerous situations.
Company Six started as Sphero’s Public Safety Division, brought to life from Paul Berberian’s and Jim Booth’s backgrounds in military service and their passion for providing innovative tools for first responders and those who put themselves in harm's way. By applying the experience used to bring more than 4 million robots to market at Sphero, the Company Six team believes it can create products that are not only robust and feature-rich enough for professional applications, but also affordable enough to be adopted by the majority, rather than the minority, of civilian and military personnel.
Former Sphero COO Jim Booth will lead the Company Six team as CEO, and is joined by several members of the original Sphero team.
“Our team is excited to build critically-needed robotic hardware and advanced software solutions that help first responders and people with dangerous jobs,” says Booth. “Our mission is to build powerful and affordable technology that we can put in the hands of as many people as possible.”
Booth was one of the early mentors to Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson, Sphero’s two co-founders, as part of the Techstars Boulder Accelerator 2010 class. He joined Sphero after the Techstars program and helped launch and scale the company and managed numerous key areas, including operations, HR, legal, sales, finance, marketing, and business development.
In connection with the spinout and formation of Company Six, they also closed a $3M seed investment round led by Spider Capital, with participation from existing Sphero investors including Foundry Group, Techstars, as well as new investor GAN Ventures to fund commercialization and market entry of their initial products. At Company Six, the founding team is continuing to develop groundbreaking and affordable robotic technology as they have done over the past 10 years with Sphero. The products and services they will deliver to this new market are essential to maintaining safety, situational awareness, and improving decision making in the field for critical incidents and everyday operating environments.
In conjunction with Company Six spinning off, the board of directors has named Paul Copioli the Chief Executive Officer of Sphero, effective immediately.
Copioli joined Sphero in August 2019 after Sphero joined forces with New York-based littleBits, the company that invented the snap-together electronic building blocks that teach the foundations of circuitry and STEAM, where he served as President and COO. Before littleBits, Paul was the president of VEX Robotics for more than nine years. During his tenure with VEX, Paul led the company to become the largest and most successful of Innovation First International's (IFI) three wholly-owned subsidiaries, growing the business nine times over in under a decade.
“It’s an honor to lead the Sphero team as we continue to pave the way for accessible robots, STEAM and computer science education for kids around the world,” says Copioli. “With our focus on education and our mission to inspire the creators of tomorrow, Sphero has a long-standing place in our school systems and beyond. Paul Berberian’s immense contribution to the company leaves me with a strong leadership model to carry forward, and I look forward to Sphero’s continued success.”
Berberian, Sphero’s former CEO, will move into the newly designated role of Chairman after more than a decade leading the Boulder-based company. Berberian will also preside over Company Six as the team brings to market both advanced robotic products and a cloud-based analytics and monitoring platform designed to advance the awareness of those who put themselves into harm’s way.
“In my time as Sphero’s CEO I was amazed by the number of kids’ lives we positively affected by bringing our robots into classrooms and living rooms worldwide,” says Berberian. As Chairman of both Sphero and Company Six, this is an opportunity to continue to bring revolutionary robotics technology to new markets to improve the lives of more people, our future leaders, and people with essential and sometimes dangerous job functions. With Paul Copioli and Jim Booth’s experience, I’m confident both companies will flourish under their leadership.”
For more information on Company Six, please visit http://www.companysix.com/.
Sphero inspires the creators of tomorrow through remarkably cool, programmable robots, electronic building blocks, and educational tools that transform the way kids learn and create through coding, science, music, and the arts. Sphero goes #BeyondCode and drives kids to turn their imagination into reality. The skills students unlock through play-based learning prepare them to thrive, no matter what subject or career they pursue. Based in Boulder, CO, Sphero has become the #1 STEAM-based learning solutions company, loved by millions of parents, kids and educators worldwide. Learn more at sphero.com.
Company Six (CO6) is a venture-backed robotic and cloud technology company headquartered in Boulder, CO that is dedicated to advancing the awareness and protection of those who put themselves into harm’s way. By combining advanced robotic platforms with a highly secure cloud-based technology suite, their products will fundamentally transform the way first responders operate in dangerous environments. CO6’s products are based on nearly a decade of technology development, and are designed to deliver a lightweight, yet highly advanced robotic solution that provides critical awareness for those we depend on the most, including police, fire, EMT, military, and others with dangerous jobs.
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