Company Orbotix.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB Ian Bernstein has been building robots since he was 12. Adam Wilson wasn't much older when he first developed commercial-grade software.

Now in their late twenties, Bernstein and Wilson have teamed to found Orbotix, which they officially launched after completing the Boulder TechStars startup acceleration program last year.

CEO Paul Berberian served as an adviser to the company during TechStars before joining the company as CEO later last year. Berberian previously founded Web-conferencing provider Raindance Communications and several other technology startups in the U.S. 36 corridor.

IN A NUTSHELL Orbotix's first product, Sphero, is a robotic ball that users control with their iPhone, iPad, or Android device. The initial target is gamers, but there are also yet-to-be-named practical applications, Berberian says.

"It's an iconic robot that has a lot of magical properties," he says. "A ball can go in any direction and never gets stuck."

About the size of a baseball, Sphero has more than 145 functions, from rolling (top speed is about a meter per second) to glowing any color (thanks to built-in LEDs). "The only limitation is real-world physics."

Comparing Sphero's means of movement to a Segway sealed inside a ball, Berberian is bullish on the company's short- and long-term prospects. "We look at this as being the next big portable game system, like a Sony Portable PlayStation. Whatever app you're running changes the behavior of the ball." Berberian highlights an Etch A Sketchlike drawing program ("Draw and Drive") and...