By Michael Tuzzolo | Talon Social Media Editor
Reamonn Soto lost most of his life savings on his first small business venture.
So when he was contacted to work as a consultant for the Small Business Development Center at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Soto was surprised. He had just closed the door on his own small business and felt he wasn’t the best person to be helping others with their own.
FAMU SBDC Regional Director Keith Bowers felt differently.
“I reached out to Reamonn and said, ‘With your demeanor, your professionalism, and your focus and determination, I think you could do a lot to help small businesses,’” Bowers said.
In the decade since his failed first business venture, Soto has used those four personality traits – his demeanor, professionalism, focus, and determination – to launch Sensatek Propulsion Technology, Inc., a venture-capitalist backed company based in Daytona Beach, Florida. Sensatek has 10 employees and has an annual revenue of more than $10 million. The technology company has gained a lot of notoriety due to its development of a wireless sensor technology that increases the reliability of gas turbine engines.
Soto noticed the need for this technology when he became a mentor for a program called Startup Quest, an entrepreneurial training program started by the University of Florida in 2011. Program participants can select technology available for licensing from research conducted by other Florida universities. The idea is to help develop new technology and spur business creation.
The problem that needed to be addressed was that gas turbine engines overheat and fail, losing companies millions of dollars. The system in place to monitor the performance of these engines was unable to withstand the heat in the most critical parts of the engine, right next to where the blades are constantly rotating. To compensate for that, the current system bases the operations and maintenance of an engine on an estimation. Soto found that estimation isn’t always correct.
Soto, who is a Tallahassee Community College graduate, formed Sensatek to obtain a license for the technology needed to develop a new type of sensor. Soto had to first learn how to create and develop the technology, and then figure out how to apply it to the engines correctly. The way he was initially told to do it was not feasible, but after a great deal of research, Soto learned he had to essentially turn the blade into a sensor, and then install antennas to survive where the current sensors were unable to.
“These blades are spinning thousands of miles per hour and seeing thousands of degrees centigrade and temperature, and everything has to work together,” said Soto, Sensatek’s CEO. “I was telling the team today, like, I can’t believe we did that. We put sensors on blades that are spinning thousands of miles per hour and on (electrical) grid-connected engines, and now putting one on the F-16 that the Air Force uses.”
In the six and a half years since its launch, Sensatek has secured contracts with the U.S. Air Force, Rolls Royce, Siemens and Florida Power and Light. Soto has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Volusia County Business Incubator powered by the UCF Business Incubation Program. He was the winner of the Black History Month Ignition Challenge, presented by PenFed, taking home $25,000 in business funding.
In 2019, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Florida, praised both Soto and Embry-Riddle. Soto graduated with a Master’s of Science in Aeronautics, Aviation and Aerospace management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 2017.
“Sensatek is precisely the type of local, innovative startup company that drives progress and enterprise in America and creates new jobs in Florida,” Waltz was quoted as saying in a news story on the Embry Riddle University website. “Sensatek has demonstrated the economic progress in Volusia County that Embry-Riddle Research Park contributes to every day. I know Reamonn Soto will continue to serve as an inspiration to the many bright minds at Embry-Riddle and I look forward to what the future holds for both Sensatek and Embry-Riddle.”
Soto is grateful for all his success, especially considering how lost he felt while growing up.
In high school, Soto struggled with academics, failing AP Biology twice. He felt that he didn’t have a good support system to keep him motivated in school until he decided to join the school’s ROTC program. That program gave Soto a sense of structure and purpose that, up until that point, he was lacking.
Upon graduating high school, Soto realized that he didn’t have any plans for his future, and again felt he had no purpose.
“That time right after high school is like the dark age for me. I was angry, I was really frustrated, and I was just kind of mad at myself and mad at the world,” said Soto. “I didn’t really believe in myself… because for four years I was just conditioned to sort of fail… but you’re mad because you know that you’re made for more.”
Dr. Taofeek Orekan is the Chief Engineer of Sensatek. He praised Soto for his leadership qualities and for following through on his word.
“I’ve known him for two years, and everything he said he was going to do up to now, he has done,” said Dr. Orekan. “He’s such a great leader and he has this very powerful conviction to him. You just know that this guy is going to go somewhere… and you just want to be a part of it.”
Since developing the new sensor for gas turbine engines, Soto and Sensatek have pitched the product to an array of investors and aviation/energy corporations alike.
“We work with all these smart companies, and they work with this little company that is headed by Reamonn,” said Dr. Orekan.
Most recently, Sensatek has been awarded around $2 million in additional funding from the National Science Federation’s Small Business Innovation Research program.
While they are a “little company” in size, Soto is confident in his team’s ability to continue to produce big things together.
“We have a really good team,” Soto said. “We can pull rabbits out of a hat, but that process challenges us to really think outside of the box. To do things that sort of have been proven, but maybe there’s aspects of it that’s unproven, and that process isn’t for the faint of heart.”
