When Nicholas Rudder was building his previous startup — the edtech marketplace ScholarSite — he kept hitting the same wall: tax compliance. “Marketplaces are liable for tax on their entire GMV, not just their take rate. Every new country meant registrations, filings, deadlines, and constant risk,” Rudder told TechCrunch. “It became a distraction. Instead of building the business, I was decoding international tax rules I never wanted to be an expert in.” As ScholarSite wound down, Rudder kept the name “Sphere” and reimagined it entirely. “The world was going global, but compliance infrastructure hadn’t kept up,” he said.