Heather McWhorter first met David Reeser in 2018, when he stood on stage at the Cucalorus Film Festival and said that he wanted to solve the opioid crisis. 

McWhorter, who now leads UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said that, as good entrepreneurs do, Reeser had noticed a trend and was willing to address it head-on. 

Reeser, founder and CEO of Wilmington-headquartered startup OpiAID, passed away this weekend after living with pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), a rare cancer, according to a GoFundMe post by his family. 

“To all who knew him, he was a man filled with love, purpose, deep intentionality, vision, honor and gratitude,” Reeser’s family wrote in the post. “He loved the Lord, his church, his family and friends, the city of Wilmington and his OpiAID team and their mission.” 

His professional colleagues and fellow entrepreneurs remember Reeser as a friend, a champion and a light.

"He was a true visionary, and it's something you don't learn in a classroom; it’s an instinct,” said Dino Miliotis, head of strategic partnerships and commercial growth at OpiAID and company spokesperson. “It's a way of seeing what others don't. And he had that, he saw the opioid crisis early, and more importantly, he saw people differently.”

Founded by Reeser in 2018, OpiAID is a biotech company that uses biometric data to support addiction recovery through medically assisted treatment. 

The company inked a deal with the state of Alaska in 2024 to deploy its software in clinics across the state and is currently in phase two of clinical trials, Miliotis said.

“When I met him, he started explaining what he was working on, and my jaw hit the ground only because it just made sense to me,” said Miliotis, who is over 20 years into his own recovery journey. 

Miliotis emphasized that “not all care models are created equal” and that OpiAID is special because it supports the entire care continuum. 

“If I had OpiAID technology, if I were wearing something on my wrist that essentially can act like a virtual recovery companion and talk to my clinical team, my care team, 24/7, I would have felt so much potential,” Miliotis said. 

Reeser often referred to those in recovery as “neighbors,” and Militois said this ethos extended throughout the entire company.

"He really was never driven by money,” McWhorter said. “He was never driven by profit or anything like that. He just wanted to help the people through his technology." 

Before founding OpiAID, Reeser led Wilmington-based IT Works beginning in 2017 after a health sciences career in Pennsylvania. He became involved in tekMountain, a technology business incubator founded by CastleBranch, where he met Girard Newkirk, co-founder of the Genesis Block Foundation. 

“David was literally the first person I met there,” Newkirk said. “He was working on OpiAID, and I was still doing my clean energy project.”

“If there is like a caricature of what an engaging, upbeat, positive entrepreneur (is) – someone that always lifts you up – that’s the thing I think I remember most about David,” Newkirk said. 

Newkirk and Reeser stayed friends over the years, and Newkirk said that Reeser called him when he first got diagnosed with PMP, a rare form of mucinous cancer.  

"He left a very special footprint and made an impact,” Miliotis said. “And like everything else, a vision just starts to bloom into something that's just bigger than any one person."

 OpiAID employs 28 people, according to Miliotis, who said that the company is stronger and more focused than ever. 

"We believe in celebrating life, not mourning death,” he said. 

A celebration of life service for Reeser is scheduled to be held at Global River Church, 4702 S College Road, on May 3 at 2:30 pm.