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Cleanbox Technology Inc., founded in 2018, is a premium, eco-friendly, smart tech hygiene company, specializing in UVC surface decontamination. The company's patented products use proprietary engineering of UVC light in an LED, providing safe, hospital-grade hygiene without the use of chemicals, heat, or liquids. Cleanbox products are designed for frequently used or shared devices, including head-mounted displays (HMDs), surgical and protective masks, eyewear, personal electronics and accessories, and other business and household items. The company's products have been independently lab validated to kill 99.999% of viruses, bacteria, and fungi in one minute.

A Thought Leader Building a Thriving Business

Amy Hedrick is the Co-founder and CEO of Cleanbox Technology Inc. Her background as a content creator and thought leader in the application of immersive technologies provided the building blocks for Cleanbox Technology as a business. Over the past decade, Amy has led multiple teams from project inception and funding to planning and execution.

Prior to funding and incorporating Cleanbox in 2018, Amy served as Manager of Content and Digital Media for the think tank division of Li and Fung, a leading global consumer goods sourcing and manufacturing company based in Hong Kong. Her expertise includes conducting bespoke research and C-level reports within technology, retail, and cross-genre applications. Amy was one of four writers for the Fung Business Intelligence Center (FBIC). It was this immersion that inspired the business idea that would eventually lead to Cleanbox.

Amy currently serves on various VR and AR Association committees including Women’s, Healthcare, Enterprise, Safety & Security as well as the Advisory Board for the International Virtual Reality Healthcare Association. She recently contributed to the book “VR and Healthcare”, a compilation of thought leaders in XR, published by Robert Fine.

Strategic Research Behind Innovation

For two years, Amy traveled around the world, attending events, speaking on panels and keynotes, visiting small and large businesses, and testing ideas that she felt might be market disruptors. This research phase was critical to her understanding of what the immediate opportunities were for her business while developing a strategy for product innovation; identifying functionality improvements that could open up new markets, and plan a timeline that was achievable but also gave her “stretch” goals. From day one, Amy's goal for Cleanbox was to become the “Kleenex” brand of smart tech hygiene. "This would require quick market saturation, recognizable design, and brand trust. Starting in the XR space and participating in almost every major event in the US and Europe helped Cleanbox accomplish this first step – we are very well-known in the XR space," says Amy.

Building on that brand awareness and subsequent Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 clients, Cleanbox has been able to tap into existing relationships as it builds out new product lines that address completely different markets.

Technology to Disrupt Every Industry

Amy believes that AI, Big Data, the IoT, and immersive technologies – the solutions that each of these applications adds to existing industry infrastructure are so impactful that in 10 years she says no industry will exist without them.

Imparting Next-Generation Leadership Traits

Amy emphasizes that to be an effective leader, a person must quickly identify when they are wrong and make quick and effective pivots. It is also equally important to understand when they are right and remaining bullish about their choices. She asserts, "You must also choose smart, adaptable people – who know how to work in a start-up environment, to be part of your team, while accepting that the people who are with you, in the beginning, are not necessarily the ones who will get you across the finish line."

Making Disruption to Gain Competitive Edge 

Amy shares that building a start-up is like a long trek up a steep mountain, with unpredictable weather patterns and no camping gear. A person is completely dependent on their own ability to figure things out as they go and make quick pivots that could determine their journey’s success. Simultaneously, the person is wholly reliant on the capabilities of the team he/she has built, and this inter-relationship is what will make or break a budding company.

Amy believes that the decision to take an idea, research market potential, and develop a business strategy takes a lot of self-education, trial, and error. She avows, "You must surround yourself with people who bring specific and complementary expertise, while also understanding when to listen to your instinct. Finding this balance is critical."

It is not easy to raise money for a product that is just an idea. But Amy would argue it is an even harder challenge to sustain the energy required to keep a vision alive over time while building a product, then a viable business, and finally a functioning company. It is a gamble that requires one to remain sharp, flexible, and constantly learning; willing to take big risks while working with limited resources.

Past Learning Defines Success 

As a woman in business, Amy has had to learn to unabashedly showcase her capabilities and stand behind the insight her experience provides, knowing that this is what makes her a good leader and an effective CEO. To grow the business, she often shares ideas that are seemingly outside the scope of the Cleanbox teams’ known capabilities but are critically important to the company's future success. She further has had to practice the discipline of exploring every possible angle to a new idea before even considering “no” as a possible conclusion.

Every opportunity Amy has failed to secure and every time her ideas have been turned down, have honed her intuition and tenacity and helped her make smarter and more efficient decisions.

Mapping the Future 

Cleanbox existed before the global COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the company has been able to successfully expedite the growth of multiple product lines and drastically expand its market reach, in a few short months. The company's engineering had already been developed, lab validated, and market-tested by the time global interest highlighted the need to eliminate contagions. With the world hyper-aware of the importance of hygiene and businesses understanding the critical role hygiene and safety protocol will play in re-opening businesses and bringing back customers, Cleanbox products solve real-world problems. In 12 months, the company grew from one product line with clients in 10 countries to three product lines in over 36 countries and 41 states within the US. Cleanbox products not only provide 99.999% decontamination in a minute but also now give businesses the ability to track the hygiene history of any object through RFID tagging and network their various Cleanbox products worldwide. In 2021, Cleanbox plans to introduce a home version of its OmniClean and expand its manufacturing and fulfillment centers around the world.

Cleanbox got its start in the immersive technology space. It was first for a market company to offer a unique and effective solution to a real-world problem. Cleanbox started with one product that was durable, lightweight, and easy to use, with the promise of additional products that allowed the scalable use of its technology.  

Advice to Budding Female Leaders

Amy opines that women are fantastic leaders because they are generally effective at multi-tasking, prioritizing, and categorizing. They can show empathy and objectivity in tandem. An empowered woman can bring greatness to the team around her. She advises emerging female leaders to embrace the fact that they are a woman and then moves past that and lean into the skills they have honed that make them a good leader who can build a successful business.