Can Solving The VR Ick Problem Unlock Spatial Computing At Scale? – Amy Hedrick Cleanbox Technology

Innovation is just a creative response to a challenge. For Amy Hedrick, CEO of Cleanbox Technology, that challenge was the "ick factor" of sharing virtual reality headsets. She saw the future of learning, but she also saw that nobody would adopt it if it meant putting on a sweaty device used by a stranger.

Amy Hedrick is the founder and CEO of CleanBox Technology. Her journey started at Mobile World Congress in 2015 when she put on an Oculus Rift. With a background working with the Smithsonian Institution and its 158 million objects, she immediately saw how immersive tech could transform education and history. But she also identified the massive barrier to entry: hygiene. She founded CleanBox to solve it using rapid UVC LED disinfection. Today, the company holds over 50 global patents and operates in 15 different verticals.

Highlights include:

• Comprehensive XR Hardware Management Guide launched with 10 industry partners. It solves the unsexy but critical backend infrastructure problems for enterprise adoption.
• Helped publish two new hygiene standards with ASTM for the industry. Standards enable trust and scale.
• Founder resilience: you need a mix of "ignorance is bliss" and "knowledge is power." If you knew how hard it was going to be, you might not start. That ignorance protects the vision when you hit a brick wall.
• Using AI clones: "Amy AI" on the website answers technical and strategy questions so she can focus on 2026 planning.
• Innovation isn't a straight line. She pivoted from a think-tank background to running a hardware company with global supply chain complexities because that's where the opportunity led.

Amy's approach to selling hardware is simple: never sell the mayonnaise, sell the sandwich. Nobody wants to buy a jar of mayo to sit in the fridge; they want the result. Similarly, nobody wakes up wanting to buy a UV disinfection box. 

They want risk-free XR programs for their enterprise. CleanBox is building the infrastructure that lets VR scale.

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About Amy Hedrick

Amy Hedrick is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Cleanbox Technology, a pioneering sustainable disinfection company built to solve real-world problems through innovative solutions.  

Amy’s leadership has expanded Cleanbox Technology’s reach around the world, establishing the brand as a leader in its field.

Hedrick is a thought leader in the applications of immersive technology as industry disruptors, bringing innovation and new market opportunities and the development of a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for hardware management, setting new benchmarks for excellence in XR enterprise and healthcare adoption.

Ms. Hedrick has been in both the immersive tech and UV product development spaces for close to a decade, supporting innovation in UVC applications, speaking frequently on UVC for surface decontamination.

A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.

At The Tech Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.

In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.

If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.

Transcript

Amy Hedrick: 0:00

I released the comprehensive XR Hardware Management Guide, and it's in collaboration with over 10 different companies in the industry it's very broad. That was just published like last week. And in addition to that we also have two XR hygiene standards published by A STM which is. It took only three and a half years to get those two published, and I'm hoping that the third one will be published by February, but there's still one pending. But that being said, at I apa, my team with a s TM F 24 which is chaired by co-chaired by myself and someone from Universal Studios. We are going to be talking to people in the XR space about how that standard will impact them and. In a positive way. So yes, those are two things that are both just happening.

Nathan C: 0:49

Okay, we'll have to make sure that those get in. And actually, that was a great introduction. Hey everybody, it's Nathan. Welcome to the Tech Glow Up. Today we've got our super special episode with the founder and CEO of Clean Box Technology. Amy Hedrick. She's gonna talk to us about how she's taken her patent pending UV light sanitation tools into 15 different verticals, and how she approaches each of those conversations in a different way. Amy is a multiple patent holder, a early VR entrepreneur, and an ardent supporter of the spatial computing industry. She really sees the work that she's doing as supporting the industry at large by solving one of the main problems that users face when trying to put on face wor technologies; sanitation has never been sexier than on the tech Glow Up. I really appreciate the way that Amy just jumped in with both feet in the spirit of the tech Glow Up, sharing stories from her long journey as an entrepreneur, as well as sharing great advice for other product leaders and founders to think about in their journey. She also has some exciting new updates, uh, that you might just hear here. First, welcome to the Tech Glow Up. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to the Tech Glow Up. I'm Nathan C and today I'm talking with Amy Hedrick of Clean Box Technology. Amy, it is so good to talk with you again. Thanks for joining me on the Tech Glow Up.

Amy Hedrick: 2:46

Nathan, it is always a pleasure to chat with you.

Nathan C: 2:50

Oh my goodness. You're one of my favorite examples to talk about in immersive technology as well as in innovative technology. You're, you have I'll let you share your accolades, but like you are literally a patent pending leader in your. Space and you embody this idea of, in a gold rush, sell shovels. So I would love it. If in your own words, could you please introduce yourself and the work that you do at Clean Box Technology.

Amy Hedrick: 3:24

Yes, absolutely. And again, thank you for having me. It's great to chat with you as always. The Clean Box technology, we are a we specialize in rapid U-V-C-L-E-D disinfection. We were founded in 2018, or rather incorporated in 2018. We began our patent filings and r and d before that, 2015 and 2016. And so because of that, we have over 50 global patents in what we do. And yes, innovation is like being the cowboy or the cowgirl in the wild west. And trust me, I feel like I actually wear that hat for much of my life certainly with clean box. And but you know what, we've been focused on innovation, and the reason is that innovation really is a response to creative response. To a challenge that somebody thinks that we could have a solution for this. It's a creative response to a challenge. And so that's what clean Box technology is. It's a creative response to the challenge of and we started with immersive technology, so headsets where we when I first started the company, right before I started the company. If you'll allow me to tell the story. All right. Before I started the company I was doing something along the lines of technology more on the think tank side of things. And I got to put on an Oculus Rift at Mobile World Congress in 2016. Ibel 15 maybe? Yes. 2015 I believe. So I put on the headset and. To me it was, it changed my life because I thought, this is how we learn in the future. This is how we can engage with content. And I, this is fresh of mine of course, because I have a long standing relationship with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and of course they have 158 million objects in their collection. Phenomenal. And all of those things that teach us about history, science, arts entertainment political movements and all of that content, which is very hard as a single person just by yourself to assimilate that, all that knowledge. So how do we do it currently? How have we done it? We study books. Maybe we now have a computer. We look at it at a presentation. But when I put that headset on, I thought this is a way we can experience history, we can experience the moments that led up to why this content matters to us today. And that led me on the start of this journey that I am at today solving a very practical problem. Maybe not necessarily the magic that I knew this technology was capable of providing. Other people are providing that. But I am solving an adoption challenge with what we do with clean box technology.

Nathan C: 6:00

I did not know that you had a content inspiration to finding your path in the space. idea of this content could be so powerful, but there's an I factor. If you're sharing with a bunch of, early adopter VR phonetics.

Amy Hedrick: 6:22

Absolutely. It will definitely, my life story is take the road less traveled, which I certainly continue to do. But that being said, it is my fits well with my personality to say, okay, what could go wrong? What are the barriers of entry? What? And then past that, what are the barriers of adoption? And then past that, what are the barriers to scalability? And when you think about things in those terms, suddenly innovation becomes a really critical part of how you embrace the future.

Nathan C: 6:52

I, I love that there's this sort of near short far that scales with this idea of innovation. Amazing. I think you you actually really did a great job of, talking about the nexus of clean box technology. was clean box your, was that your origin as an entrepreneur or like others? Did you start much earlier?

Amy Hedrick: 7:20

I've always probably had a little bit of that entrepreneur craziness in my life. This is definitely the first hardware company I've started and I, it is certainly not something I probably dreamed of doing. When I was 10 years old, I had big a big aspirations and ambitions, and I have my whole life. But I think the one thing that's important to think about that in terms of innovation is. You never, it's great to have a plan, and I'm definitely a planner and I like to strategize things because I like to optimize and streamline and think, okay, what could prevent me from getting from here to there in the time that I wanna take? And let me just eliminate those things. But it's also important to recognize that sometimes the path doesn't go that way when you thought it did. Sometimes it just goes this way. And if you see an opportunity and think, ah maybe I should consider that path your life might change. And you might be in for a lot of surprises. And but it's very, it's a very interesting and exciting path and certainly I would not be here today if I was not so inclined to take those risks.

Nathan C: 8:22

You, you teased a question that's a little bit ahead of where I'm at. but this idea of as an entrepreneur, as an innovator you're often past where there are maps and so at, on your journey you might encounter either roadblocks or just challenges or potentially opportunities that you were not planning for. How do you I'd love it. Maybe if you can talk about, and with an example, if you have one of how you like to respond to opportunities and challenges when you like, learn that maybe the path or the industry or, consumers aren't quite what you had understood. Earlier on.

Amy Hedrick: 9:08

I would say that there are always unexpected challenges, I would imagine, in every business, but when you're coming into two nascent spaces because the use of UV UVC technology in an LED was quite nascent, still quite nascent today, but certainly when we started all of our r and d, the reason that we are have been able to grow so much in this space is because we were very early on. The I like to say two things. One, ignorance is bliss and two, knowledge is power. And if you don't have a nice little mixture of ignorance and knowledge that ignorance, being bliss helps keep that vision alive. So when you hit your head against the brick wall, you're like, that was just a brick wall. Let me try this again. Let me try it another way. Let me continue to move forward because you really do need to hold onto that mindset of. This is innovation. It's not a straight path. It's, it's a we've got a few challenges that we are not gonna have any clue what they will be, and we can't prepare them in terms of how to respond to them. So how do you respond when those challenges hit you? First of all, you try to like, okay hit my head against the wall. Let me regain my composure quickly. And then let me think about, okay, why. What would prevent a different outcome? When I try this again, so what do I need to tweak? Is it little, is it big? Is it everything or is it nothing?

Nathan C: 10:34

I have to tell you, that feels really prescient right now. And it, it feels good to hear. I also, I just did a bunch of interviews as I was telling you about, and so frequently, like this idea of grit and resolve and persistence came up. I love this idea that there's, there is a Founder's Bliss or an entrepreneur's bliss, right? Because you get to be exploring and discovering these ideas, so early, and that in is it in its own, is like absolutely part of the joy of that journey.

Amy Hedrick: 11:08

And you know what? Founders need to hear people like yourself remind them. That's part of the bliss, that's part of the journey because it is very easy to forget in the drama of business and entrepreneurism and changing industries, because this is one industry, but it's not one industry is it? I'm 15 industries automatically with my company. When we first started selling product, we were immediately in 15 different industries. For a normal business, that would be 15 different go-to market strategies. 15 different teams that focus on different messaging and just different, like how do you respond to a customer's request for product changes? How do you even know what, how healthcare is gonna be different from automotive, which is gonna be different from entertainment, and how can you manage that in an inflexible object? Which hardware is a bit inflexible when you compare it to like. Software. And how do you address not only the actual deliverable to the customer, but how that customer thinks about that deliverable? Because if you haven't made a, or built a product before, you're not really gonna know what it takes to build one.

Nathan C: 12:15

Oh, you touched on so many. Just first off, bless you for working in hardware. Like you said, it is a lot of folks get into computer science because they can do it at home just on a laptop. But there's storage constraints, the ship, like they're all of these supply chain. I could imagine, in some. Some cases like global negotiations about rare earth metals might impact, the next two or three years of what you're up

Amy Hedrick: 12:47

Absolutely.

Nathan C: 12:49

that's an incredible amount of complexity.

Amy Hedrick: 12:52

Yeah.

Nathan C: 12:53

You teased this thing. You said most orgs, if they ended up in 15 different verticals, that's 15 different teams go to markets, et cetera. I feel like there's a follow up to that'cause there's are you, do you have to work at that complexity or have you, is the nature of your product and this like clean box, that like sanitizes almost anything in a minute that just sell itself when people see it or encounter the conversation?

Amy Hedrick: 13:27

Yes and no. Yes and no, and everything in between. Yeah. So there are two ways to answer that question. The first is immersive technology itself as an industry, but as a tool, let's just say, because yes, industry is very. Sounds big and great, but to be honest, it's a very siloed and very fragmented industry to this day. And I think it's better for, at least from my perspective on this call to talk about it as a tool. So how is immersive technology a tool in healthcare? How is it a tool in education? How is it a tool in entertainment? And what does that tool accomplish? So when you think about it that way, for the content creator, of course. That is multiple different paths. For us though, on the hardware side, it's okay, you now have finally understood how to take this tool. This tool can help your business. Now what do you need to get people to use the tool? How do you maintain the tool? How do you promote the tool? And then how do you take this beautiful new thing that you've created and helped create because you have a vision, and how do you make sure that the rest of your business and then subsequently the rest of your industry benefits from that? So when it comes to all dialing all the way back to clean box, how do we address multiple industries with selling our product? Nothing ever sells itself. That's, we'll start there because if you've got to watch an advertisement for mayonnaise on tv I'm pretty sure mayonnaise has been around for a while now. I know I'm oversimplifying this, however, you just do still see people. Selling mayonnaise on an advertisement. Okay? That means that messaging still matters and should never be taken for granted, number one. Number two, what are you selling? Are you selling the sandwich? Are you selling the mayonnaise? Ah, you're selling the sandwich. So the, let's just think about what's it gonna take to, to get the whole picture in there. Nobody just wants to buy. Some ma mayonnaise and leave it in their fridge. They might wanna think about, they might buy that mayonnaise when they're thinking about building a sandwich later on. And I guess I'm tying two analogies, maybe loosely together here, but the point is like when you think about how do you sell a product like Clean Box, which is a piece of hardware. It's a disinfection device. We've made it look as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing as and simple as possible so that literally a kid can push a button and safely run the machine. But how do you integrate that into people's mindset about the technology itself? And that's where there's always challenges. And I would say with all the challenges of being an entrepreneur, that might be a reward spot because I get to think creatively. How do I address this in a message? How do I talk to an industry leader over here that can't see how our businesses are related when I know they are? I, there's a lot of ways you can go with answering that question. Hopefully I didn't muddy the water with my answer.

Nathan C: 16:18

Oh I love a fantastic analogy and technology as a sandwich is gonna be a favorite. this I'm really in love with this perspective of Clean Box is a tool that supports immersive technology. And if you have that perspective like when you're listing entertainment schools, hospitals, how like what is the one thing that they all need if they're using virtual reality or, immersive

Amy Hedrick: 16:53

Sure

Nathan C: 16:53

or even technology devices, honestly you need to clean them between users.

Amy Hedrick: 16:58

that's exactly right. You're absolutely right. Yes. Please do that. It's hardware management because, okay and we can go very simple here. You and I both know that if you put a headset on at home and you plug it into the wall, you don't have a complex. Set of operational protocol that you need to follow. You're one person, you're home. But the way it's used in industries in enterprise is not that way. It is shared. It is it's needs to be optimized. You need to have throughput, you need to have a plan. You need to train your staff, support your content, et cetera, et cetera. Where clean box comes in where it's immersive tech, where we started, and also beyond that because we've extended past the immersive tech industry, including other industries. But really where it comes down to is, thinking with that vision and understanding, hey, there's more to this. So a couple of things that we've done, if I can just maybe follow up with providing this information now as we recently released the comprehensive XR Hardware Management Guide. For industry, for enterprise industry it's a 50 page guide, no small feat, and we had more than 10 companies actively participate. Another very big feat to get people in the industry so that it's not just, Hey, clean boxes. Is saying here's steps that you could take as a business. This is mobile device managers, this, these are, software solution providers, other manufacturers. How do you plan your space? How do you integrate with it? What questions you should ask? And the goal of that document was, first of all, bring the industry together. Because it's a collective effort to actually build the infrastructure that makes an industry, but also do it in a way that end user, whether it be a large corporation or a small business, says somebody else has already figured out all the pain points and solve them. So therefore, investing in this immersive technology is no longer not an option.

Nathan C: 18:51

It's no longer a risk.

Amy Hedrick: 18:53

no longer a risk.

Nathan C: 18:54

expensive, right?

Amy Hedrick: 18:55

It's de-risk. It's de-risked. Yes.

Nathan C: 18:59

this idea that. I think you and I would agree immediately that like any technology needs way more onboarding, explanation, storytelling than you often expect out the gate. It's just a fact of being the people that make it like you're so much more familiar with it than anybody else's. And like to an average consumer, the attention how

Amy Hedrick: 19:21

Yeah.

Nathan C: 19:21

they're reading It's so different. But this idea enterprise. Like so many innovative technologies see Enterprise as their path to success. And honestly, hon, awesome Futures started with this idea of you're in deep tech, you probably don't know enterprise as well as you think you do. And it was like really lovingly and this idea that like enterprise needs, not just the onboarding, right? Like not just the supporting content, but you need this backend infrastructure. You need, there's this whole ecosystem of support that's just expected as table stakes and that you are bringing. These 10 different experts, these actual players as examples and contributing that back to the ecosystem feels like such a gift. And I, as thinking back to my days as a startup, how many hours I could have saved on meetings that didn't quite go right. Or, installations that didn't meet somebody's standards because there was a gap there to have 10 experts weighing in. Outstanding. Congrats on that.

Amy Hedrick: 20:26

Thank you. Yeah, it's, I think it's very, it's rewarding. It's a part of the rewarding side of the business. Because you, because honestly what I have just come out of the gate. I've been in this industry now for 10 years, which is, it feels like a lifetime to me. And it actually is a lifetime. It's a whole, it's a. It's a whole thing. But what, and would I be able to produce something today? 10 years ago? No, because the industry was different. People's adoption was different. The needs were different. But being so close to the business and so close to all of the industries that I work with, whether in they're using immersive tech or they're not, you get to really have a, your finger on the pulse of okay. I wanted us to be here five years ago, but guess what? We're here today now. So now's the time to say these are the best practices. Here are 10 different industry applications showing you, if you're a school and you're like I don't know if we're quite ready to do this. Here's a couple examples of universities who have. If you are, a whatever, you can extend that into multiple industries. And I think, being able to be at the point where we're still here, still talking about how to make it work because we know how, we know the things that haven't worked and what's gonna be necessary going forward. That's really the win here.

Nathan C: 21:39

This 50 page guide seems kind of like, one of my favorite topics, is if you set standards it helps industries grow and be adopted faster because there's trust, there's documentation, there's targets to be hitting. Do you have an opinion about standardization within emerging technologies?

Amy Hedrick: 22:00

A hundred percent. I exactly like you framed it. Standardization is there to support the growth of the industry, not prevent its growth. And it is critically important for adoption. And because I do believe that for the last two, three years now, I've been working on committees at A STM. I can tell you in 2025, we have published two new standards for XR hygiene with through A STM. You can go to the astm.org website and look for that. It's on the F 24 24 group, and I'm thrilled that we've done that because it's taken three years of efforts to do that. But when you get a standard pass, that means that you've had thousands of people look at it and give their feedback, and you can't get a standard pass if there are remaining negative. So it forces you to talk through. All of the issues and all of the challenges. And I am thrilled that we have been able to publish these two standards. We have a third that we expect to publish in the very near future. And I really do believe this will go a long way to pushing the industry forward and helping everyone grow together. Grow and glow together. Glow up.

Nathan C: 23:04

Oh, I love this. What's your favorite way to learn from your customers and to understand how people are using your tools and how you're impacting these really disparate but like very interesting spaces.

Amy Hedrick: 23:20

I try to just go ask my customers directly, if I'm involved in the sale of some kind or, it comes across my email or whatever or it doesn't, and I find it a really interesting use case. I'll just say, Hey, how. Tell me how you're doing this and tell me why, and tell me what do you think and what could be better. In the early days of Clean Box, we did we did poll our customers through email, but again, when we were getting email seven years ago, it was very different than how many emails we get today. I don't know if there'd be as successful today the way we did it back then, but absolutely the reason that we integrated certain things into our products was a direct result of pulling our customers. Yeah, that's, I try to stay on top of that as much as possible.

Nathan C: 24:03

10 years in you're still out there asking people how it goes. Thank you. That's so cool. You've alluded to this a lot in your other answers, and I've been talking with several leaders recently in this theme of every leader. Sort of has a different approach to problem solving, to conflict, to opportunity. How they face challenges and, there's so many. Like the journey isn't always straight. There's so many different kinds of decisions you have to make. So do you have a framework or a preferred way of tackling those hard business choices?

Amy Hedrick: 24:41

I, I've had to become, I've had to evolve my own thinking on that. And some of that has mean, has meant that, let's say I have a brand new business challenge. I've never faced it before. With an entrepreneur that happens maybe four or five times a week. And whether it's a challenge or it's a question or something you hadn't thought of or something you're gonna have to think of in the future. I've always liked to be very collaborative and if I feel, and I do my best as well, to be a generalist in terms of my own knowledge, to be very specialized in the ways that I know nobody else. On my team or in my immediate surroundings is or can be, but at the same time being very much a generalist when it comes to all the broad strokes of the business. And I think that's really critical for me anyway, in terms of how I'm able to do a lot more things than I wish that I had to be able to do sometimes. But that being said, if I'm tackling an engineering question as an example. Here, I'll give you a, a very good one. And it also is a follow on from your last question because how do you address market change changes in the market and market needs? We have at least one new product that's coming out very soon that is addressing still at the XR space, but in entirely different part of the market. Now, why do we have that? First of all, we've listened to customers. We recognize that businesses are either, there's not a whole lot of, let's say, middle class, if you will, in the XR space. There's either the upper echelon or there's all the startups, and there's a big gap there. And that could be a product market fit gap. That could be a price point gap. That could be a number of things that I, that now we're at the place where we have a new product coming out. So that's one way that we're responding to that market need. Another thing though is how do I do that? My background is not engineering now. I think I have a couple of sort of honorary degrees and various technical after a decade of doing certain things, I have those honorary honoraries, if you will. I need to think and tap into the resources. I know, for example, an electrical engineer will be critical to the ask this set of questions and then I will tie it to what I've already known myself and then a mechanical engineer. And then then let's talk about supply chain. Let's talk about where these components are being built now and are there supply chain. Challenges, which this is a crazy world that we live in at the moment. Probably not unlike previous crazy worlds, but at least we know about it right now. It's very obviously volatile in many ways when it comes to supply chain. So how do you think about that? What are your other options? How do you anticipate a challenge that might happen a year from now based on shortages that are not there yet? And the way I try to do that is first, think about what I know and think about what I don't know. And then think of all the people that might know more about what I don't know than what I and tap into those resources. And, but in the end though, what I've really realized, that no matter what in the end, no matter what decision you make, people will love you for it. And they will hate you for it. You will be supported and you will be judged harshly. And it doesn't matter if it's the right decision, the quote unquote right decision or the quote unquote wrong decision. Y that's the, that's life, that's business. And that's life. And so in the end, I have to live with the choices and the business decisions that I make. And I have to own that every day. And and it's great. It's great because, whether that's good or bad. I've experienced both. And sometimes I've experienced the good and bad from decisions that were made by other people. It doesn't matter in the end, I still have to own my decisions, their decisions, the industry changes. And so I try to tap into other people and see if they can give me guidance along the way.

Nathan C: 28:20

That's one of the things that you hear. Founders and CEOs often, right? Is if you're holding on to everything you might be holding back. And so

Amy Hedrick: 28:31

Yeah.

Nathan C: 28:31

able to go find those advisors to

Amy Hedrick: 28:34

yes

Nathan C: 28:35

if you got an expert, why are you leaving'em? Why are you just leaving'em on the shelf?

Amy Hedrick: 28:42

a hundred percent, but I also think there's a lot of value in that rub. Okay, because you've got, and I know how to be on the creative visionary side and I also know how to turn that side of my brain off or just mute it a little bit and go on the absolute opposite side. And I think you have to learn that if you're not so inclined. It, but the rub of the creative versus the practical is really important in business because it helps you get past some of those things that could be like the look, you could make a decision, a business decision based on a not full information and not know all the little paper cuts along the way that will make you bleed to death down the road. And so allowing that. Head butting, if you will from those two kinds of sources, helps you get, fi get rid of some of those sharp edges in advance.

Nathan C: 29:30

Ooh. Yeah. There's a very zen kind of way that I hear you approaching a lot of this, right? To be aware of the stakes and then, to make the kinds of decisions that you can, that you're gonna feel good about waking up in the morning to it. I so love it. Amy. One of my favorite questions to ask recently is this is about mentors and how people have encouraged you along your way. Sometimes for a founder, I believe you keep going, hearing it from anybody, whether it's a coach, a mentor, even a family member can be transformational. For that journey. You share a moment when a mentor or loved one helped you level up?

Amy Hedrick: 30:19

Sure. Yeah. I would start by first agreeing with what you just said in terms of mentorship. I think that no founder will ever really tell you how hard it is to be a founder. It is much harder than you'll probably ever get someone to tell you on camera. And it's much harder than you ever would've thought of before you started being an entrepreneur. So if you start with that perspective, you can see how invaluable mentorship or support is, whether big or small, along the way. And sometimes more people ha people have more of it than others. For me, I have, there have been a couple of times in the last couple of years that someone in particular who has, who's been on my team before and continues to support from the sidelines sometimes came to me and said, do you, because, I was feeling very frustrated and exhausted and. He said, you do know how much you've actually changed and impacted the industry by what you've done. Do you realize just take a minute and think about what you've accomplished. And I am my own worst critic. Maybe people that don't like me might be more critical, but I'm pretty critical. I'm pretty self I'd like to evaluate and judge myself, okay, you could have done better. You could do this better next time. And it's easy to forget how much work it takes to actually make something happen. It takes a lot of work to make literally anything happen, but much less a business and much less a product and much less a, an entire industry. So I would say that if that, if he hadn't said that to me at that time, I was very much struggling with what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And that just helped me refocus and realign and say, okay, you're right. That's right. I needed to take a moment and appreciate. And respect the work that I've done in order for me to be able to move and do more work.

Nathan C: 32:15

Yeah, it's when you're so focused on an outcome, The journey. Can be easy to discount as just I was gonna do that anyway. Or, there, there's but having those people who can reflect that back to us can be huge.

Amy Hedrick: 32:30

Yeah.

Nathan C: 32:30

I had a friend just this week who was relaying that they were having to make some like hard choices to protect their time and to do things that felt aligned with their business. And I was like, friends. That sounds like a really good choice. Like you're having good conversations,

Amy Hedrick: 32:49

Yeah.

Nathan C: 32:50

good on you.

Amy Hedrick: 32:51

Yeah.

Nathan C: 32:51

Amazing. Amy, thank you for that. I'm hoping that you'll indulge me in a little speed round.

Amy Hedrick: 32:58

Okay. All

Nathan C: 32:59

Amazing. So the first one, easy,

Amy Hedrick: 33:01

Yes,

Nathan C: 33:01

if there's one takeaway that you want our listeners to get from our conversation today. What is it?

Amy Hedrick: 33:09

starting something new is very hard, and being an innovator is very hard. But if you have that drive to be that innovator, it'll be harder if you don't try it.

Nathan C: 33:22

I'm a

Amy Hedrick: 33:23

Okay.

Nathan C: 33:23

about strategic planning. It's the end of October. What quarter is your brain in right now?

Amy Hedrick: 33:31

What quarter? First of all, I just finished another two year performer this morning, so I'm thinking two years out. But in terms of this new product, I'm thinking quarters one and two of 2026.

Nathan C: 33:42

Amazing. Ooh, thanks for that correction there. Yeah. do you have a spicy opinion or a soundbite to share or,

Amy Hedrick: 33:50

Oh, about what? Don't get me started.

Nathan C: 33:53

Technology trends or anything beyond?

Amy Hedrick: 33:57

I do think AI is has its moment in time. But I think the changes that are coming can be very beneficial for all of us. And maybe for that entrepreneur who is struggling, or maybe they're not maybe they're at this pivot point in their business or their life, they might wanna consider. Using tech to their advantage, maybe using tech to, to fill in some stop gap measures of areas where they think that their business is lacking. They're not quite sure how to fix it yet. Use tech to your advantage. My spicy take is that I can do a lot more with tech today. Than I could three or four years ago, and I am absolutely using it. One example is that I, if you go to our website now, which there'll be a refresh I believe by next week, but there's still a e ai on there. There's an a, EA on there. You go to the little chat bot and it has my voice. Now, sometimes it doesn't get my voice quite right. It still has that little kinda high inflection, but it'll sound like me. And you can ask Amy AI anything. You can ask about all of the science that has to do with clean box. All the technology, all the products, business plans. You can ask it about strategies. You could probably try to ask about other things. It probably won't tell you anything else, but yeah that's my spicy take Use technology to your advantage. It's different today than three years ago. It's different today than it will be in three years, so stay on it.

Nathan C: 35:22

Oh, love it. And bravo for right leveraging your insights in a way that can help people learn from you even when you're not online. That's amazing. last one's

Amy Hedrick: 35:34

Outsourcing myself.

Nathan C: 35:36

I outsource myself to ai, right? Like I always love those applications where like technology does the tech part and humans get to do the human part, right? And if you can give AI something to learn and repeat and share with a million people that's a lot of emails. You don't have to write,

Amy Hedrick: 35:54

Oh yeah, listen, absolutely. Let's not go back to the good old days. Sometimes they weren't as good as you might wanna remember them as.

Nathan C: 36:03

Nah, waiting for dial up was really slow. Every simple last question. How can people learn more? How can they follow up?

Amy Hedrick: 36:10

They can come to the website, clean box tech.com. I think all of our social media handles were on X, Facebook and Instagram. It's at Clean Box Tech. That is the word. Clean the word box, TECH. I'm on LinkedIn. Amy Hedrick, clean Box Technology. You can find me out there. Look for Amy ai. And yeah, connect please.

Nathan C: 36:32

Amy Hedrick, CEO of Clean Box Technology. It has been such a delight to learn so much more about your entrepreneurial journey, not just in immersive technology but also in hardware. And 15 different verticals. I love to see that you're not just thinking about your work as a product, but as like a tool that enables a whole industry. And like in that tool, you're providing technology, you're providing standards, you're providing great advice for people who wanna manage devices across locations. It has been such a great pleasure to catch up with you on the Tech glow up. Thanks so much.

Amy Hedrick: 37:14

It has been my pleasure. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm very honored to be part of this. I've known you for a number of years and I've watched many of your interviews and so I'm very honored to to be here. Thank you so much for your time.

Nathan C: 37:29

If you've made it this far in the podcast, I really appreciate you. Thanks for listening. Please make sure to like and subscribe so that you never miss an episode of the Tech Glow Up. And hey, can I ask you a favor? If you really enjoyed this episode, could you share it on your Instagram stories or maybe post the link with what you enjoyed on LinkedIn? The sort of sharing and engaging really helps small podcasters like me reach the dedicated audience, uh, that I know really cares about these kinds of conversations.