We were lucky to catch up with Malcolm Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Malcolm, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

True to our trademark tagline “Others Guess, We Test”

I’m Malcolm Smith Founder/CEO at Victory Lab Micro-Clean. We are a commercial cleaning company that delivers enhanced hygiene solutions for environments where health is more important than aesthetics.

We Clean, Disinfect, and implement continuous proactive protection for the surfaces and air in your facilities. We then deliver proof of facility hygiene to our clients and their facility users via our proprietary public dashboard & client portal. This allows us to deliver visual indicators of facility hygiene regarding microbe levels of surfaces, indoor air quality bio-safety levels, facility capacity and more. This information is delivered via digital displays, QR, and our proprietary proximity marketing tech. Our system also sends automated facility wellness reports to desired stake-holders such as concerned parents at childcare facilities and employees who are cautious about getting back to working in the office.

With Our Micro-View system we are making invisible bio-safety threats visible. We equip our clients’ facilities to tell a story that engages their visitors and employees and makes them feel safe coming to work in a proven clean and healthy environment.

No more assumptions about a businesses’ hygiene. At Victory Lab Micro-Clean “Others guess we test”

Malcolm, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Victory Lab Micro-Clean is the result of a life-long affinity for cleaning machines and technology. Ever since I can remember I had a border-line obsession with vacuum cleaners and cleaning apparatuses. When I was a kid (5y.o.) I would tinker and disassemble and fix and invent my own cleaning machines for hobby. By the time I was 8yo I knew that I wanted to go into business for myself. I developed a business plan and began to proposition my mother to purchase this expensive carpet cleaning machine for me (Bissell Power-Steamer Upright Deep-Cleaner). For a woman of color and a single mother working very hard to provide a decent life for my sister and I, my ask was not practical. However, she used my passion to make that entire year a teachable moment and lesson in faith, persistence, and perseverance for me. When Christmas came in 1996, I was elated to receive my carpet cleaner and started my first business “Malcolm’s Vacuum Power”.

Fast-Forward to 2019 and I’ve owned, operated and sold a couple commercial cleaning companies and pivoted my career to computer science and network engineering. In November of 2019 I learned that my 1yo nephew had been stricken ill again for the 3rd time in less than 90 days since he began attending his new childcare facility. Only this time he had to be hospitalized. This experience had a visceral impact on me, and my older brother, knowing my passion for facility hygiene solutions, implored me that there must be something that can be done better at these facilities to mitigate the spread of illnesses between our little ones that we pay our hard earned money to protect and keep safe.

This got my gears going and before I knew it a business model based on cleaning for health was developing. About 4 months later, the COVID-19 pandemic would make it stateside and impact the way hygiene is perceived in public spaces forever. As I was inquiring with businesses and people to see if there was a market for our model, there was one question I noticed they all asked. “What will you do to show our (employees, customers, members, etc) what we are doing to protect their well being in our facilities?” This prompted the development of our Micro-View system. I figured that we could exapt existing technologies to measure key environmental factors like surface and air hygiene and distill that information into easy to consume visual indicators that communicate the wellness of a facility. We would then deliver that information to the desired stake-holders via Digital displays, QR-codes, our proprietary proximity marketing system, and facility hygiene reports delivered at recurring intervals.

We believe that we are the future of what accountability from your commercial cleaning contractor looks like. We are helping facilities in Childcare, Coworking, and Healthcare tell a story that makes people feel as safe about being there as they are at their homes.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

One of my original co-founders, Mr. Charles Brazil, was killed in an accident by a drunken driver in 2021. This moment was an existential crisis for us. If ever there was a time when I wanted to give up it was then. He was the genius that was developing our sales side of the house. He was an outstanding leader, mentor, advisor, and brother. We knew that he would have never suggested or accepted giving up on the vision. So when things do get heavy, as they inevitably do at times, I can hear him encouraging me to demonstrate excellence and finish manifesting this dream. At some point in the future we plan to develop a scholarship program to contribute in his legacy.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I made a significant pivot when I decided to go back to college for computer science while running a commercial cleaning company I owned called Grime Getters Clean Team in Tulsa, OK. Upon completing the program, I received recognition for my work and was introduced to the CEO of Cisco Systems Chuck Robbins and SVP of Corporate Affairs. This was a life-changing experience for me and it took an immense amount of courage for me to leave my comfort zone (Commercial Cleaning) for something new and unknown (I.T.). I liquidated the business and moved to Dallas, TX for a career as a network engineer. I figured I’d hang up the entrepreneur hat for a while and enjoy just being an employee at a great organization. God’s plans are always greater than our own though. After only 4yrs in my engineering career I found myself pivoting yet again and embarking on a new venture that calls on every skill and passion that I’ve developed throughout my life. Entrepreneurship is nothing short of an adventure!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vlabprotect.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/victory-lab-micro-clean-llc/

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SIPS Consults 25N Coworking Frisco