We're a purpose-driven company making a
bold effort.
Our Desired Impact
Make retrofitting the new wave of innovation
The vision behind clevtech is to create technology that turns ordinary lockers into Sustainable Smart Lockers to help our partners run their operations more efficiently by providing them with better data to streamline the pickup of online orders.
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clevtech serves as a stylish, affordable, and socially inspired alternative to traditional smart locker systems. With easily interchangeable parts & customizable designs, we've made exchanging goods simple, modern, and technician-free.
Our Team
Transparent Collaborators
We're a Texas-registered company that believes new technology doesn't
have to be built from scratch to offer modern-day convenience and
happiness to everyone. We spend our days developing technology, stylishly, and affordably while putting our twist on smart lockers. We're always looking to get better. Join us on this journey to make retrofitting the new wave of innovation.
Dommonic (DOM) Nelson
Founder & Business Specialist
Nickname - The Optimizer
Anjelique Williams
Sales Assistant
Yasha Nguyen
Lead Software Engineer
Darrell Anderson
Strategic Advisor
Join Us!
Software Engineer
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Social Media Manager
Project Manager
Marketing Professional
David Guajardo
Head of Client Partnerships
Nickname - Rocketman
Jay Patel
Head of Innovation & Strategy
Dawid
iOS & Android Council
Paul Crescini
Brand Ambassador
Houston, TX
Our story
FoodGarage (now known as clevtech) was conceived in 2014 as an idea to develop high-tech community refrigerators with lockable compartments for the 71% of Americans who reported their lunch being stolen from their company break rooms. The idea to retrofit lockers for the restaurant industry wouldn’t come until three years later (late 2017) when the team had a strong feeling after a slow pick-up experience that online order pick-ups would outgrow in-store transactions. With a couple of years of research and development, the technology company started beta testing in 2019 when they created their MVP and landed their first testing location. After 154 days of testing and global change in the restaurant industry, their pre-pandemic invention, The Yummy Box, rocketed into relevance during their soft launch in April of 2020.
A company founded by a guy who has his best ideas in the shower
Beginning in 2015 (one year after graduation), Dommonic Nelson spent three years on a quest for a cool, marketable product that could become a scalable and profitable business. To pull this off successfully, he cashes out his 401k (roughly $13,000) from his college job at Walmart, sells his sports car for a beater, and decides to live with his grandfather for one more year after getting his bachelors degree in Maritime Transportation and Security. He uses the funds from his 401K to file a patent and trademark on the initial concept called FoodGarage - a community refrigerator with lockable compartments.
Before beginning his entrepreneurial journey, he ran into a high school teammate. They played football together. Dommonic was a wide receiver, and he was a linebacker. They shared stories about playing under the Friday night lights, life after college, and how it felt like yesterday when they were in high school together. Dommonic told him about his idea, and his former teammate gave him the biography of Steve Jobs. This book made him believe that anything is possible, especially if you can find your co-visionary like Steve Jobs found Steve Wozniak.
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Over the next year, his ambition only got him so far. Most of his time was spent reprogramming his mind with books like Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and The Principles and Power of Vision. He also spent weeks watching the Opera show on YouTube to understand human psychology and spiritual awakenings. From there, he began studying trademarks, patents, manufacturing, distribution, legal documents, business models, branding, and website development. He experienced tremendous personal growth during this period that later proved to have a positive impact on his idea and the development of meaningful relationships.
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With the speed of technology, he realized it would take him too long to learn how to write code for a solution that the market place needed right away. He had to find a software engineer that would be okay with working for equity until the company started generating revenue and a business center that had everything an entrepreneur would need to be successful under one roof.
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During this year, his efforts were extremely focused - no more visiting college campuses to meet with engineering students or pitching the idea to family members. It was time to make something happen. Plus, the pressure of turning down $70,000 a year for a job at Southwest Airlines mounted. Every day he reminded himself he took the job at Southwest for a few specific reasons. It was not about the $14.75 an hour to stock planes with snacks and beverages. It was about the free flights needed to grow his network in places like California, New York, and Austin. Also, to have a flexible schedule that gave him a chance to attend any tech event he wanted.
Concept testing revealed that they had the right ingredients but the wrong formula. They persevered and unexpectedly got a meeting with Bluefish Concepts founder and Make Me A Millionaire Inventor personality on CNBC, Michael Fineberg. He set their growing team on a greater, more defined opportunity in the winter of 2017. Michael Fineberg had told them, “I can build you a high-tech community refrigerator with lockable compartments but that’s nothing special; anyone can build lockers. Focus on the technology; let someone else build lockers. You guys should create great technology with a really cool branding experience."
In 2017, after debating with himself for hours on if he should attend the Founders Meet Coders event at Station Houston (now known as The Ion), he finally decided to go. He learned from years before that you should never ignore your intuition. At this event, he met Yasha (his Wozniak), who is now his lead software engineer. This turned out to be the best decision he could have made. As a non-technical founder, there was only so far this idea would have gone without finding a co-visionary/coder to bring the vision to life.
With newly found clarity, Dommonic decided to attend famed FUBU founder and Shark Tank personality, Daymond John's Success Formula workshop, where he learned how to re-plan his worthwhile goal and implement the advice given by Michael Fineberg. A week later, their investor, Jay Patel, called a meeting saying, "I don't think the original concept will work. Let's look into putting this into restaurants instead; I ordered a meal online, and when I made it to the restaurant, I still had to wait, completely defeating the purpose of ordering ahead of time." That was the "aha" moment for Dommonic – to retrofit lockers with powerful technology… for the restaurant takeout industry.
It's not enough to have a product. you have to believe in something
We’re a very determined group of entrepreneurs and engineers with an inventive concept designed to contribute towards a better tomorrow. Our founder Dommonic Nelson has watched and studied the effects of technological obsolesce (old products replacing new) and how it has harmed our planet. The most profound documentary he's learned from is Zeitgeist Moving Forward. A feature-length documentary which presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. He adheres to the values of Jacque Fresco and believes with our locker system we can develop solutions that are built to last, be easily updated, and be recycled. With our lockers, the goal is to take a product that would typically have one life form and give it many. At clevtech, we believe that the right understanding and technological edge can lead companies towards a prosperous future and promote a clean world. Our mission is to lead a new wave of innovation by repurposing products that redefine the customer pickup experience, help to support a clean planet, and make modern necessities more affordable. We are a humble team of passionate people who genuinely want to make the world a better place.