WoW Woman in Health Tech I Beau Wangtrakuldee, PhD, founder and CEO of AmorSui

Beau Wangtrakuldee, PhD, is the founder and CEO of AmorSui, a healthcare tech company that provides a simple and sustainable approach for clinics and hospitals to implement gender-inclusive, reusable, and recyclable safety apparel. 

AmorSui’s first-in-class mobile application and software Viridi® manages the cleaning of items by tracking their washing life cycle and environmental impact offering a more “greener” and reliable PPE option. 

Beau has been featured in a variety of media outlets and was featured in “Female Founders to Watch in 2021” in Forbes.  The awards she has received include: 2020 Supply Chain and Logistics Enterprises Innovation Winner supported by the Walton Foundation; 2018 ‘Future Starts Now’ grant winner from Birchbox; 2016 Young Investigator Award; and 2013 American Chemical Society Leadership Award. Beau was also selected for the 2020 Project Entrepreneur by UBS and Female Founder Collective, and Techstars Boston.

She has authored 9 research publications and served as a keynote speaker for Bloomberg Live and Google for Startups.

Beau, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

I grew up in a lower northern city in Thailand called Phitsanulok, in a multi-generation family of successful entrepreneurs. My grandfather owned at one point the largest Vespa distribution chain in central Thailand, and my parents currently run a fast-growing real estate business. At a young age, I aspired to create my own venture one day, but I did not know what it would be. In high school, I received an invitation to join a summer Olympiad camp where I was first taught chemistry. My fascination with how manipulation of the elements could create new chemicals that can change the world led me to pursue a chemistry degree in the US in the hopes of one day starting my own lab. For many years, I searched for my own venture around chemistry to strike out on my own entrepreneurship journey. At that time, I never expected that it would be in digitalizing personal protective equipment (PPE).

How did you get into the PPE industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

I have seen a safety gap in the PPE industry and simply cannot look away. During the last summer of my PhD, I had a chemical spill in the lab where toxic chemicals burned right through my lab coat. I recovered from the incident with minor burns on my legs but immediately began looking for protective apparel products that could be worn under a lab coat as additional protection. I failed to find anything that fit me or that had a feminine aesthetic.  After numerous conversations with over a hundred women scientists who confirmed there was nothing available in protective wear for women, I realized I needed to do something. In 2018, I founded AmorSui to be the cutting-edge destination for safety.  Our first collection featured more inclusive protective apparel that was antimicrobial, chemical-resistant, fire-resistant, and properly sized for women. 

Amidst the pandemic we expanded our focus to sustainability in healthcare, addressing broader gaps in PPE shortages and the environmental impact of disposable products, where over 200 million tons of medical PPE end up in the ocean daily as litter, causing immediate danger to marine life and long-term plastic pollution that damages food supplies. We now offer integrated safety solutions of zero-waste PPE enabled by mobile applications and desktop software with measurable sustainability impact to clinics and hospitals. 

The journey has not been easy by any means. My team and I did not have experience in the PPE industry, so we had many setbacks along the way. But each challenge made our products and offerings better. In fact, the infrastructure of our zero-waste gowns mobile application and desktop software was modified from our original idea of trackable lab coats we developed for a pilot at Harvard University. This pilot was halted due to Harvard’s COVID-19 campus shutdown, so our team had to quickly rethink how to pivot. I would say that in the startup world, be ready to think outside the box when the opportunity presents itself.

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?

This is my fourth year running AmorSui, and my first year full-time on the business. In the earlier days of AmorSui, I was not very good at delegating work and hiring the right talent for the business. Because we didn’t build enough expertise around the design and manufacturing of garments, we overlooked quality control of the fabric in our first large production run. All garments of that lot were not safe to sell to customers, which caused significant credibility and financial loss to our business. What I took away from my experience is that you need to invest in the talent and necessary steps to deliver on the products you envision. The brand is nothing without good products to stand behind. After my lab incident, I hired a highly experienced fashion designer to oversee the production and establish standard operating procedures around quality control. I am happy to report that we have not had a big hiccup like the one I described ever since.

In terms of the current challenge specifically for the PPE industry, it is about encouraging consumers to shift their mindset away from buying cheap products like disposable PPE, which are cheap up-front but have a hidden price of waste removal and pollution. To do this, we identify a subset of customers that are more forward-thinking in climate change and carbon footprint to work with us in raising awareness towards the future of PPE that is gender-inclusive, domestically sourced, and sustainable.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

We have an enterprise-ready mobile application and software that enables the first zero-waste PPE platform to help hospitals and clinics reduce healthcare’s environmental impact.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

We have onboarded medical laundry partners who have the capacity to serve over 60 clinics in NY, NJ and PA this fall. Our team is building out additional features for the clinic mobile ordering app to be the first to provide fully automated service for this sector of customers.

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?

Some of the largest industries in the world like personal protective apparel, mobile, gaming, and automotive, are not known for creating products inclusive of women. I don’t believe they purposely want to exclude women, but rather that this happens because they don’t have enough women making decisions on which products to create, which features to add, or what marketing messages they should convey. Women only have a quarter of all tech jobs. This is why I truly believe we need to get more women at the table through operations like #WomenInTech. It is not only good for us women to actually have more products designed to make our lives easier, but also for other businesses to not leave half of the potential money on the table.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?

If the US has learned anything from the pandemic, it is that we can no longer rely on disposable PPE that is sourced mainly from overseas and cause negative environmental impact. More and more large healthcare systems have pledged to reduce waste and become more conscious of their health impacts. One of the major waste reduction efforts will have to come from reducing the use of disposable PPE, which makes up one-third of all medical waste. AmorSui has created a zero-waste PPE platform with products made and sourced 100% in the USA. Their safety compliance related to cleaning, life cycle, and disposal can be managed via our mobile application and desktop software. In addition, the environmental impact can be tracked in real-time. We are excited to be ahead of the curve on these key trends in healthcare and can’t wait to help more hospitals and clinics become greener!

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

Specifically in the PPE industry? Building good relationships within your supply chain is key and helps you to understand the key players in the space. From a tech perspective, I would build a Minimum-Viable-Product (MVP), and keep iterating using customer feedback. Don’t build a full product that you think should exist and anticipate that customers will come for it. It will take you a lot of resources for them to show up.

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

My number one inspiration is Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder & CEO of Bumble. She represents the resilient woman building products for women, a strong mom, and the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire to take a company public. I also admire Katia Beauchamp, the CEO and co-founder of Birchbox, and Marissa Mayer.

Find out more about AmorSui on their website.
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This interview was conducted by Anja Streicher, Chief Marketing Officer at Women of Wearables. Anja is passionate about women’s health and wellness and is inspired every day by WoW women in tech and business who are changing lives with their innovative products.