CloviTek — Press & Media Portal
An immigrant founder who shipped award-winning audio hardware out of a university lab is rebuilding the company as an AI factory — one engine that turns an idea into a full, branded software product. This is the press room: the story, the angles, and everything you need to run with it.
The story
The honest arc: an immigrant engineer, an award-winning hardware company built for people the market ignored, and a 2026 relaunch as an AI studio — carrying forward the lesson the hardware era taught.
Vitaly Kirkpatrick (formerly Vitaliy Mahidov) was born in Ukraine and raised in an orphanage and foster care until he aged out. He arrived in the United States in 2005 with almost nothing, earned a Computer Science degree from Utah Valley University (2009) and an MBA from the University of Utah (2016), and made one line his motto: “I am a simple man with complex ambitions.” He told that story in full in his 2021 memoir, VITALY: The Misadventures of a Ukrainian Orphan.
The idea that became CloviFi started at a gym — wanting to keep hearing a TV while moving between machines. It grew into a WiFi HD audio transmitter that streams TV sound to any phone or headphones at a personalized volume, built out of the University of Utah’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. The mission was bigger than convenience: the 360 million people worldwide with disabling hearing loss who had few affordable options.
The industry noticed. CloviFi was a CES 2018 Innovation Awards Honoree, won a Commercial Integrator BEST Award announced at InfoComm 2018, and was covered by Sound & Vision, audioXpress and others. It exhibited at CES 2018, InfoComm 2018 and CES 2019.
Then came the hard lesson. Building, certifying and launching a single physical product is slow and capital-hungry — a Form D was filed to raise up to $1M, and by around 2022, amid COVID and funding constraints, the hardware operations wound down. The founder rebuilt the company around exactly that lesson.
In 2026, CloviTek relaunched as an AI platform factory: the same founder discipline, now an automated pipeline that turns an idea into research, a business plan, a full-stack software product, a pitch deck and a launch — built under their own brand. One award-winning device became a pipeline of 40+ products, and now the factory itself is the product. CloviTek is pre-revenue and building.
Story angles for press
Pick the thread that fits your outlet. Each is grounded in verified facts — no embellishment needed.
A boy raised in a Ukrainian orphanage ages out, lands in America in 2005 with almost nothing, and goes on to ship award-winning hardware and build an AI company. He told it himself in a 2021 memoir. A human story about resilience, reinvention, and what “a simple man with complex ambitions” can do over two decades.
In the hardware era, launching one product meant CPAs, certifications, tooling and years of capital. Today the same founder builds software companies with AI agents instead. A concrete, founder-lived lens on how the price and time of starting a real company is collapsing — and what that means for the next wave of builders.
Instead of building one app, CloviTek built a factory: a single pipeline that turns an idea into research, a plan, a full-stack product, a deck and a launch — then repeats it across a 40+ product suite, each under its own brand. A tech-strategy story about the “factory as the product” model.
A founder who shipped real, certified hardware now insists on honest AI — pre-revenue stated plainly, awards credited to the prior venture, no inflated metrics, no overlay “accessibility theater.” A counter-narrative to AI hype, told by someone with the receipts to back the restraint.
Media kit / downloads
Logos, founder photos, product images, a fact sheet and the full press kit — all previewable and downloadable. Grab the lot with one click.
Product and founder-era images above are genuine assets from the CloviFi / CloviTek hardware venture (2016–2022). Some early assets carried the predecessor brand “Audio Everywhere.” They are presented as heritage, not as products of the current AI platform.
Coverage & recognition
Recognition earned by the founder’s prior hardware venture, CloviFi — presented as heritage and credibility.
High-Performance Home Audio & Video category. An Honoree designation — not “Best of Innovation.”
Recognized in audio distribution; the BEST Award was announced at InfoComm 2018.
Exhibited at CES 2018, InfoComm 2018 and CES 2019 (Eureka Park).
Citations list the outlet and headline as published. Live article URLs are not reproduced here to avoid linking to anything unverified — outlets and headlines are accurate to the original coverage.
Key facts & boilerplate
CloviTek is an AI platform factory that turns an idea into a full, branded software company — founded by an immigrant engineer who previously shipped award-winning audio hardware.
CloviTek is an AI platform factory: a single automated engine that turns an idea into research, a business plan, a full-stack software product and a launch — each under its own brand. Founded by Vitaly Kirkpatrick, an immigrant engineer whose prior venture, CloviFi, was a CES 2018 Innovation Awards Honoree. Pre-revenue; HQ Utah.
CloviTek is an AI platform factory — a single automated engine that turns an idea into research, a business plan, a full-stack software product, a pitch deck and a launch, each delivered under its own brand. It is the 2026 relaunch of a company founded by Vitaly Kirkpatrick (formerly Vitaliy Mahidov), a Ukraine-born engineer who was raised in an orphanage, arrived in the US in 2005, and earned a CS degree (Utah Valley University) and an MBA (University of Utah). His prior venture, the CloviFi WiFi HD audio transmitter, was a CES 2018 Innovation Awards Honoree. CloviTek is pre-revenue and headquartered in Utah.
Quotes
Verified, attributable quotes you can use directly.
“I am a simple man with complex ambitions.”
— Vitaly Kirkpatrick, founder of CloviTek (Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, 2017)
“More than 360 million people around the world have disabling hearing loss with limited solutions at affordable prices.”
— Vitaly Kirkpatrick, on the mission behind CloviFi (2017)
Press & partnerships
If you’re a journalist, editor or PR partner, we’d love to work with you. The founder is open, responsive, and happy to do interviews, share assets, or go deeper on any of the angles above. This is a genuine, human story — and we’d be grateful for help bringing it to the right readers.
vitmag@gmail.com
