Billions are pouring into warehouse robotics. So why do so many automation projects fall short? The answer starts with the people working the floor.
In this entrepreneur interview, Tanner Green, co-founder and CEO of Ox, a Bentonville-based warehouse AI platform serving billion-dollar enterprises, shares how a wearable headset startup evolved into a warehouse operating system and digital twin platform. He also explains why early investors bet on founders rather than ideas, and what he's learned leading a team with zero turnover.
Whether you're building in physical AI or just getting your first idea off the ground, this founder story is a case study in growing with your customers instead of clinging to your first idea.
What you'll learn:
- Why frontline workers make or break warehouse automation
- Evolving from AR headsets to a warehouse operating system
- What a digital twin is, and why it beats a dashboard
- Why "dark warehouses" are still decades away
- How enterprise customers actually find startups
- Raising early capital from friends, family, and angels
- Why fundraising announcements are the wrong scoreboard
- First steps for anyone with a business idea
⏱️Chapters0:25 Meet Tanner Green of Ox
1:21 From startup bootcamp at 14 to co-founder
4:21 From AR headsets to a warehouse operating system
6:40 A million open warehouse jobs
8:21 Building for frontline operators
10:20 Robotics funding vs. real-world adoption
13:22 How enterprise customers find Ox
16:02 Leadership lessons from two years as CEO
20:01 Raising capital: investors bet on you
24:11 Why we over-celebrate fundraising
26:04 How to start: write it down
27:13 What is a digital twin?
30:06 Ox's next 3–5 years: orchestrating robotics
33:00 Advice to his 14-year-old self
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About Tanner Green:
Tanner is co-founder and CEO of Ox (formerly Oculogx), which builds human-centered AI and warehouse automation software for enterprise supply chains.
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What is The Startup Junkies Podcast?
Candid conversations with the founders, operators, and investors building companies in Northwest Arkansas and beyond.
The Startup Junkies Podcast is hosted by Jeff Amerine, founder of Startup Junkie, a Northwest Arkansas organization that has provided no-cost consulting, programs, and events to entrepreneurs for more than 15 years. Each week Jeff and the Startup Junkie team sit down with people who have actually done it: first-time and serial founders, small business owners, investors, accelerator alumni, and the ecosystem builders working alongside them.
Expect real stories, not lectures. How they got started, how they found their first customers, how they raised money or chose not to, what nearly broke them, and what they would do differently. Topics range from validating an idea and finding capital to hiring, marketing, leadership, scaling, and selling the business.
With more than 450 episodes since 2015, the back catalog covers nearly every stage of building a company in Arkansas and the Mid-South. If you are starting something, growing something, or helping founders do either, this show is for you.
This feed also carries Querido Emprendedor, our Spanish-language founder series, and the Fuel Podcast, featuring companies from Startup Junkie's Fuel Accelerator.
New episodes weekly. Show notes, transcripts, and the full archive at startupjunkie.org/podcast.
Startup Junkie's mission: improving lives through innovation and entrepreneurship, from Northwest Arkansas around the globe.