Viai – VIAI

Vesdor

Vesdor opens doors for the rest of us.

Vesdor is an online real estate platform which allows investment opportunities to non-accredited investors.

Challenge

This real estate company had a problem—they were doing too much business. For 15 years they had been doing deals in one of the hottest markets in the country and wanted to expand exponentially. They needed to go digital, but a snappy website and a marketing campaign wasn’t going to do it.

When the Feds give you an opportunity like this you should take advantage.

In 2012, the JOBS act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) was passed, relaxing many of the country’s securities regulations. Before this, real estate investing was only open to accredited individuals and groups. Now with fewer restrictions, non-accredited individuals could invest.

Our client challenged us to optimize their conventional processes, expand their geographic reach and find a way to broaden the investor pool.

Solution

We leveraged the “crowdfunding” process and technology to take advantage of the loosened criteria around non-accredited investing. Kickstarter and GoFundMe have set precedents for success in crowdfunding so we simply applied it to real estate. By exposing the properties through a well-advertised web portal we were able to increase inventory exponentially. We decided to set ourselves apart from other competitors by offering a lower minimum investment and target non-accredited investors.

Creating the name was quite a challenge. Our partner-client wanted a single name, one that sounded familiar and connotes investment. And it had to be a .com. Vesdor phonetically represents the word investor while warming it up a little (like “welcome through our door”). The brand reflects a simple, sophisticated consumer-driven product. Intuitiveness was paramount so the message is deliberate and straightforward and the back-end management hierarchy was reduced to only the necessary steps.

We also kept in mind SEC regulations and worked to cover our client’s legal interests.

Then we built a slick, modern website that acted more like an app. Completely responsive and mobile-friendly, the ad campaign encourages the ability to “invest in real estate from anywhere.”

Through Vesdor now anyone can invest in real estate.

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Innovation Pavilion

Thrive on!

Innovation Pavilion is an entrepreneurial ecosystem complete with a coworking space.

Challenge

Most successful incubators, accelerators and coworking spaces are located within big city hubs. Although Centennial, Colorado, has been ranked as the number one most connected city in the United States it is still definitely suburbia.

This has to scream Innovation and be even cooler than downtown.

Innovation Pavilion has a long-term plan to recreate its Centennial ecosystem in ring cities around metro hubs throughout the country. We were hired to structure their programs into replicable entities and visually identify its many service offerings.

The audience includes young startups, corporates seeking satellite collaboration, public-private partnerships and institutional investors.

Solution

Starting with an immersive understanding of the breadth of capabilities and contacts, we identified how these assets played with each other and, more importantly, which ones didn’t. We then created a tangible mind map and explained how each program fed the other.

Our job was to identify and simplify the complexity that had evolved over 5 years.

With so many different components and the nature of complexity, we shortened the name to IP (homage to the acronym for Intellectual Property) and used a simplified version of a Rubik’s cube as the new official logo. Using high chroma coloring we chose 3 main hues representing male, female and neutral personalities.

In all we created separate entities for access to funding, workforce training, tech communities and an entire array of real estate components which all reflect the corporate brand.

Innovation Pavilion is your place to innovate.

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Kleiner Device Labs

Better life, not just

better surgery.

Kleiner Device Labs is a medical device company that provides elegant and innovative solutions to make surgeries better.

Challenge

There is currently a 35% acceptable failure rate for spinal surgery, causing patients to undergo repeat surgeries and often live with pain for the rest of their lives. Frustrated with this fact his entire career, Dr. Jeffrey Kleiner invented his own medical device that dramatically increases the effect of lumbar spinal fusions. He had a great product, patents and access to manufacturing but needed help getting to market.

Just because you build it does not mean they will come.

Despite performing over 400 surgeries with his own device, Dr. Kleiner was faced with unforeseen problems. From finding other surgeon advocates to insurance and formulary issues within hospitals, the doctor and his team could only do so much with their personnel and resources. We were brought in to be a fresh pair of eyes and identify the current and future holes that needed to be plugged, including access to funding, company vision, market identification and future acquisitions.

Solution

We sat down in a series of meetings with the client and his team, ranging from medical professionals to sales representatives, lawyers and financial. After familiarizing ourselves with the client’s current business, we brainstormed new directions and jumped into getting set up on a relaunching pad.

Our first step was to inspire the doctor and his team with a new name and identity for the company (We got lucky with this client. Since Kleiner is a familiar name within the medical industry we were provided a head start on brand recognition). We then put together Kleiner Device Lab’s pitch deck to take with them on a series of investor conferences throughout the country. It was important that we looked at the company through two lenses: one from an investor, insurance and business perspective and one from the end-user (surgeons and clinicians).

Kleiner Device Labs is currently working on bringing more medical device products to market to fundamentally change the way surgeries are performed.

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Jacobs

Engineering the right solution from cowboys to smart sensors.

Jacobs is the second largest engineering firm in the world. We partner with them to create compelling ways to communicate their vision.

Challenge

Jacobs Engineering has 230 locations, over 54,000 employees and revenues of $11 billion. With each new project or initiative they need to deliver their message to a variety of stakeholders. The geniuses that have designed and built some of the most iconic structures in the world often require innovative ways to communicate their vision. The detailed nature of their expertise sometimes precludes them from talking to the general objectives as the project.

Additionally when a new industry market is slated for expansion, like their Smart Cities efforts, they need objectivity for both their clients as well as internally.

Solution

Whether it is a proposal to develop the most advanced water and food sustainability ecosystem, a presentation for a world-class equine center or forming a Smart Cities initiative, we work alongside the Jacobs staff to brainstorm, design and create.

Some of our solutions include message direction and relevant term usage, presentation decks, program booklets and reports and even speaking to constituents.

The Jacob’s partner group allows us to learn directly from the experts.

Jacobs has multiple partners for each of their capabilities. It is both intimidating and informative when we are able to exchange ideas amongst top engineering minds while working toward a unified goal. Massive web services and big data analytics are some service offerings we learned about and were able to incorporate in the programs we helped create.

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Playpal

Health – gamified!

Playpal is a startup gaming and rewards company whose mission is to revolutionize children’s health through gaming.

Challenge

Today, childhood obesity is a global epidemic and is considered one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. For parents, the number one health concern they have for their kids is obesity and poor health. Children are now spending the majority of their free time with activities that are sedentary and are compounding this lifestyle with unhealthy diets.

How do we get little Jimmy off the couch?

A group of entrepreneurs and game developers wanted to fight against childhood obesity. With mobile augmented reality being the future of gaming (take a look at the impact of games like Pokémon GO) they built their first game for kids that requires the player to jog, skip and jump outside while also learning about good nutrition. But where do you go from there?

Solution

Before we came on, our client only had a game. This would not be enough on its own to tackle the monumental challenge before them. We needed to determine what was going to best help them achieve their mission, which was not to be just a gaming company but a health company. By partnering with restaurants and retail companies we were able to incentivize players by offering real-life rewards for achievements earned in-game. This led to us naming the company Playpal, which serves as the rewards platform that mobile games integrate with and members can track their activity and rewards status.

Games are exceptionally successful with crowdfunding sites, so we determined to launch a crowdfunding campaign for Playpal to raise money and spread the word. We conducted market research to get the most out our campaign and scripted, story boarded, casted and directed a promotional video for the crowdfund. Combining professional, educational aspects for parental use and light-hearted, whimsy for children, we took a startup for kid’s gaming and made a health and wellness platform to make healthy living fun.

We don’t want you to stop playing games.

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Lockheed / CDC

Translating chaos into life saving solutions.

From viruses to hurricanes, Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, has amassed a humongous amount of catastrophe data.

Challenge

The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta deals with a variety of disasters worldwide and has amassed a large repository of invaluable data. This data, organized and managed, helps cut disaster response time down considerably and derives solutions that work.

The CDC, together with Lockheed Martin, developed an entire suite of applications. They utilized a worldwide database that includes details from past tragedies like natural disasters and viral outbreaks. These applications can now be used by local, state and federal entities to both evaluate and make remedy recommendations by sourcing necessary items and personnel and coordinate the logistics down to shipping and booking airline tickets. They wanted us to help market it to them. Sounds pretty serious, huh?

So how do you explain a massive software solution to city governments?

Solution

The software suite Lockheed Martin and the CDC developed had adopted a name over time that read more like a paragraph than a title. We distilled what the applications actually do down to 3 things: ENGAGE, EVALUATE and EXECUTE – or e3. Simplification of the top level uses of the suite was the key to ensuring consumer understanding and buy in.

These people know their business, but when it came to marketing their product they reached out for an objective take. We named the application suite, created the logo and added a commercial look to the packaging and collateral. We also developed collateral for use in trade shows, conventions and sales

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Grist Brewing Company

Even beer is getting smarter.

For a few years, Grist Brewing Company noticed a dip in overall revenue, until it became apparent they could not remain in business unless something was done fast. While they originally thought they had a product quality problem, in reality what they needed was a smart solution.

They are eating themselves.

Gone are the days of installing a few fermenters in a warehouse and opening the garage doors to a pouring of enthusiastic zythophiles. The independent brewery scene has become overwhelmingly saturated in recent years — in Denver especially. 2017 had the most brewery closings in over a decade. More folks are moving to the city and its surrounding suburbs, many from states that have little to no craft brewery culture. While the product is and will always be the center of the industry, more and more people want first-rate service, varied beverage offerings and a cool place to hangout with friends and family.

Grist is upping the experience game.

There has been a disconnect between the culture of independent microbreweries and the expected experience of the restaurant service industry. Grist is taking the best of both worlds and mixing it up. The brewery and its taprooms have recruited top-notch service personnel to work side-by-side with the “beer geeks” that embody the true culture of craft beer. Operations have been aligned, product and systems updated and new avenues are being pursued, including food, revamped interior, programming, entertainment… and technology.

Full-bodied Digital Integration.

Apart from a competitive market, one of the primary difficulties of thriving in the brewery business is lack of technology. The attitudes and cultures of many small craft breweries is of old school beer enthusiasts who like to tinker with brewery equipment and beer recipes but typically have very little interest in technology systems (and, frankly, processes and forecasting in general).

With IoT predictive maintenance sensors placed on canning/bottling systems, taps and brewing equipment, workflow and product efficiency can be maximized.

We partnered with brewers, engineers and tech consultants to come up with a system that can streamline multiple brewery processes, predict failures in equipment and monitor inventory, all to the increased efficiency of the entire brew business. Many brewing mechanical systems (such as canning and bottling lines and specialty taps) require meticulous attention but still often fail, requiring brewery personnel to halt operations in order to fix the situation which leads to a complete workflow breakdown. But with IoT predictive maintenance sensors placed on canning/bottling systems, taps and brewing equipment, production efficiency can be maximized. These low-cost, wireless sensors can detect ultrasonic sounds that analyze data and predict when equipment will need maintenance. This ultimately saves money with far less product loss and down time.

Inventory software systems have become more sophisticated in recent years, and there has been an entire market dedicated specifically to craft breweries. Breweries that have not adapted to these systems are finding it increasingly difficult to scale and operate on both a day-to-day and long-term level. CMMS systems are crucial to the overall success of a business that is constantly producing multiple styles of beer, ordering raws from numerous vendors and keeping product inventory current. With new technology implemented and process and procedures kept current, forecasting new and better ways to brew beer and run a business is making it possible to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

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Botanex

Harnessing the Power of Hemp.

Botanex and Hempex offer integrated industrial hemp optimization including grow consultation, commercial extraction and scalable distillation.

Challenge

Along with a lifelong respect for the untapped utility of plants, this idea was also inspired by the seriously renewed subject of hemp production and extraction. The Botanex team quickly got to work on structuring a business model and inventing and building an industry-first extraction unit. With advances in technology along with government policy catching up to the times, the wide array of uses for plants like hemp have launched an entire cultural and innovation movement, a wave Botanex knew they had to get in front of.

Not first but different… and better.

On December 12, the United States Congress voted to pass the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, more commonly referred to as the Farm Bill. As well as including important policy extensions for certain areas in agricultural and nutritional policy for the next five years, the bill also confirms the legalization of hemp — the term given to cannabis containing less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — and provisions for its cultivation, transport and sale.

The regulatory doors have been opened and a flood of competition has begun to saturate the market. Companies have developed extraction devices that can be used for commercial scale hemp processes, taking the plant in its base form and turning it into crude which can then be sold for use in a seemingly endless array of products, from pharmaceuticals to raw materials for batteries. But where other companies want to extract as much hemp by-product as possible for wholesale use, Botanex seeks to become an innovator in Big Ag and Ag Technology, being THE precedent for education, new tech, finance and legal, pre and post-processing and market growth of not just hemp but plant extraction as a whole.

Connecting consumers with hemp.

Botanex seeks to integrate industrial plant extraction with smart technology, realizing the value of not just producing raw materials for multiple products but the connection between smart integration and sustainability, environmental benefits, people, communities and economies.

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