ABOUT OVIS

Ovis is a people-powered, blockchain-based, decentralized media network with singular focus - Incentivizing the truth. Ovis takes the best of social media and combines the power of blockchain technology to ensure both information and community members are trusted, verifiable and accountable. The Ovis TRUTH token, a first-of-its kind cryptocurrency, gives people the power to incentivize journalists and fact-checkers to be truthful – and hold them accountable when they aren’t.

While CEO Linton Johnson and Ovis’ founding team have strong backgrounds in journalism and government politics, Linton was very aware that their team needed support from people with financial and technology experience to bring his company full circle. As someone who has always sought advisors to help him make better decisions both in business and life, Linton turned to AdvisoryCloud to find advisors for Ovis.  

“In all seriousness, the one thing I know is that I don’t know what I don’t know,” explained Linton. “We needed people who could not only bring an outside perspective but also knowledge in areas that are foreign to us. AdvisoryCloud was an incredible resource to broaden our knowledge base and diversify our team in areas we don’t already have.”

Having previously tried to source advisors on their own, the Ovis team didn’t have nearly the selection that AdvisoryCloud was able to provide. As the team prepared to enter its next round of fundraising, it was critical to connect with advisors who could help make sure they were ready, particularly by reviewing Ovis’ marketing plans, investor pitch decks, equity offerings, as well as its financial and token models.

THE ADVISORYCLOUD EXPERIENCE

Linton worked one-on-one with his AdvisoryCloud account manager to create an online company profile that showcased Ovis’ mission, vision, and current state of business. Together, they also defined the company’s top initiatives and challenges so potential advisors could determine if their skills and background aligned with Ovis’ needs.

“Working with AdvisoryCloud has been a phenomenal experience,” commented Linton. “Their team was amazing, and this entire process has given us an opportunity to find the talent we needed in a way that we could have never achieved on our own.”

After posting Ovis’ profile to the AdvisoryCloud platform, advisors immediately began contacting Ovis to offer their advice on best ways to address the company’s current challenges. From there, Linton connected with a few advisors individually to gauge their interest level and relevant expertise.

“Diversity is extremely important to Ovis. Our team is diverse, our audience is diverse, and we want to reflect that in our board as well. AdvisoryCloud gave us a huge selection of people that feels truly diverse and represents a variety of opinions,” said Linton.

Having found great people who delivered equally impressive results, Linton added, “For anyone struggling to make a decision on advisors, or working with AdvisoryCloud, I can say joining AdvisoryCloud is priceless. You get back what you put in and then some in terms of value - it’s a no brainer investment.”

WORKING WITH ADVISORS

Prior to joining AdvisoryCloud, and having recognized a gap in technology expertise, Linton and his team outsourced a technology firm to help develop their initial platform.

Within their first few conversations, one of Linton’s new AdvisoryCloud advisors asked to review the firm’s scope of agreement and compare it to their deliverables. After this advisor, who has over 30 years of experience building technology platforms, signed an NDA and reviewed the materials, he quickly identified many flaws in the firm’s delivered product.

“Our biggest challenge so far has been dealing with an outside technology team. They created a product for us, but because we’re not technology experts we wouldn’t have known their deliverable didn’t meet the initial scope without the help of this advisor,” said Linton. “Had we accepted the product without knowing this information, we would’ve had to pay another firm upwards of $100,000 to fix this mistake. Our adviser quite literally saved us $100K.”

Another advisor offered assistance in reviewing Ovis’ pitch deck, providing multiple rounds of valuable edits that Linton would have otherwise had to pay $10,000 to $15,000 for an outside agency.

Moving forward, Linton plans to hold a series of quarterly meetings with his advisory board to keep them up to date on each stage of Ovis’ journey. The first presentation will include Ovis’ latest marketing assets, which Linton hopes will serve as his sounding board to identify any major errors or red flags.

In just a few short months, the advisory board has already saved Ovis well over $100,000 in unnecessary expenditures, and Linton is excited to continue working with them to ensure the company remains headed in the right direction.

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