Open Road Capital Advisors Achieved Instant Market Credibility and High-End Branding

VIDEO #1 - GIFT My name is Whit Webster. I am the founding partner of Open Road Capital Advisors. We are a boutique investment bank that has taken my experience and some of the members on the team of having spent over a decade on the private equity side as an investor, having run a company as the CEO. And now building an investment bank to help founders really prepare for and ultimately have mastery over their exit. And they're taking control of that process and that transition to the next phase of their entrepreneurial and ⁓ career journey. So we work with companies one to five years before they sell and then take them through a ⁓ very competitive and I would argue ⁓ know, top notch sale process from an investment banking perspective. In fact, that's how I ended up meeting the Up with Ivy team was through having seen their work on the other side. We, we take and, um, and really level up our, our, our game by working with them and, and, you know, putting together a, a confidential information memorandum package that really communicates the business clearly, um, in a way that is, you know, having sat on thousands of processes on the other side is not ⁓ often executed particularly well in the market. So I think we take and level it up from there. Yeah, so our mission is to help founder and family-owned businesses have experienced a great exit as they transition through, you know, selling their business and moving on to the next phase. And it's really working with them to increase the value and transferability of that business so that they're picking the right next owner from both an economic perspective and from a partnership perspective. the right next owner for one business may be that they paid me the most to get out and the right next owner for another business may be that they are going to take care of my team and my people and having run companies and been on the private equity side for so long, we have a really unique perspective in the market where we can help companies sort of guide through that process. think the site does an amazing job of reflecting our mission. think that the perspective that we were able to show in terms of our experience and how we think about partnering with companies was delivered in a really clean fashion. ⁓ You know, one of the things that drives me nuts about most websites is there are way too many words. And I think that We've done, the up with Ivy team in particular has done an amazing job of really simplifying it and delivering it from a visual perspective. I think the, mission ultimately to help companies prepare for that ultimate exit and map their path, kind of meet them on the road where they are. ⁓ I couldn't have asked for a better visualization of that. No, think it was important to launch a new website for us and that A, it was our first website and B, I think the experience that I've garnered throughout my career and other members of our team, if we'd have just gone with a basic and a of Wix. create your own website, which I have done in the past for previous businesses I've started, but ⁓ it wouldn't have clearly communicated in the market what we were really about and what our experience ⁓ really brings to the table. And I think having a well-thought-out, ⁓ well-presented website added the credibility in the marketplace that we're really looking for. And that's proven to be true in the few months that we've been live with it. Yeah, visitors to our website, think, you know, what's in it for them is, it's a place where they can come to understand more about the exit process. you know, ultimately, hopefully what's important in the exit process, which is preparing for it. It's not just waking up one day and saying, need to sell my business. It's really taking control of that phase of exiting and transitioning away from something that they've worked so hard to build. Yeah, go to our website, fill out, there's a form, very detailed form. There's a few different ways that folks can get involved with us. ⁓ One is as a potential client and preparing for or immediately going to sale. ⁓ Either way, we've got a form that you can fill out and we can jump on the phone and sort of talk through and figure out where the business owner is or the owner of the business is. and how we can help them navigate the path one direction or the other. And then for those folks that are looking to invest in businesses, there's a place on there where we can sort of capture your criteria and make sure that we're coming out when we bring businesses to market, we're showing you things that are relevant. And then folks that are advisors to business owners, whether you're a wealth advisor, a lawyer, a... ⁓ fractional CFO, whatever that may look like. And you're working with business owners and you really ultimately know that this business owner cares about preparation and planning. And you think you've got a valuable business that with a little bit of work, they can ultimately ⁓ maximize that value and maximize that outcome. Filling out your information on our website and reaching out, or you can reach out directly to me at bor-cap.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIDEO #2 - TESTIMONIAL My name is Whit Webster. I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I started an investment banking firm called Open Road Capital Advisors. I was launching a new business. So I've been on the private equity side for a long time and had actually seen up with Ivy's work through another investment bank that they'd done some work with out in Colorado and was super impressed by the Sims that they created. So marketing materials to represent companies as they're going through a sale process and the website of the firm that I've always admired. I really, I really admired their branding. ⁓ So when I was launching my own firm, reached out to Up With Ivy. was the only cold outreach, I guess, that I had done in my process to look for a marketing firm and ⁓ immediately was impressed with the team. Kyle and Jacqueline have been incredible and they were just, they were amazing to work with. So I'm really fortunate to have found them through that process. Yeah, they took a, ⁓ to start out the sort of tangible results and wins that I've experienced with working with Epithivy is ⁓ for starters, they understood my business and they took the time to understand my unique position in the market. ⁓ Because of that, they were able to really clearly communicate. that brand through the lens that I wanted it to be communicated. I love spending time in the outdoors and have always appreciated this sort of entrepreneurial journey of the path to climb a mountain or to go through that experience in the outdoors. they figured that out and they made it so easy and seamless. It wasn't a lot of iteration from my end. It was, they were able to pull out of me what I wasn't really able to clearly articulate ⁓ and do it very quickly. And I've gotten incredible feedback from the work that they've done as we went live and put our website up on the, ⁓ and have gone live with our company and made public announcements. Everyone has come back and said that they've just been blown away with the branding work and with the website and. ⁓ that's actually generated some more business for Apple 5e because I've been able to make some referrals from there because of the impressive work they've done. ⁓ My experience with Up with Ivy has been incredible. They've met me where I am and really helped me along the journey. They've been ⁓ creative in how they've pulled ⁓ my vision for what I wanted to see out of the website and our program together going forward. we've got a, it's not just the website, they're helping. with a lot of ongoing marketing support and they've just made that a seamless and easy process. they've, again, I can't say this enough, but they've taken, they've done an incredible job of taking what's in my head and articulating that out in a way that I could never have done. And they've taken some of our really rough marketing materials and made them incredible. it's just taking the... and investment bankers skill of marketing and taking that leveling it up ⁓ beyond I'd say it brought a lot of credibility. think that the work that they do is just a level above ⁓ most of the marketing firms that play with the size businesses and size projects that they work with. So I think that they've done an amazing job of making our company feel bigger than it is, how in order we're a... We're a startup and they've done an awesome job of really making us feel like we've been around for a long time. And our experience has been around for a long time. It's a new business. a young company. ⁓ It doesn't feel like the website. doesn't feel like the experience, the brand experience, everything from our marketing materials to our website that a new business would feel like. they've really leveled up the game for us. I made the right choice and I wouldn't look back for a second. So if anyone was sitting on the fence and deciding whether not they wanted to work with Up With Ivy, I'd say, again, I absolutely made the right choice and I wouldn't look back for a second. I ⁓ think the team's amazing. I think the people I've worked with are incredible. ⁓ Kyle in particular is just... He's been responsive. He's been helpful throughout the entire process. And Jacqueline's been an amazing support and thought partner throughout all of it as well. so you get, know, in my experience in the past, a lot of marketing firms, you sort of get handed off after the first iteration. You start working with more and more junior people and ⁓ similar to the way we like to run our investment banking process. You really stick with the senior team all the way through. And my point person has been Kyle. Jacqueline's support all the way through this process and that was, ⁓ it made me feel confident, made me feel like we were going to get the results that we were ultimately looking for and we did. ⁓ In fact, we got way better results than we were looking for.