Apple Attacks the ‘Lifeblood’ of the United States Economy

Saving the Pear from Apple: Where we’re at and why we care

Provo, UT—In the United States, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to defend a trademark opposition. For a company like Apple, with tens of billions of dollars in resources, attacking the trademarks of small businesses is no problem. Sadly, most small businesses can’t afford to defend themselves against this type of litigation, and, as a result, must change their logo and branding or close their doors. Either way, the bully wins. 

Does  the international software giant really spend time and resources hunting down and filing notices of opposition against small businesses? Unfortunately for the young, Utah-local cooking app, Prepear, the answer is yes. “It’s unfortunate that a world renown brand, such as Apple, would directly attack a young, female owned startup such as Prepear, just because they can,” says A.J. Rounds, CMO of RevRoad—a partner with Prepear, “In this difficult time, regarding the pandemic, the world is rooting extra hard for small business, while Apple seems anxious to squash them.

Prepear is a cooking app that helps users combine every part of their cooking life in one concise place. Prepear users can discover, organize, shop, and cook all within Prepear’s uniquely built features. Pretty straight forward right? Just a small business simplifying the lives of America’s home cooks. Yet, here comes Apple (yes, 2 trillion dollar Apple) claiming Prepear’s obviously pear shaped logo is too close to Apple’s trademark logo. 

But does Apple really think Prepear’s logo could create confusion with their own? Here’s exactly what the megacorporation has to say:

In most cases, these company logos do not resemble Apple’s at all, nor are they in the same line of business. Yet, Apple has been going after dozens of small businesses, forcing them to pay for a very expensive legal defense, or abandon their trademarks (which also comes at substantial cost).

A 2019 release from the US Small Business Administration stated, “Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: they create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive U.S. innovation and competitiveness. A new report shows that they account for 44 percent of U.S. economic activity.” This information highlights the importance of small businesses for the U.S. economy. 

Prepear has already spent thousands of dollars and been forced to lay off a team member due to this expensive battle with Apple. So why fight it?

“I feel a moral obligation to take a stand against Apple’s aggressive legal action against small businesses and fight for the right to keep our logo. We are defending ourselves against Apple not only to keep our logo, but to send a message to big tech companies that bullying small businesses has consequences.”

Natalie Monson, CEO at Prepear

Prepear has since generated over 260,000 signatures on their petition to Save the Pear from Apple

Join their fight for small businesses by signing the petition and sharing their story. 

###For media inquiries, interviews or additional information, please contact Communications Specialist  Bri Ray at bri.ray@revroad.com or by calling  888-920-7623

Savology Expands Offering to Provide Financial Planning Benefits Through Employers

OREM, Utah, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Savology, a Utah-based fintech startup providing accessible financial planning for American households, announces the launch of its new financial wellness program for employers to provide access to holistic financial planning for their employees.

Savology for Employers helps employers to empower their employees by providing access to personal financial planning.
Savology for Employers helps employers to empower their employees by providing access to personal financial planning.

Employers everywhere are increasingly recognizing the impact and relationship between personal finances, work performance, and overall employee satisfaction both at work and at home.  While other financial wellness programs exist, most do not adequately address the financial challenges that employees face or make a meaningful long-term difference in their behavior and financial outcomes. Savology aims to remedy this by improving financial wellness through personalized financial planning combined with financial tools and financial education.

“Now more than ever employees want, need, and deserve support with their personal finances,” says Jordan Pinedo, Savology’s Head of Partnerships. “Offering Savology for Employers is part of our commitment to households across the country to gain access to financial planning and improve their financial well-being.”

Employees will have access to a holistic financial plan and report card, personalized recommendations, live financial professionals, custom activities, financial comparisons and benchmarks, literacy resources and tools, and more.
Employees will have access to a holistic financial plan and report card, personalized recommendations, live financial professionals, custom activities, financial comparisons and benchmarks, literacy resources and tools, and more.

After several months of development and working closely with a select group of Utah-based employers through an early beta access program, the company is now expanding the employer benefit offering to companies across the United States.

“Savology is able to provide our employees with the tools and resources they need to make significant [financial] improvements.” says Alex Bean, co-founder and CBO of Divvy. “We strongly feel that our company values and missions align. Here at Divvy, we have simplified the frustrating process for a business to manage expenses and stay within budget. Savology is essentially doing that with personal finances.”

By joining Savology’s benefit program, employers are able to provide their employees access to:

  • Precise retirement calculations, including projections and suggestions
  • Status and analysis of key financial performance indicators
  • Actionable and prescribed next steps to make holistic improvements
  • Suggestions for and discounts to many of the most reputable service providers
  • Personalized financial literacy resources and tools
  • Custom employer activities that integrate other benefits into the planning process
  • Live financial planning professionals by chat and phone

By equipping employers with an actionable, personalized, and technology-based planning approach, Savology is able to help employers make a significant impact on the financial wellness of thousands of employees.

For more information about Savology for Employers visit savology.com/employers.

For media inquiries, please contact Bri Ray, Communications Specialist, at 801-472-2124 or bri.ray@revroad.com.  

About Savology:

Savology is a venture-backed startup that is on a mission to improve the financial well-being of millions of American households by making financial planning more accessible, actionable, and effective than ever before. In addition to their free consumer-facing financial planning platform, Savology enables employers to affordably provide employees with effective financial planning. Savology, based in the Silicon Slopes of Utah, was founded by serial entrepreneur Spencer Barclay in early 2019.

SOURCE: Savology

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Forbes Says Hello to Hallo After a Successful Raise of $1.4 Million

Forbes says hello to Hallo after a successful raise of .4 Million

Forbes recently released an article congratulating Hallo on a successful raise of $1.4 Million. 

Article author, Fredrick Daso, wrote, “Language has proven to be both an obstacle and a conduit towards integrating oneself among a foreign nation. Dent and Beh saw the chasm between these linguistic worlds and built a bridge called Hallo to connect them. Hallo bills itself as the ‘future of language learning,’ allowing native English speakers to teach users through the startups smartphone app. Founded in April 2017, the Provo, Utah-based company has recently raised a $1.4 million seed from Kickstart as the lead investor with participation from RevRoad and Tamarak.”

Recognizing the $60 billion global language learning market that is up for grabs, Forbes highlighted the innovative ways Hallo teaches English to language learners across the globe. 

Read the full article here.

#GetHired Summit offers 1,000+ job opportunities for virtual attendees

PROVO, Utah — In direct relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates have risen dramatically. Current unemployment rates vary from 5.1% to 17.4% across the nation. As unemployment numbers increase, the United States economy has suffered.  One of the nation’s largest job searches in history is currently underway. 

On August 13-14 the #GetHired Summit will be holding its 2nd virtual summit. Attendance at the first Summit exceeded 5,000. Registration is free and can be completed here. There will be thousands of job opportunities from the Summit sponsor companies, including over 600 positions at  Vivint Smart Home alone. 

CEO of Mentorli, Luke Mocke, the creator of the #GetHiredSummit has said, “This is the worst US unemployment crisis in a hundred years and we’ve vowed to be a part of the solution. We’re uniting the right employers, voices, and opportunities under one roof to make sure folks can get back to work as soon as possible.” 

Diversity is a major focus for the summit. Partners like the Utah Black Chamber, Utah Women in Sales, Diversity Career Fair, and RevRoad are working together to ensure the summit is inclusive and creates an equal playing field for underrepresented talent. #GetHired Summit leadership believe that the combination of layoffs and rising remote work present an unprecedented opportunity for employers to rebuild their organization in a representative way. 

The #GetHired Summit will be held virtually. For more information visit the #GetHired Summit website https://www.gethiredsummit.com.  

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For media inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact Marketing Coordinator Tanner Lenon at tanner.lenon@mentorli.com.

About Mentorli

Mentorli helps diverse talent land jobs through mentors. Having a mentor and referral can make you up to 15x more likely to land a job. We’re leaning in to that power to give every qualified person access to opportunities historically reserved for the few.

RevRoad Rolls Up Its Sleeves to Help Portfolio Companies During COVID-19

Written By: A.J. Rounds

Following health and safety guidelines, RevRoad has moved all its events and meetings online. Even so, our dedication to showing up for entrepreneurs remains strong. We remain focused on helping portfolio companies find unique ways to thrive during the pandemic. As we ebb and flow, our goal is to help our portfolio companies grow based on the needs of their target markets.  

Branding exercises, web development, social media, and PR, are just some of the marketing services RevRoad offers portfolio companies to meet the current demands and market complications with COVID-19. In a recent website and email campaign initiative, we launched a bundled discount program involving portfolio companies Hallo, Skillstruck, Education Lifeskills, and Literal. This At Home Learning program offers digital learning products to K-12 students for free until the end of the 2019/2020 school year.  

Another way RevRoad has adjusted to address current challenges is the increased allocation of more resources into digital ad spend and social media. Recently, a portfolio company in the ag tech industry did just that. Still sales-focused, they realized they needed to expand their reach to the online space. Their hope is to attract farmers that need tech solutions to compensate for fewer available workers as a result of the pandemic. 

As of mid April 2020 more than 22M Americans have lost their jobs resulting in a mass job search during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, recent portfolio company, Mentorli, is hosting a virtual career fair. The Mentorli team is excited to announce the #GetHired Summit, aimed at combating unemployment in the U.S. The team has been working around the clock to pull together keynotes, companies, and resources to help find jobs. The summit will be hosted virtually on April 29–30. Visit gethiredsummit.com to reserve your seat or get more information. 

There are so many exciting things happening at RevRoad. What kind of out-of-the-box thinking can we help you with during COVID-19? Apply today and find out. 

Savology Secures $750,000 Seed Round to Democratize Financial Planning

Savology, a Utah-based fintech startup providing free financial planning, oversubscribed a $750,000 seed round of funding to make financial planning more accessible and affordable than ever before.

Several strategic investors participated in the funding round, including:

“Savology has the potential to fundamentally change the direction of personal finances in America,” says lead investor Brady Murray. “I look forward to seeing the positive impact that Savology will have on both households and the broader industry as they improve access to financial planning and other financial services.”

After creating a free financial plan, Savology users get access to a financial report card showing them
their financial strengths and areas that need improving most.

Savology boasts a considerable lineup of financial service provider partners that include the likes of MassMutualAcornsLivelyM1 FinanceSelfBlooomThe ZebraCredible and many others. Savology is on track to expand the network of partners to 50 providers this year.

“We are grateful to the early investors and partners who believe in our mission and make it possible for us to elevate Savology to new levels,” says Spencer Barclay, Founder and CEO of Savology. “We know that we have an incredible amount of work ahead of us, but we are up for the challenge to help millions of households achieve financial security.”

Savology’s Founder & CEO, Spencer Barclay, shares how Savology is helping American households improve their
financial well-being to a crowd of thousands.

To date, Savology has helped nearly 10,000 households improve their personal finances with its free financial planning platform. With the current economic uncertainty and recent stock market declines, there has never been a better time to help Americans with their personal finances. Savology plans to use this funding to help 100,000 users build free financial plans this year.

For more information about Savology visit savology.com.

For media inquiries, please contact Bri Ray, Communications Specialist, at (801) 472-2124 or press@savology.com


Your financial future starts today

Savology is a free planning platform where you can build a free, unbiased, personalized financial plan in about 5 minutes. Your Savology plan will give you action items to start working on as well as an overview of your current financial situation. After you have made some progress, Savology can connect you with some of the world’s top providers to help you accomplish your financial goals.

Build your free plan today