Update 03.05.2021
What? Microadvisory is sophisticated advice in small, goal-oriented portions in video advice.
For whom?
How? Marketplace for advisory services of all business experts, tailor-made for business goals. Browse advisory services, get suggestions, compare, book, schedule an appointment, exchange files and meet online. fully accessible on hallosophia.com, the whole advisory process without leaving EU servers
What makes it unique in the whole world?
Booking of concrete advisory services instead of expert matching & EU-only technical instractructure for the whole advisory process.
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hallosophia.com - a platform full of sophisticated business solutions. learn micro advisory sessions with experts how to use sophisticated finance alternatives, solve your legal or tax challenges or develop your business to the next level
Update: 23.11.2020 - the first Microadvisory Platform for Businesses is reality!
https://hallosophia.com/expertoffer -- open for Registration of Experts of all Business Advising Fields
https://hallosophia.com/ -- open for every Business to set a goal and find proper expertise to reach it
"We aim to close the service gap of small Businesses (regarding financial instruments & external expertise) with fast access to sophisticated solutions, tailor-made for crisis-struggling small companies to emerge stronger from the crisis, but with a long-term vision globally: strengthening small businesses contributes to quality of life, equality and inclusive economic growth." Markus Waghubinger, CEO
We believe the best chance for recovering from the economic crisis is empowerment of the single economic actors: Entrepreneurs & Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises.
Entrepreneurs are self-determined and have the strong will to lead their company and employees through every crisis. They just need the toolset to handle all urgent problems and the perspective to identify new potentials. Today only big enterprises hire experts of all fields, this 360° external support is not available or affordable for smaller entities today.
Thats why we invented* microadvisory for small- and medium-sized enterprises, to bring affordable & fast accessable expertise of all relevant fields to the point of impact: entrepreneurs needing it!
Explanation Video microadvisory:
Idea Pitch @EUvsVirus Hackathon 26.4.2020
Description:
https://hallosophia.com/expert -- open for Registration of Experts of all Business Advising Fields
https://hallosophia.com/ -- open for every Business to set a goal and find proper expertise to reach it
It's about empowering Entrepreneurs with Expertise available at the Point of Impact: People needing it!
Inspiration: Micro-Loans give people the Chance to help themselves out of Poverty by being Entrepreneurs, Micro-Advisory gives Entrepreneurs the Toolset for being successful with their Business - even in times of a Crisis. & the Mindset of the Startup-Community to help other Startup Founders with little tips to grow their skills.
PROBLEM
- Physical Distancing could lead to a lack of Expertise in the Financing/Management Processes of Businesses
- Bridge Loans can't be the only Solution for an Economic Crisis, because they need to be repaid with future revenues
- new Liabilities to cover losses of Shutdown weaken Company's Financial Structure - unhealthy Companies can't preserve jobs & lead to a default-series in the future
- Some Entrepreneurs losing perspective to take the responsibility for employees & sustainable actions in times of an economic crisis
SOLUTION #stayhealthy physically and economically
One Platform to join forces of everyone who can make a contribution to economically healthy businesses:
- Bank Employees
- Equity and Crowd Funders
- Business Continuity Experts
- Management Advisors
- SelfFinancing-Experts
- Lawyers
- Tax Advisors
- Employees of Public Institutions,...
...matched based on the current Problem of an Entrepreneur & connected in Video-Advisory-Rooms.
Example: “Bank does not accept my Business Plan” → all available Experts for Business plan in the Country listed (already Experts of Public Institutions pre-registered for that specific Micro-Advisory-Service)
Entrepreneurs can access the Expertise they need remotely, to get a new Perspective. Solving urgent Needs with Orientation of Experts, empowers Entrepreneurs to help themselves.
Advisors can offer precise micro-advisory to Businesses at the exact time they need it, to make further progress in their health/recovery/fitness-plan or in case of urgent need. help Businesses helping themselves with Sophisticated Advise in a comfortable customized Video-Advisory Room, without travelling and borders.
+ when Public institutions use the Platform, it brings Knowledge of Institutions closer to the point of Impact: People needing it.
Short-term Mission: Closing the "service gap" of SMEs when it comes to financial instruments and advisory services
Long-term Mission: Empowering people world-wide to be self-determined and successful Entrepreneurs
Impact Goals:
- Enabling Entrepreneurs to find their own way out of the Crisis
- Giving Entrepreneurs the same international Expert-Network, today only Corporates have - in short Sessions for affordable Fees (Crisis-Edition: Pro Bono)
- Less Traveling & better Work-Life-Balance for Advisors
- barrier-free Access to Expertise in rural areas
- International collabortions available for smaller Enterprises
- Non-Profit for fight against Poverty: Micro-Loans allow poor people to become self-determined as Entrepreneur, Micro-Advisory could be the Solution to stay self-determined by being successful with the Business.
Team: Building a team from Hackathon to Startup, currently 12 People in the team.
Elevator Pitch for Entrepreneurs: When you have troubles with your loan-application or other urgent problems of your company and you know someone to help you out with his/her expertise, we're glad that you know him/her, call him or her and add him or her to Sophia's network to help others as well, if no one comes to your mind in this field, Sophia knows someone to support you in her network of experts.
*in our research we didn't find any platform offering this holistic, structured set of services or call it micro advisory, this term was only used for individual services so far, one indian platform used it once, but that platform is basically offering micro consulting, not structured advisory. we were the first that used the #MicroAdvisory on twitter
Differentiation Micro-Advisory & Micro-Consulting
Micro-Consulting is external help for a specific problem
Micro-Advisory is portioning a long-term, holistic improvement process in small steps
Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/sophiaadvisory/
https://linkedin.com/company/sophiaadvisory
https://www.instagram.com/sophia.advisory
https://twitter.com/sophiaadvisory
Thank you for the Support during the EUvsVirus Program to:
around 60 Partnerships (most Partnerships of EUvsVirus Matchathon - some undisclosed)
| Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs Austria | Spreading the Word to Experts & Later to Businesses - step by step with Progress of Solution |
| Austrian Chamber of Commerce | Inviting Business Advisors to the Platform |
| WeMakeChange.org |
Validating Concept for SDG |
| Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs Austria | Inviting state-owned institutions to test platform if appropriate for helping businesses |
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Our History from Idea to Solution, from the Hackathon to an Impact Startup
https://devpost.com/software/hallosophia
Final EUvsVirus Contribution 1.6.2020
Short Discription:
It's about enabling Entrepreneurs with Expertise. What is MicroAdvisory & why could it be a solution for a Recovery from the Economic Crisis? Let us introduce you to Sophia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT5yPNP-z00
Inspiration: Micro-Loans give people the Chance to help themselves out of Poverty by being Entrepreneurs, Micro-Advisory gives Entrepreneurs the Toolset for being successful with their Business - even in times of a Crisis.
Problem:
- Physical Distancing could lead to a lack of Expertise in the Financing/Management Processes of Businesses
- Loans can't be the only Solution for an Economic Crisis - Liabilities weaken Companies, because they need to be repaid with future revenues.
- unhealthy Companies can't preserve jobs & lead to a default-series in the future
Solution: stayhealthy: physically and economically
One Platform to join forces of everyone who can make a contribution to economically healthy businesses: Bank Employees, Equity and Crowd Funders, Business Continuity Experts, Management Advisors, Self-Financing-Experts, Lawyers, Tax Advisors, Employees of Public Institutions,...
...matched based on the current Problem of an Entrepreneur & connected in Video-Advisory-Rooms. Example: “I need Feedback on my Business Plan” → all available Experts for Businessplan in the Country listed (already Experts of Public Institutions pre-registered for that specific Micro-Advisory-Service)
Entrepreneurs can access the Expertise they need remotely, to get a new Perspective. Solving urgent Needs with Orientation of Experts, enable Entrepreneurs to help themselves. Advisors can offer precise micro-advisory to Businesses at the exact time they need it, to make further progress in their health/recovery/fitness-plan or in case of urgent need. help Businesses helping themselves with Sophisticated Advise in a comfortable customised Video-Advisory Room, without travelling and borders.
- when Public institutions use the Platform, it brings Knowledge of Institutions closer to the point of Impact: People needing it.
update 29.5.2020 Success of Matchathon.
Platform is already onboarding Experts of all fields on www.hallosophia.com or www.sophia.markets
57 International Partnerships will be announced on Tuesday. EUvsVirus showed the strength of one united continent. EU Institutions, National Institutions, Companys, Universities and People united in the Mission to improve the Life of 450 Million Citizens and more, through supporting the 120 ideas to come to Reality.
update 21.5.2020 ready for #EUvsVirus-Matchathon
Let us introduce you to Sophia & a new perspective for Businesses to recover from the Crisis: Micro Advisory. For a Contribution to #EUvsVirus, meet us and 119 other impactful Projects at: https://euvsvirus-matchathon2020.converve.io/
We build a Platform connecting those who can enable Businesses to help themselves with the Companies needing Support. In efficient 30 to 60 Minute Video-Calls, useful tips give a Perspective for the next Steps to take. We want the Economy to #restartStronger with healthy Companies through the support of many sophisticated Advisors. #StrongerTogether
Update 18.5.2020: We provide a Platform for the efficient collaboration of businesses & economic health experts (basically everyone that can the answer the question: "can you add value to businesses' economic health?" with "yes")).
one step at time, from urgent needs, to financial health and further to resilience for future crisis and growth potential.
SMEs can't handle an army of advisors & project managers, but still need the same program as a corporate: thats why we create halloSophia - fast lane for sophisticated advice, making compaines healthier step-by-step
Update 6.5.2020: www.hallosophia.com
Update 8.5.2020: after meet-ups with several experts, we re-focussed a little: #stayhealthy Economic Health Center, all financial experts to help businesses stay healthy financially, because only ecomomical healthy businesses can restart stronger, advising remote to also stay healthy physically
Status Hackthon: Contactless Financing Expertise for Businesses - our smart Assistant SOPHIA knows which financial instrument fits your business best & what financiers need & organises advise without physical contact https://youtu.be/ESa0pdhnGGs https://xd.adobe.com/view/5980ffeb-bae9-425f-433b-14ce25117069-2fb1/
#restartstronger with joint finance & business expertise
a solution to not only survive the crisis, but to restart stronger!
The Virtual Branch: Home to Loan Experts, Corporate Finance Advisors, Equity & Subordinated Debt Experts, Alternative Financiers, Insurance Brokers, Tax Advisors, Public Grants Experts - SOPHIA's assisting Businesses in the (remote) collaboration with all kinds of financial experts, to get the most sustainable financing concept! Her own intelligence includes, for example, Equity/Debt-Optimisation, because Debt-only would be a Liability limiting the future potential
We tackle two Problems:
1. Problem Physical Distancing The COVID-19 affects our daily life, Businesses need to shut down without sufficient compensation. Without Revenues they struggle for liquidity and mostly need to contact several financial experts to preserve their liquidity: like loan experts at banks, crowd-funding platforms, tax advisors, corporate finance advisors. some banks still want documents handed offer in paper. That makes no sense to us: Closing Stores because of physical distancing & then queuing at a bank branch to apply for a loan?
2. Problem Lack of Equity/additional Equity Instruments Most Businesses don't know alternative financing instruments or don't use them and therefore are relying on debt financing only. But low equity/debt-ratios lead to a weakening in the long-term growth potential of the company. we fear that this crisis will have a negative long-term impact on small and medium sized enterprises, when we can't build awareness for sustainable financial structures.
the general problem with lack of equity, could potentially be a accelerated disadvantage after the crisis, compared to other business locations. too little equity leads to smaller amounts of growth funds for the innovation driver of the economy: small and medium sized enterprises
we are sure: the best ways to tackle this, are improvements in financial structures
How we tackle the Problems
we created the virtual branch to
- avoid physical contact
- develop holistic bridge financing concepts: all experts, not only bank experts - including additional equity experts
SOPHIA, our smart assistant, knows banking and how to be prepared for a meeting & she connects to the right experts and connects the business representative with the expert in a video-meeting-room.
But not only bankers. we are open to all kind of financiers, especially those wo deliver additional equity, like subordinated bonds.
A virtual branch can be home to all kind of financial experts, not only those to find in a bank branch. connecting those experts and alternative financiers with businesses, leads to better and more sustainable financial structures. For a better restart after the crisis.
Bureaucracy is another Topic we tackle here. SOPHIA, our Smart Assistant knows which informations and documents are necessary for efficient meetings with experts and can help business, not only to meet the fitting expert, but also to be prepared perfectly, to use the time efficiently.
The Features in a nutshell
Solution: Online Branch, Virtual Assistant & Digital Document Handling on Approved Bank-Standards & Meetings via Videoconferencing on "Bank-Standard-Secure" Servers (at the moment we use eyeson.com on the A1 Exoscale Cloud. Secure European Cloud)
*Benefit 1: Document Exchange with Banks online to speed up the Loan Application
*Benefit 2: Online Process helps avoiding unnecessary physical contacts
*Benefit 3: Virtual Assistant SOPHIA knows what Banks need to speed-up the Application
*Benefit 4: SOPHIA knows the Equity Criteria for Business and advises Equity & Mezzanine Instruments as well + connects to Alternative Financing Platforms & Corporate Finance Advisors
A dedicated Team
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Markus is a Member of the European Financial Planning Association and a big fan of holistic, sustainable SME-Financing. He's a bit nerdy when it comes to financial mathematics.
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Johannes is an Allrounder in Softwaredevelopment. He worked for a Crowdfunding Platform, Developed Blockchain Application and now takes care of the complex software architecture of SOPHIA's Backend ("SOPHIA's Brain")
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Matthias is a UX/UI professional and marketing-allrounder, he loves beautiful design, especially when he can give this design to a beautiful mind like SOPHIA
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Peter is in love with smooth and user-friendly applications, that make life easier for users & feel good while using
What you have done during the weekend
We already startet in March, because we realised early that a Crisis like that could have negative long-term effects on SMEs
That's why we already startet with a early screen design, a feature list and first lines of backend code ("brain to SOPHIA's Skills" like Equity/Debt-Ratio optimisation)
we used this weekend to get feedback from Mentors and got further progress in the backend intelligence of SOPHIA, our screen design & featurelist + we invested time to focus on what we really want to communicate to our target group (SMEs), the mentoring-sessions and the pitch video have been a good challenge to really become more clear in our vision and communication.
The solution’s impact to the crisis
less physical contact in the financing process, less bureaucracy with preserving liquidity and more sustainable financial structures (equity/debt-optimisation) for a better restart after the crisis
The necessities in order to continue the project
we are definitely continuing on this project. we'll bring it live in Austria mid of May.
our next steps:
*finishing the software development
*finding bank partners
*finding startups all over Europe to internationalise together
*getting early user-feedback on the MVP
The value of your solution(s) after the crisis
even if physical distancing isn't a thing anymore. (who knows when?) we can point out the simple access to expertise and the holistic approach of bringing additional equity (like subordinated loans) into financing concepts and through this improvement, to the growth capital structure of SMEs.
because one of the main problems – in the Team’s Opinion – with Innovation in Europe is the lack of funds for innovation. we have the best brains in Europe, but they prefer working for established big corporations. Improving financial structures in financing processes increases the amount of growth funds accessible for Startups & SMEs
Built With
- .net-core
- asp.net
- asp.net-core
- c#
- cloud
- cyltron
- exoscale
- eyeson
- hetzner
- java
- linux-server
- postgresql
- react-native
- rest-api
- roundcube
- selenium