Family. Life. Investing.
MAEVLO Company, Aurora, Colorado
The Oil and Gas business has been appropriately stigmatized for being an industry that attracts cheaters and low-lifes. The money flows quickly, and the complexity of the industry creates vast cracks and crevices in which to hide. But, as a hard asset, it operates with its own economic variability, and there are compelling reasons to invest in it. But there is significant risk involved, especially for private investors who don’t have the sophistication to properly underwrite the deals.
The Oil and Gas business has been appropriately stigmatized for being an industry that attracts cheaters and low-lifes. The money flows quickly, and the complexity of the industry creates vast cracks and crevices in which to hide. But, as a hard asset, it operates with its own economic variability, and there are compelling reasons to invest in it. But there is significant risk involved, especially for private investors who don’t have the sophistication to properly underwrite the deals.
Discovery & Story
The name MAEVLO was the first step in the right direction. A combination of the initials of the founder’s three kids, it was a nod to his desire to make this a legacy business that wasn’t just something to inherit, but rather a training ground for a “way” of conducting business that was deeply relational and focused on people. But this wasn’t translating to investors or sellers, it needed language.
So we interviewed his existing investors and even some of his mineral sellers (the most likely people to be screwed in this kind of deal). They revealed the language that was needed to make MAEVLO stand out as trustworthy. The core theme was the idea of an interconnected investor base. People coming to MAEVLO shared a similar worldview, far more than just an investment mindset.
Quite simply, MAEVLO exists to reflect this authentic heartbeat by: Growing stewardship branches from deep partnership roots.
That’s how they operate. A connected and unified vision of stewardship that is really based on the attitude of partnership, from investor to seller to buyer. Everyone is treated like a partner, and this has done wonders for their ability to procure mineral rights. Rather than negotiating, MAEVLO sits next to people who are wanting to sell, helps them think through a simple pricing model and then helps them make a good choice, without a need to manipulate the outcome. Word’s getting around, and each iteration of the fund has nearly doubled from the previous one.
Design and Experience
The logo needed to be refined and “finished” with a set of brand standards, then implemented on the various storytelling platforms such as the pitch deck, the quarterly reporting, a website, and other materials. We by leading the process of visuals. The photoshoot showed the people—the faces behind the name—the office and the context in an up close and personal way. Seeing is believing, and nothing speaks as clearly as a few well-chosen images of a founder actually doing the work with his team.
Then we built a very simple, clean and beautiful website to operate as a validation tool for both investors and prospective mineral sellers. Both types of patrons are redirected to their own page, with the brand story tuned to their specific scenario. They can be used as landing pages in various outreach campaigns and help people on both sides of the deal to get an accurate and authentic feel for who they will be dealing with, why they are in business together (beyond just making a buck), and what to expect from their interaction.
REPORTING
Most funds work hard to put people to sleep in their reporting, but this is valuable storytelling real-estate, and so we developed a template-based approach to make his formerly complex and disjointed reports tell the story of the quarter, rather than just aggregate information. These new reports are filled with repetitive language around the WHY and then move thoughtfully into the deeper gritty details for those who want to keep reading it. Also, they are designed for human readers, with natural flow and bite-sized chunks of information.
