Originally from San Juan Capistrano, California, Isaiah Grover came to Boise State University on a football scholarship. He has decorated his wall with athletic packs — one is the first he was issued, one is from the First Responders Bowl and one is for academic excellence. While he only played a little over a year due to health issues, football brought him to Boise — a community he loves.
Grover started college as a biomedical engineering major but switched to finance because he knew he really wanted to focus on creating business.
“Finance is a key foundation point to understanding the inner and outer workings of business. If a business isn’t handling its revenue stream correctly, it can fail no matter how good your idea is,” said Grover.
During COVID, Isaiah Grover found himself with time on his hands and he spent much of his extra time thinking-up business ideas. That’s when he came up with the idea behind Orbis which he entered into the 2022 Idaho Entrepreneur Challenge. Orbis was first runner in the Service Track winning $1,000.
Entrepreneurship runs in Grover’s family. His father and grandfather both had businesses and patents on inventions which they eventually sold. Grover has a passion for entrepreneurship and for helping people.
“The whole reason I created Orbis is because it can help people. My business model — in every single way — touches the community with marketing. It helps businesses grow exposures, connections, relationships with customers. On the flipside, Orbis creates a whole other revenue stream for gig-workers. We give additional composition to people for something they are already doing.”
Orbis is a marketing-tech company that provides unique exposure businesses via patent-pending, flexible, magnetic LED screens. Orbis leverages gig-economy workers to create on-the-ground marketing beacons that generate daily exposure and impressions.
Orbis’ number of customers is growing and those customers’ businesses are growing.
Businesses using Orbis are seeing a 35% increase in online traffic and a 21% increase in foot traffic — and that’s just the ones measured. The actual exposure is much more,” said Grover. “For small to medium companies, since COVID, every customer that steps through the door means something super good for them.”
People have called Orbis a marketing company, a tech company — but Grove thinks of it as a connection company.
“Making connections is a main goal of Orbis. We connect drivers to companies and businesses to a whole new marketing platform,” said Grover.
Grover graduated in May with his bachelor’s degree in finance and is excited for the summer, moving into the busy season for Orbis. He is looking for more investors, business partners and drivers. Grover will also squeeze in time to take two courses this summer to finish up his bachelor’s degree in marketing.