Iconic Concierge Fall 2022

Make Better
CONNECTIONS
OVOU is set to change how people make in-person
connections. The Vancouver-based
company
is entering its third
year in business and
already has some of the
biggest brands in North
America using OVOU
cards as their primary
method of sharing and
exchanging contacts.
The founder, Reza Varzidehkar, was seeking ways to
differentiate himself when meeting and prospecting for
clients for his marketing business back in 2017. He came
across QR codes and NFC technology and started to use
them as a way of sharing and exchanging contacts. Like
many others before him, he knew that business cards
are old and he wondered why no one has disrupted this
practice already. As he began using his prototype NFC card he
realized why so many companies failed in this space before him.
It was never an issue of technology but rather an issue of people
adopting a new way. Someone had to package the product in a
way that makes the experience more seamless, something that
Reza felt he had the strength to do so. It wasn’t until Apple’s announcement
to support NFC reading in 2019 that Reza saw an
opportunity to change how people network.
OVOU was officially launched on February
20th, 2020. Reza came up with the idea of
the #100events journey, challenging himself
to attend 100 networking events in 100
days to better connect with the business
community and understand the problem he
was solving at the time. During his networking
marathon, Reza was exposed to a larger
problem that professionals are facing when
networking. “People want to connect with
who you are, not what you do” he recalls as
he met hundreds of people who by default
introduced themselves with their job titles
during his networking experience. He set
out to build a product that allows people to
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