By Georgio Sabino, Founder & CEO, GoVia
When investors ask me why they should back GoVia — now — my answer is simple: measurable returns plus measurable social good. Our Ohio-first rollout is designed to prove both in months, not years.
Recent industry research shows the business case for AI is real. In April 2025 Snowflake reported that 92% of early adopters say their AI investments are already paying for themselves, and many organizations that measured ROI saw meaningful gains. Conference briefings and industry roundups have also documented examples of organizations achieving up to 4× returns on AI investments — often within about 13 months. At the same time, top consultancies point out the gap between pilots and scaled value — the upside is clear, but only if you design for measurement and scale from day one.
Why Ohio first?
Ohio is an ideal, practical proving ground: roughly 11.8 million residents and more than 900 municipalities span urban, suburban and rural communities, giving GoVia the range we need to demonstrate product-market fit across diverse budgets and policing contexts.
The investor case — bottom line: our Ohio model projects a strong return on AI investment, driven by four monetizable outcomes:
- Municipal subscriptions — cities pay for reduced admin burden, faster evidence handling, and analytics that lower legal exposure.
- Attorney network revenue — on-demand attorney access and routing converts to subscription/referral revenue.
- Premium user subscriptions — citizens pay for faster legal triage, secure evidence storage, and prioritized support.
- Grant & public-sector funding — Ohio’s Office of Criminal Justice Services and federal programs (Byrne JAG, COPS grants, etc.) provide subsidy pathways to accelerate adoption.
Our conservative internal Ohio model (available for investor review) projects that with a focused rollout to 25 municipalities, 500 attorneys, and 50,000 active users by Year 3, GoVia can generate roughly $6M+ in cumulative revenue, invest ~$3M in AI development and ops, and produce an approximate cumulative AI-attributable benefit of ~$9M — roughly a ~200% ROI on AI spend within three years (model assumptions and line-item math are transparent and available). Those estimates are projections — not guarantees — but they’re grounded in conservative assumptions about pricing, adoption, and realized operational savings. (Our full Ohio spreadsheet and sensitivity analyses are available on request.)
How these returns happen (mechanics, not magic)
- Fewer hours spent per incident. Automation (auto-uploads, transcript summarization, templated reports) reduces officer admin time — freeing personnel or allowing soft headcount savings.
- Faster & better evidence. High-quality, tamper-evident evidence and automated timestamps reduce discovery costs and shorten case lifecycles. Research on better documentation (for example, body-worn camera programs and supporting policy) links improved evidence practices to fewer complaints and quicker resolutions — lowering the risk and size of settlements.
- Higher attorney conversion and faster resolutions. A routed, on-demand attorney network increases successful referrals and raises lifetime revenue per attorney subscription.
- Grant leverage. Ohio’s OCJS and federal programs routinely fund technology and evidence-management projects; those funds can offset municipal capital constraints and speed procurement.
Context: why local governments are motivated
Cities and counties across the U.S. pay millions in misconduct settlements and related legal costs every year; national reporting and datasets show aggregated payouts in the billions over the last decade. That drains budgets and creates demand for reliable ways to reduce liability exposure — and that is precisely where GoVia delivers measurable value.
We’re realistic about risk
Top research cautions that many organizations still struggle to scale AI from pilot to production; the difference-maker is rigorous measurement, governance, and change management. We built our Ohio plan around that lesson: every pilot will be A/B instrumented, every municipal contract will include measurable KPIs, and we’ll establish independent audit access so procurement teams can confirm outcomes.
Impact + returns: the investment thesis
Investors who fund GoVia’s Ohio pilot are buying into two linked outcomes: (1) an auditable working product that reduces municipal costs and litigation risk; and (2) a repeatable, high-margin SaaS model with low marginal costs to add cities and users after the platform is built. That combination is how AI becomes a multiplier — revenue scales faster than incremental AI cost if you:
- target high-frequency, high-cost tasks (report writing, evidence ingestion, triage),
- instrument outcomes from day one, and
- secure blended funding (grants + municipal subscriptions + attorney/user revenue) to reduce cash runway risk.
A closing call to investors
If your fund targets impact and returns, Ohio offers a compact, politically diverse laboratory where GoVia can prove both. We’re seeking $1.5–2M in seed funding to execute a 12–18 month Ohio rollout (pilot → 25 municipalities), instrument outcomes, and prepare a national scale campaign. The math — grounded in public grant pathways, documented municipal pain points, academic evidence on documentation and transparency, and industry AI ROI data — says this is an investment that can return both capital and community value.
“Investing in GoVia is not just an opportunity to capture a strong return — it’s a way to fund solutions that reduce harm, lower taxpayer exposure, and rebuild trust between cities and the people they serve,” I tell investors. “Start with Ohio. If we get it right here, every other state is an opportunity.”
— Georgio Sabino, Founder & CEO, GoVia Highlight a Hero
Sources & further reading (selected): Snowflake generative AI ROI research; AI industry roundups on ROI and scaling (Section.AI, McKinsey, BCG); Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services grant programs; National research on body-worn cameras and evidence impacts; national reporting on police settlement costs. Full citations: Snowflake (Apr 2025). ; Section.AI AI:ROI notes. ; McKinsey State of AI. ; BCG research on scaling AI. ; Ohio population & municipalities data. ; OCJS and Byrne JAG/COPS grant pages. ; research & reporting on settlements and documentation benefits.
