Innovation & Job News

U-M, MSU, and WSU team up for Creative Film Alliance

Metromode Thursday, July 15, 2010

Wayne State University and the University of Michigan make up two of the three pillars of Michigan's Creative Film Alliance Summer Film Institute.

The intensive eight-week program at Gull Lake this summer is bringing together film industry veterans and faculty from Michigan's three major research universities (Michigan State University is the third) to form the framework for creating the state's future film industry workforce.

"This is a really big deal," says Sharon Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts at Wayne State University. "This is the beginning of a relationship that will play a key part in growing the indigenous film industry."

The new collaboration is meant to leverage the strengths and resources of the film schools at each university to build out Michigan's film workforce and infrastructure. For example, Wayne State excels at documentary filmmaking, while U-M brings its strong screenwriting program to the table.

"U-M, MSU, and WSU have never collaborated on a project like this," says Jim Burnstein, coordinator of the screenwriting program at U-M. "Ever."

That's part of the thinking behind this new collaboration. Many of the local film industry veterans and faculty are familiar with each other but the students coming up are unacquainted. Introducing them is expected to create future synergies, along with more production, jobs, and investment. It's also seen as a way to help staunch Michigan's brain drain.

"Who generates the material is more important than the bricks and mortar aspect," Burnstein says. "If you keep talent you keep the projects. The infrastructure will come."

Source: Jim Burnstein, coordinator of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan and Sharon Vasquez, dean of the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts at Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke

Automation Alley invests $500K in Unitask Software, Accio Energy

metromode Thursday, July 15, 2010

Automation Alley is spreading a lot of money around to a couple of local companies, investing $500,000 in start-ups from Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor.

Unitask Software and Accio Energy will split the cash evenly, using it to push forward product development and fuel their growth. The idea behind the investments is to help local start-ups secure financing at a time when financial institutions and investors are keeping a tight grip on the seed-funding spigot.

Unitask Software develops and sells software for the Oracle E-Business Suite and is a gold member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. Its products help businesses eliminate implementation and operational risk while improving the quality of their applications. The company recently moved its headquarters to Bloomfield Hills from Ohio.

Accio Energy, based in Ann Arbor, is reinventing the wind turbine so it relies on an electrokinetic system instead of a turbine with traditional spinning blades. Accio Energy's aerovoltaic™ system is silent and stationary when it harnesses wind power.

Automation Alley has invested $5.5 million in 27 local companies in Metro Detroit. Those investments have helped create 550 new jobs.

Source: Automation Alley
Writer: Jon Zemke

Detroit Start-up Weekend inspires locals to start SiteFog

Metromode Thursday, July 15, 2010

Software firm uwemp shares in $104K microloan pot

Metromode Thursday, July 01, 2010

Software companies from different ends of Metro Detroit have taken two of the three microloans available in the latest round of funding from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program.

Software firm uwemp and KnowledgeWatch of Ann Arbor are splitting $104,000 with AWGET in Okemos. The microloans will support commercialization of their products.

"It's nearly all going into technology development," says Jordan Wolfe, CEO of uwemp. The firm splits time between Wolfe's base in Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor's Tech Brewery.

Its main product is Confidence-Based Learning, a web-based learning engine that uses Google Analytics-style method that gives educators a better handle on how their students are and are not learning. For instance, the program will show when a student is beginning to catch on to the lesson and when the student masters it or even when the student wanders off. The idea is to provide educators with the pertinent information to best reach their students.

KnowledgeWatch is developing software that aggregates, analyzes and sorts content in a way that is similar to Google searches. Among its target market are assemblers of trade publications or hobby sites (which number in the tens of thousands).

The microloans provide funding for start-ups to use for product commercialization and business growth. The $1.5 million program will make anywhere from 2-4 loans of a few thousand dollars each per month for 2010. That's another 24-48 fledgling local businesses receiving financing during a time when capital for small businesses is almost non-existent.

Source: Ann Arbor SPARK and Jordan Wolfe, CEO of uwemp
Writer: Jon Zemke

Macomb-OU INCubator, Automation Alley sign on for regional alliance

metromode Thursday, June 24, 2010

Automation Alley and Macomb-OU INCubator are making up the core of a new regional alliance for economic development - the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan.

The new collaboration brings together Metro Detroit's four major business accelerators - Automation Alley, Macomb-OU INCubator, Ann Arbor SPARK, and TechTown - so they can share resources and strategy. The idea is to work together in order to more effectively play the hands they're dealt and to grow local start-ups and small businesses.

"For southeast Michigan to be great, we need to embrace the notion that we need to grow our own," says David Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative, which is supporting the network with a $3 million grant over three years.

The business accelerators have already been quite successful on their own. They have invested $18 million in 339 start-up companies that have created more than 1,000 jobs and have helped secure more than $101.2 million in additional capital for local businesses.

"That's one year," Egner says. "That's not even our best year. I think more will be coming."

Enabling such collaboration is nothing new. Other major metropolitan regions have utilized regional partnerships to reinvent their economies and images. For instance, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance harnesses the economic strengths of the entire 10-county area in the southwest section of Pennsylvania to continually create new businesses and jobs. The Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan hopes to mimic that success.

"To me this is a perfect example of regional cooperation," says Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley.

As one of the Top 10 technology organizations in the U.S., Automation Alley is the big dog in this group. It could stand alone, but its leadership looks forward to utilizing the resources of fellow organizations to save on time and money spent on developing its own. The Macomb-OU INCubator, which is just getting started, sees this as a big hand up in building its organization.

"By all means, it's about the businesses," says David Spencer, executive director of the Macomb OU INCubator. "It's about the people they hire."

Source: David Egner, executive Director of the New Economy Initiative; Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley; and David Spencer, executive director of the Macomb OU INCubator
Writer: Jon Zemke

Metro Detroit firms rack up $327M in MEDC deals

metromode Thursday, June 17, 2010

Metro Detroit companies took the vast majority of the latest round of job-creating tax deals from the Michigan Economic Development Corp, which means $327 million in new investments and 805 new jobs in the next few years.

The tax breaks span a number of different sectors, including traditional automotive in Redford Township, new age tech companies in Southfield, along with Internet and bio-tech firms in Ann Arbor. All of them worked through local and state economic development agencies to come up with the best solution to expand their businesses in southeast Michigan.

"They both did a very good job of helping us understand the benefits of growing here in Ann Arbor," says Scott Robertson, managing partner of Grand River, which plans to invest $1 million into expanding its Ann Arbor office.

The biggest investments are coming from automotive firms.

Detroit Diesel, a heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturer, plans to invest $194 million to expand its Redford Township operations. That investment will preserve 1,900 jobs at the facility. Making this possible is a state tax credit valued at $56.8 million over 11 years and a smaller tax abatement from Redford Township
Fisher & Company, an automotive seat component supplier, chose to invest $14.8 million in its St. Clair Shores and Sterling Heights facilities. A $778,358 state tax abatement over seven years is expected to save 189 jobs and help spur the creation of up to 138 more. Both automotive suppliers chose their Metro Detroit facilities over competing sites in Mexico.

WABCO North America, a tier-one supplier to the commercial vehicle industry, plans to invest $6.2 million to create a new division in Rochester Hills, a move that will create up to 274 new jobs. It received a state tax credit of $1 million over five years and the city of Rochester Hills is also considering a tax credit.
Troy-based Witzenmann, a manufacturer of flexible metallic components, expects to invest $13.1 million to expand its Troy presence. The project is expected to create 75 direct jobs thanks to a 10-year tax credit worth $325,354.

Five technology companies in Metro Detroit also came away with tax credits. They include:

National Logistics Management, a Landstar subsidiary specializing in supply-chain logistics technology, plans to invest $12.5 million in its Southfield facilities. The company expects to retain 122 jobs and create another 163 thanks to a $2.7 million state tax credit over five years.
Dearborn-based Nexcess.net, a web-hosting firm, will create 42 jobs over the next six years by investing $4.2 million to convert a building in Southfield into a data center for Web hosting and software development. It received a state tax credit valued at $202,081 to entice it to choose Michigan over Indiana and Illinois.
SPX Corporation, a Warren-based infrastructure tech firm, will spend the next five years investing $402,000 to create 34 new jobs. The firm will provide support to automotive companies launching plug-in electric vehicles. The MEDC gave it a $377,672 state tax credit and the city of Warren is considering a $10,000 abatement.
Ann Arbor-based NanoBio, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in vaccines, plans to invest $1.4 million in its expansion plans that will create 32 new jobs. It received a state tax credit of $434,378 over five years and the city of Ann Arbor is considering a tax abatement of $800,000 over that same period.
Grand River, an e-commerce company based in Ann Arbor, plans to create 48 new jobs through a $1 million investment in its facilities over the next five years. It had been considering a competing site in Wisconsin when a $361,376 state tax credit help convince it to stay in Michigan.

Source: Scott Robertson, managing partner of Grand River, and the Michigan Economic Development Corp
Writer: Jon Zemke

Local start-ups cash in on GLEQ and E&Y entrepreneur competitions

metromode Thursday, June 17, 2010

Lots of local small businesses are benefiting from the latest round of awards handed out by the Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards.

The Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest hosted a business plan competition for start-ups that gave out $250,000 in awards to local companies looking for a leg up. Also included were free business development services from Automation Alley, Ann Arbor SPARK and the Michigan SmartZoneSM Network. The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards recognizes established entrepreneurs who have exemplified themselves and their businesses.

Margery Krevsky, CEO of Bingham Farms-based Productions Plus - The Talent Shop, was one of the 10 winners of the Ernst & Young award and one of the four from Metro Detroit. She compares it to the top awards her talent agency deals with, such as the Tony and Academy awards.

"It's the best you can get," Krevsky says. "It brings credibility and it substantiates my team. One person can't do this. It takes a team."

Other local winners of the Ernst & Young award are John Rakolta, CEO of Detroit-based Walbridge; Pete Lazic, president of New Hudson-based Michigan Automatic Turning; and Mindy Fynke, president of Southfield-based Employee Health Insurance.

Southeast Michigan swept the top spots in the Best of Biotech Awards. Royal Oak-based Innovative Surgical Solutions received $40,000 for first place. It is developing a fast, safe, effective surgeon-driven nerve monitoring system for minimally invasive surgical procedures. Second place and $25,000 went to Bloomfield Hills-based Angott Medical Products, which is working on a multi-modality breast cancer test with higher sensitivity and positive predictive value than clinical breast exams. Tangent Medical Technologies of Ann Arbor took third place and $10,000 for its work addressing health and safety shortcomings of existing peripheral intravenous fluid/medication delivery systems.

Source: Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, Ernst & Young and Margery Krevsky, CEO of Productions Plus - The Talent Shop
Writer: Jon Zemke

U-M, Barton Malow receive awards for internship programs

metromode Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Detroit Regional Chamber has named some big local institutions and businesses as the winners of its first awards for the InterninMichigan.com program.

The University of Michigan won the Nonprofit Employer of the Year award for its Development Summer Internship Program. That program exposes students to careers in philanthropy through a 12-week paid internship that combines four days of work with weekly learning sessions in a related U-M philanthropy course, leadership development workshops, and retreats.

Southfield-based Barton Malow, a construction firm, was honored as the best private company. A Wayne State University student, Yan Isayev, was honored as Best Intern for his work at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The Detroit Regional Chamber has been promoting internships as a way to staunch Michigan's brain drain. Research has shown that students are far more likely to stay in the area where they intern because that usually leads to job prospects after college.

To promote more internships in Metro Detroit the chamber has created a website, InterninMichigan.com, to pair potential interns with employers. So far the site has grown to 13,506 registered students and 1,079 Michigan employers.

Source: University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

First Step Fund invests in 4 TechTown firms

metromode Thursday, May 27, 2010

Firms with a connection to Detroit's TechTown small business incubator took the lion's share of the first round of financing from the First Step Fund.

Four of the seven firms that received five-figure loans are either housed in or are utilizing programs in the Detroit-based business accelerator. Those firms include Clean Emission Fluids, NextCat, Ann Williams Group, and Air Movement Systems. The other three start-ups came from or are connected to the Ann Arbor SPARK incubator.

Air Movement Systems plans to use part of its $50,000 loan to help it conduct an independent test of its air-circulation and purification technology at a chicken farm at the University of Georgia. The price tag to proving this technology comes to $25,000, to start. The rest of the money will go toward upgrading the firm's equipment.

"Nothing is free," says Dennis Danville, president of Air Movement Systems, which is utilizing TechTown's SmartStart program.

Invest Detroit and Ann Arbor SPARK, which runs the Michigan Micro Loan Fund, created the First Step Fund. The idea is to create a funding source for local start-ups starving for seed capital. The current credit crisis has resulted in traditional lending institutions cutting back on investment capital.

Each loan averages about $50,000 and is either short-term or in the form of a convertible note. Proceeds are usually used to push forward product development or expand inventory.

The First Step Fund expects to make 40 loans this year. The recipients are picked by a board independent of TechTown. The next round of financing is not far away.

"The next investment will be in mid-June," says Mahendra Ramsinghani, managing director of the First Step Fund and the husband of a co-founder of Metromode's parent company, Issue Media Group.

Source: Mahendra Ramsinghani, managing director of the First Step Fund, and Dennis Danville, president of Air Movement Systems.
Writer: Jon Zemke

Local VC firms invest $8M in Karmanos Cancer Center spin-off

metromode Thursday, May 27, 2010

A handful of local venture capital firms both big and small have played a major part in helping Detroit-based start-up Delphinus Medical Technologies raise $8 million in venture capital.

Farmington Hills-based Beringea, Michigan's largest venture capital firm, led the group of local VC firms, which included Arboretum Ventures, North Coast Technology Investors, and the University of Michigan-based Wolverine Venture Fund, which are all based out of Ann Arbor. Delphinus is a spin-off of the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. Its principal product is SoftVue, an alternative to mammography for breast cancer detection, risk evaluation, and treatment monitoring.

"It's a good example of a strong local firm, like Arboretum, teaming up with us to lead a group of local investors," says Michael Gross, managing director for Beringea.

The $8 million will allow Delphinus to hire approximately 20 staff this year. The positions will be mostly focused on technical engineering systems and software development to push SoftVue toward commercialization. The firm hopes to grow to 50-100 employees within the next 3-5 years.

SoftVue submerges the breast in warm water while an ultrasound ring surrounds the breast and captures detailed, three-dimensional images with sound waves. The results are similar to MRI, but the procedure takes only a few minutes and costs much less.

SoftVue can effectively differentiate benign from malignant masses in breasts, helping eliminate false positives and reducing unnecessary biopsies. It can also accurately measure breast density, a known risk factor for developing breast cancer, as well as detect many early stages of cancer in women with dense breast tissue, which is often not picked up by mammography.

Source: Michael Gross, managing director for Beringea
Writer: Jon Zemke

Teach for America expands into Detroit

metromode Thursday, May 27, 2010

Some of the best young minds in the U.S. are coming to one of the places most in need of their student-teaching services, now that Teach For America is sending college grads to schools in Detroit.

The national organization will send 100 of the top college graduates from across the U.S. to teach at public and charter schools in the city.

"The core members will have their own classroom and be led by a teacher," says Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, who is helping organize the effort.

Teach For America sends new grads to work in troubled school districts nationwide. Thousands of students apply for the positions, and only 7 percent are accepted. The organization had been sending these teachers to schools in Detroit until a few years ago. It is now reforming that relationship as part of a multi-year commitment.

The idea is to foster innovation in education and focus on preparing teachers for urban schools.

Source: Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the U-M School of Education
Writer: Jon Zemke

Q&A with Mike Finney about Ann Arbor SPARK's 5-year anniversary

Concentrate Thursday, May 27, 2010

Ann Arbor SPARK may be lapping the competition because it's been up and running for five years this month and continues to pick up speed when it comes to helping local start-ups and small businesses.

Excerpt:

Ann Arbor SPARK is celebrating its fifth birthday this month and is looking forward to cementing the Ann Arbor area as Michigan's go-to entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The small business accelerator agency and its handful of incubators have established themselves as the heads of their class in Michigan, helping start-ups get going and small businesses ramp up their business plans. Expect to see more of that over the next five years. Ann Arbor SPARK Executive Director Mike Finney agreed to answer a few questions over email about how he sees this playing out.

Ann Arbor SPARK spent its first five years helping establish Washtenaw County as one of the Midwest's premier entrepreneurial ecosystems. What will be its focus over the next five years?

Over the past five years the Ann Arbor region has become a leading entrepreneurial location, but we still have much work to do before declaring victory. We will continue to focus on becoming a place where talent, technology, funding, entrepreneurial risk taking, success celebration and connectedness to universities and private companies are the norm. We also see a need for much more aggressive business expansion and attraction efforts. The use of social networking, talent enhancement and other marketing tactics will become key tools in our economic development toolkit. Finally, we need to learn from and share our learnings with other communities throughout Michigan and Southeast Michigan in particular.

Read the rest of the story here.

Bank of Ann Arbor acquires Plymouth bank as part of expansion plans

Concentrate Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Bank of Ann Arbor is growing by means other than just acquiring defaulting banks. It has practically doubled its employee base as the local lending institution continues to take advantage of the opportunities created by the financial crisis.

Excerpt:

There are two types of banks in this world. The big conglomerates everyone sees on the news taking the blame for the current state of the economy, and then there are the local banks using these problems as opportunities for growth. Bank of Ann Arbor is in the latter category.

The downtown-based financial institution now employs 181 people, which is up from 96 when we checked in with the firm last fall. Bank of Ann Arbor acquired the New Liberty Bank over the weekend, adding another 16 people to its payroll, and expects to hire another 7-10 people over the remainder of the year for everything from commercial lending to investment management to IT.

"We're continuing to add people while other businesses are laying people off or not giving out raises or taking away 401Ks," says Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor.

Read the rest of the story here.

PitchCorner.com hopes to become online destination for start-up auditions

Concentrate Thursday, May 13, 2010

Think of PitchCorner.com as sort of a dating site for entrepreneurs, start-ups, investors and customers looking for the next big thing, or at least the next thing that works for them.

Excerpt:

Every entrepreneur wants their start-up to become the next big thing. PitchCorner.com wants to become the place where the next big thing, and a lot of smaller ones, are found.

The Ann Arbor-based website provides a space for entrepreneurs to post a video of their elevator pitch, a short speech meant to capture the interest of an investor or customer. The idea is to help them fine tune their pitches and give investors a clearing house to see what is out there.

"You learn so much by seeing somebody or hearing their conviction," says Rick Galdi, co-founder of PitchMedia, which owns Pitchcorner.com. "You get much more from it than what you would learn by reading a piece of paper."

Read the rest of the story here.

GREEN SPACE: Ann Arbor tea company first in nation to use 100% compostable packaging

metromode Thursday, May 13, 2010

Husband and wife tea enthusiasts Aubrey and Jeremy Lopatin started Arbor Teas in 2004, and the company has grown to include 100 varieties of loose leaf, certified organic teas available through their online store. Arbor's latest step in sustainability is in its product packaging, which is now 100% backyard compostable.

Arbor's packaging, which has only been in the marketplace for about a year, is composed of cellulose film made from wood pulp sourced from sustainably-managed trees. What makes it unique is that it is truly backyard compostable, as opposed to many "compostable" products, which require industrial composting to break down. (Who knew?)

The new packaging is designed to be 60% lighter than its predecessors. This translates to a meaningful reduction in the operation's carbon footprint in terms of shipping weight.

Bonus: the new packaging accommodates more tea than before. On average, Arbor Teas packages now contain 28% more tea. The result, says Aubrey, is "less packaging, more tea."

Arbor Teas sells its organic teas -- three-quarters of which are also certified fair trade -- nationwide through its online store, and offers free delivery to its customers in the City of Ann Arbor. Locally, the tea can be sipped at eve restaurant, Pacific Rim, and the Coffee House Creamery.

While initially, the Lopatins were motivated to open a storefront operation, the online nature of their business turned out to be ideal for the couple. "We found that that we loved it, it worked great and we love the lifestyle," says Aubrey. "We're not wed to daytime hours...we have the flexibility to start a family, do other things we love to do."

Source: Aubrey Lopatin, Arbor Teas
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh

Ann Arbor : Innovation & Job News