Innovation & Job News

Lisette Poletes remembers her mother, Hortensia Albertini, working at their kitchen table to build a business. That was in the 1980s and little did they know the single mom would create a multi-million-dollar company called Global LT.

"It's something I saw my entire life growing up," Poletes says.

Poletes came on board in 2009 and started running the day-to-day operations. She has now bought the entire company, giving her mother the opportunity to retire and keep the business in the family and growing.

Global LT specializes in language services, cultural training, expatriate destination services, and workforce training courses for international locales. If it has something to do with facilitating international business, the Troy-based business probably offers a solution for it.

The company has gone from generating $9 million in revenues in 2009 to $20 million in revenues today. It employs more than 100 staff and three interns after hiring 19 people in the last year. It currently has six openings. The company also has about 1,500 to 2,000 independent contractors abroad at any given time.

"I give credit to the team," Poletes says. "They are why we doubled the size of the company."

She expects to keep growing the company for the foreseeable future and to expand more into government work. Language training will remain a mainstay in the company's bottom line. Poletes also expect to keep hiring to meet the work demand.

"A lot of times we promote from within," Poletes says. "We hire a lot of interns."

Source: Lisette Poletes, CEO & owner of Global LT
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

RAVE Computer, formerly Rave Computer Association, has been growing its clientele through adding more business with Michigan-based firms. It's a plan that has allowed the Sterling Heights-based company to hire five people over the last year.

"The growth has been in our presence in Michigan," says Rick Darter, president & CEO of RAVE Computer. "It's been phenomenal."

RAVE Computer works in modeling, simulation and visualization work. It is the anchor tenant of the Macomb-OU INCubator, allowing it to focus on growing its business with firms based not only in the Great Lakes state but in the defense industry. A few years ago, about 3 percent of the company's customer base came from Michigan. Now it's well into the double digits.

The firm now employs 40 people and one intern. Its new hires work in areas that focus on government contracting expertise, product development and marketing. Darter expects to keep hiring in 2013.

"We will continue to hire a strong presence in the defense industry," Darter says. "I see a large portion of our growth being in the commercial sector right here in Michigan."

RAVE Computer is also serving as a mentor advocate for the Women In Defense Michigan chapter's GRID Mentorship program this year. The program assists Women In Defense Michigan members looking become more active in the defense and national security industries to help grow the military business sector in the Great Lakes State.

Source: Rick Darter, president & CEO of RAVE Computer
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

ArtServe Michigan, an arts-and-culture advocacy organization based in Wixom, recently released a new report detailing the economic impact arts and culture and the creative class have on Michigan.

The idea behind the Creative State Michigan report is to dispel the myth that spending on arts and culture initiatives is easily expendable, especially in hard economic times.

"This year's report dispels that argument," says Jennifer Goulet, president & CEO of ArtServe Michigan. "It shows hard data that makes it clear that arts and culture are things we should include in our economic tool kit. These are essential ingredients that make a community vibrant and a place people want to be."

The Creative State Michigan report shows that there were more than $553 million in expenditures alone in the Michigan economy in 2010. Nearly $194 million supported salaries for 22,335 jobs and $13.9 million in the employer portion of the payroll tax were also generated. From 2006 to 2011, there was a 15 percent increase in the number of arts-related jobs, and 65 percent increase in arts-related businesses.

"This is definitely a growth sector opportunity for the state," Goulet says.

To read the report, click here.

Source: Jennifer Goulet, president & CEO of ArtServe Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Avalon Technologies launched in 2002, but the IT firm has really seen its growth take off in recent years.

The Bloomfield Hills-based company has enjoyed either high-double-digit revenue growth or triple-digit revenue growth since 2006. That has allowed the firm to hire five people over the last year, doubling its staff to 10 employees. It's also looking to continue hiring and to bring on some interns to help accommodate its growth.

"We predict we will do another 100 percent in new business this year," says Brian Flynn, founder & president of Avalon Technologies.

Avalon Technologies' bread and butter is helping medium-to-large-sized business manage their data center demands. It has done work with the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Browns, University of Michigan and Genessee County, among others. Flynn expects the growth to continue through word-of-mouth referrals as his firm's work continues to speak for itself.

"The name Avalon is getting out there more and more," Flynn says. "People are looking for us."

Source: Brian Flynn, founder & president of Avalon Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Rigaku Innovative Technologies, a subsidiary of Rigaku, plans to expand its presence in Auburn Hills. The high-tech manufacturer plans to invest $55.7 million in its Auburn Hills operations and create 27 jobs.

"We have already started the expansion," says Jim Rodriguez, vice president of business development for Rigaku Innovative Technologies.

Rigaku Innovative Technologies manufactures high-tech optical products. It plans to expand into new markets, including the semiconductor industry, and grow its capabilities for research-and-development and production operations in Auburn Hills.

The company has already hired three people in recent months, bringing its Auburn Hills staff to 46 employees and some summer interns. Rodriguez expects the company to hire a few more later this year.

Rigaku Innovative Technologies won a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. It also received a 12-year property tax abatement valued at $241,146 from the city of Auburn Hills.

"This is our home," Rodriguez says. "We are happy to be here."

Source: Jim Rodriguez, vice president of business development for Rigaku Innovative Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Michigan is showing strong signs of becoming the national leader when it comes to social entrepreneurship. The latest of those signs is the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, a business competition featuring $50,000 in prizes.

"This is the first time in the country a statewide social entrepreneurship challenge has been held," says Elizabeth Garlow, director of Michigan Corps, which is organizing the competition with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest. "We're really excited to see what happens."

The Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge will offer cash prizes, access to investors, and consideration for special program opportunities. Participants can also access potential mentors, network, and discover resources tailored to social entrepreneurs. The bottom line is to help advance ideas, ventures, and solutions to address pressing social challenges in the Great Lakes State.

To enter, complete an application at GLEQ.org before the March 27 deadline. A special Social Entrepreneurship Showcase and Pitch event will take place on June 18 at GLEQ's Entrepreneur Connect event in Lansing. For information, click here.

Source: Elizabeth Garlow, director of Michigan Corps
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

ZOUP! is a business that likes to bill itself as a business that is all about the details. It's a culture the company's founder and CEO credits for the rapid accent of the soup-based eatery.

"We are in the detail business," says Eric Ersher, founder & CEO of ZOUP!. "There are thousands and thousands of details we focus on. That's part of our culture and will remain so as we continue to grow."

Ersher likes to use ZOUP!isms such as "everything matters" when describing the Southfield-based company's culture. He adds that new franchisees are introduced to that culture from day one and if they don't fit, they move on.

That has allowed the 15-year-old company to expand to 50 employees after hiring eight people over the last year. It now has 48 franchises and is in the process of opening another 17 across the northern half of the U.S. Ersher expects to have 60 franchises up and running in North America by the end of this year.

"Our growth is really a function of the success of the original franchisees," Ersher says.

Source: Eric Ersher, founder & CEO of ZOUP!
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Southfield-based jacAPPS can claim something a lot of local software companies can't: being an early adopter of the app economy.

The company launched in early 2008, spinning out of a media consulting and consumer research firm. Its first app was creating a radio app for local rock n' roll station WRIF. It now has created 775 apps (mostly custom ones for clients) and is doing work with Ford today.

"In 2008 we saw pretty clearly how disruptive smart phones and apps were going to be," says Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS.

Jacobs aspires to make jacAPPS one of the biggest players in the mobile field. It has hired one person to expand its staff to five people and it's looking to add interns. Now that jacAPPS has, as Jacobs describes it, the house app developer for Ford's SYNC system, it is poised for a rapid ascent in 2013.

"We are interviewing more people," Jacobs says. "We're growing. We're also talking to investors. I want to be the largest mobile developer in the U.S. I think we are on our way to doing that."

Source: Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Last year David Fuehrer and Stephen Goldner didn't know where to go to find new or experimental treatments for illness so they decided to do something about it. The started a business in Bloomfield Hills last summer called cureLauncher.

The Internet start-up now serves as a one-stop source for all new treatments and developments. It launched last fall and is now working to become the Wikipedia of clinical trials for new drugs and treatments.

"We have every enrolling breast cancer trial in the U.S.," says David Fuehrer, vice president & co-founder of cureLauncher. "It's 400 trials at 7,500 locations. Users can stroll through that list and see what is right for them."

The company is also working to help tackle the clinical trial enrollment problem. It cites that there are 50,000 clinical trials in the U.S. every year, and each one is delayed by 4.6 months due to enrollment issues. The firm hopes to help close that gap by connecting sick people with envelope-pushing treatments that could help them.

Fuehrer and Goldner's start-up recently made the finals of this winter's ACE business plan competition. The self-funded firm and its team of eight people is now applying for some seed-funding sources, such as financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund.

Source: David Fuehrer, vice president & co-founder of cureLauncher
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Michigan University Research Corridor (URC) helped create $2.6 billion in added economic impact in Michigan compared to similar figures released in 2007, according to a report released by the non-profit earlier this month.

The URC is a consortium of the state's three research universities (University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University) focused on helping creating synergies between Michigan's universities and increasing research that comes from them. Its more recent report shows the URC contributed $15.5 billion to the state's economy.

"We think that is pretty impressive when we benchmark ourselves against Research Triangle and Massachusetts and Northern California," says Jeff Mason, executive director of the Michigan University Research Corridor.

One of the factors in that growth is the increase of spin-out companies from technology developed at research at Michigan's three research universities. In 2011, the three universities spun out 18 companies, which ranked it third against other similar innovation clusters.

"What you see is these institutions spinning out on average of one company every month," Mason says.
 
Source: Jeff Mason, executive director of Michigan University Research Corridor
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Billhighway's expansion continued through 2012 as the Troy-based tech firm hired more than a dozen people and continued to add more employees in the first month of this year.

The 13-year-old company hired 15 people in 2012 for a broad range of jobs, including software development, sales and accounting. It recently hired a new sales engineer and a company team player that handles things like event coordination. Sources declined to name a specific number of employees but said the total number is between 50-100 people.

"We continue to hire people," says John Schelske, COO of Billhighway. "We have brought people in from a couple of different areas. It's a pretty diverse range."

Billhighway got its start when its founder, Vince Thomas, was trying to divide bills between himself and friends while attending Eastern Michigan University. He created software that now helps organizations allocate expenses for everything from dues to dinner costs.

"We have grown through both organic growth through existing clients and some new clients as well," Schelske says.

One of the drivers of that growth is a product that includes payment processing, online banking and financial accounting. It has proven to be popular with non-profits and membership organizations, Schelske adds.

Source: John Schelske, COO of Billhighway
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The U.S. arm of Preh, a historically German automotive supplier, plans to open a development center that will handle engineering work in Novi later this year, a move that is expected to result in more than a dozen new jobs.

"That's going to result in a lot of growth going forward," says Kirk Radford, a spokesperson for Preh who handles human resources for the Novi office. "The projection is to add 15 employees by the end of 2013."

Preh opened its North American office in Metro Detroit in 2004 and has grown it to 32 employees and one intern. It hired seven people in 2012. Those staffers range from sales managers to engineers. The new hires are expected to be mainly engineers in the software and mechanical sectors.

Preh specializes in automotive electronic driver control systems and sensors. It was started in Germany in the early 20th Century and has grown to more than 3,000 employees worldwide today. It is now owned by Joyson Group of Ningbo, China, but remain headquartered in Germany.

Source: Kirk Radford, a spokesperson for Preh
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize has acquired Mozes, a Silicon Valley-based start-up that specializes in mobile technology. The acquisition is the third in 18 months for ePrize, and more are on the horizon for the digital engagement software firm.

"We have a number of acquisitions targeted," says Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize.

Mozes' technology engages live audiences at concerts, sporting events and in television broadcast through social and location-based experiences, making it an attractive target for ePrize's efforts to expand its mobile capabilities. The 14-year-old firm (ePrize) plans to retain Mozes' staff and offices in Palo Alto and Nashville but will absorb the Mozes brand into its own operations.

Catterton Partners, a private-equity firm, acquired ePrize last year. That allowed the tech company to hire 60 people in the last year, expanding its staff to more than 400 employes and about 20 interns.

"It's been a great success story and we look forward to continuing that in the future," Wise says.

Source: Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

NEXTEP SYSTEMS began selling its own full-service tech solution a little more than a year ago, and the foodservice tech firm's growth has been a sight to behold since then.

The Troy-based company has watched its revenue jump 60 percent in 2012, up from its average annual growth rate of 30-40 percent since its founding in 2005. That has allowed the hiring of six new people in software development, project management, installation and sales. The company, which has a staff of 30 people and the occasional summer intern, is now looking to hire a services technician, purchasing agent and graphic artist.

NEXTEP SYSTEMS specializes in producing self-order kiosks that allow customers to order their own food or coffee, grab a ticket and wait for it come up. The technology is being used in a wide variety of places, including restaurants, airports, casinos, convenience stores, grocery stores, educational facilities and sporting venues. It recently released its Foundation5 platform that is an all-in-one solution for eateries, which has proved quite popular.

"They (a business owner) could make one phone call and purchase all of the software and hardware to run their restaurants," says Tommy Woycik, president of NEXTEP SYSTEMS. He adds this sort of streamlining allows eateries to focus on the food instead of the technology needed to serve it.

NEXTEP SYSTEMS is currently working on a cloud-based version of its point-of-sale technology and hopes to expand it into more chain eateries in 2013.

"More and more of our system is moving upstream to the cloud," Woycik says. "That is our focus for the year."

Source: Tommy Woycik, president of NEXTEP SYSTEMS
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Unitask Software is riding the wave of a rebounding economy.

The Bloomfield Hills-based tech firm has doubled its revenues in the last year and added three more people to its staff, which now stands at 24 employees and the occasional intern. The three recent hires include two software developers and a business development professional.

"What has happened now is business has gotten rid of a lot of the chaos," says Dale Royal, chairman & CEO of Unitask Software. "It knows which card to play and it is focused on growth."

Unitask Software develops and sells software for the Oracle E-Business Suite. Its products help businesses eliminate implementation and operational risk while improving the quality of their applications. The 6-year-old company moved its headquarters from Israel to Oakland County in 2010 after it received a $250,000 investment from Automation Alley. Since then it has grown its staff from 17 people to 24.

Royal expects his company to continue growing at its current pace in 2013, doubling its revenues again and hiring a handful more employees. He sees a lot of that new business coming from the construction industry, along with the oil-and-gas area.

"Those are the two sectors where we are seeing wonderful growth," Royal says.

Source: Dale Royal, chairman & CEO of Unitask Software
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.