Innovation & Job News

Algal Scientific recently walked away with not only the top prize at this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition but also $1 million in seed capital to commercialize the start-up's green-tech innovations.

The Plymouth-based company spent its first three years developing a wastewater treatment system that uses algae to remove nutrients from contaminated water. What's left over is the raw materials for biofuel production. That technology won the $500,000 grand prize at Accelerate Michigan but also helped the company lock down a $1 million Series A round, which include contributions from the Michigan Economic Development Corp, angel investors and Envy Capital in Farmington Hills.

"There are a lot of different things on our to-do list and that commitment will help," says Paul Horst, CEO of Algal Scientific.

Among those things are paying for animal testing the technology and hiring more staff. Algal Scientific has hired five people over the last year and now employs 10 staff. Horst expects that number to grow as the firm begins commercial sales in 2013.

"We hope to scale up our production to 100 tons per year capacity," Horst says. "We are currently in a pilot project."

Algal Scientific currently calls the Michigan Life Science & Innovation Center home, but plans to look for a new building to accommodate its projected growth next year. "Most likely very close to where we are right now," Horst says.

Source: Paul Horst, CEO of Algal Scientific
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

More tech and employment opportunities are coming to Michigan First Credit Union this year. The Lathrup Village-based financial institution has hired 10 people and is adding more mobile banking options for its growing member base.

The 86-year-old credit union has expanded its staff by 10 people over the last year, rounding out to 229 people and a few interns. Its newest hires include a digital marketing manager and social media professional.

Michigan First Credit Union has also expanded its mobile banking options. The credit union began offering banking options for smartphones in 2010 and has recently added a new feature that allows mobile deposit for iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices. Users can take a photo of a check with their device and deposit it directly into their checking or savings account.

"A lot of people have been doing their banking through smart phones and other mobile devices so we thought it was very important to be in that space," says Linda Douglas, vice president of marketing for Michigan First Credit Union. She adds that these sort of options are popular with young, tech-savvy members the credit union is trying to attract.

Michigan First Credit Union adds about 1,000 to 1,500 new members each month in recent years. It now has a membership of 87,000 individuals and businesses in Metro Detroit's tri-county area, along with $630 million in assets.

Source: Linda Douglas, vice president of marketing for Michigan First Credit Union
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

North American Bancard enjoyed quadruple-digit growth in the last year and the Troy-based electronic payment processing firm attributes much of the expansion to PayAnywhere, its mobile payment arm.

"It's a huge initiative for our company," sys Marc Gardner, president & CEO of North American Bancard. "It's growing in a very accelerated fashion."

Fast enough that North American Bancard has hired 130 people over the last year, many of them in the PayAnywhere division. Gardner says his firm is hiring mobile software engineers and professionals as fast as they can find them, adding if 20 of those sorts of techies were laid-off tomorrow from another employer his company would hire all of them.

"We are constantly looking for mobile platform engineers," Gardner says.

PayAnywhere offers mobile point of sale solutions. It recently launch its nationwide retail channel for some of the country's biggest corporations such as Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, Sam’s Club and The Home Depot. Gardner sees a tremendous room for growth in mobile payments as smaller businesses look to harness the technology, even service-based businesses like landscaping and car-repair firms, make the switch from checks to mobile payments to accelerate their cash flow.

"They don't want to wait for the check in the mail," Gardner says. "They want to be paid now."

Source: Marc Gardner, president & CEO of North American Bancard
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Panda Cash Back fancies itself as an "rewards website, dedicated to helping you save money on your online purchases."

The Novi-based start-up partners with hundreds of brand name companies like Groupon, Adobe, Expedia, GameStop, K-Mart, Best Buy and GNC to help share the rewards and savings from online deals with its customers.

"We are giving online shoppers a cash-back rebate from the commission we get on sales," says Mohammed Shaker, CEO of Panda Cash Back.

Shaker, a serial entrepreneurial, has a background in Internet marketing. Shaker and his three-person team launched the site earlier this year. So far Panda Cash Back's services are only available online but Shaker hopes to expand into the mobile space in early 2013. The site also launched with 1,000 online store partners.

"We're hoping to expand our number of partners to serve the online shoppers," Shaker says.

Source: Mohammed Shaker, CEO of Panda Cash Back
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

ReapSo works with the tagline "Get What You Want" and plans to begin delivering on that promise in early 2013.

The Farmington Hills-based start-up is creating a mobile platform that specializes in customer loyalty, connecting consumers with the brands they want. The app is set for release next year and the start-up's team is focusing its efforts on helping local consumers connect with Metro Detroit-based small- and medium-sized businesses.

"We're going to start with rewards and move it forward as a loyalty program," says Bill Wildern, CEO of ReapSo.

Wildern is a serial entrepreneurial who also owns HYDRA Professionals, a business turn-around firm. He and his co-founder, Steve Valentine, and their first employee, Jeff Heng, all have an automotive industry background and leverage that to launch ReapSo.

"It's a couple of engineers trying to solve a challenge," Wildern says.

ReapSo will launch in southeast Michigan and Wildern expects to grow the company regionally throughout next year.

Source: Bill Wildern, CEO of ReapSo
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Believing there is more to be gained together than alone a small group of business consultants formed the Business Improvement Team.

The West Bloomfield-based consortium of consulting firms specializes in helping businesses grow and become more streamlined. It has grown to the point now where they don't just share resources to maximize marketing but also do some joint projects and have come up with combined services, such as business x-ray which takes a comprehensive look at companies.

The Business Improvement Team is a group of local consulting firms consisting of 10 companies. Its membership includes Absolute Engineering & Consulting, Clear Vision Strategy, Expense Reduction Analysts, Fletcher Business Solutions, Franklin CIO Services, Taligence – HR, Tobias Vandeputte & Skulsky CPAs and Virtual Interactive Agency.

"The companies that are involved are strong companies that have ben involved in consulting for a long time," says Spencer Silk, partner with Business Improvement Team.

The consortium started with four firms in 2009 and recently added two more to its roster. The two new members include Glass Retirement Strategies and Hennessey Capital.

Source: Spencer Silk, partner with Business Improvement Team
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

SuperiorControls isn't hiring just a few people. It's hiring a lot of people. The advanced engineering company has added 60 people to its ranks, mostly engineers and project managers. It has 12 open positions right now.

The Plymouth-based company specializes in engineering for manufacturers and helps streamline their processes. To help push that envelope further, SuperiorControls, has installed an Inductive Power Transfer test track. The test track allows manufacturing engineers and managers to see this asynchronous, flexible conveyance technology in action.

"It's the only test track like it in North America," says Rod Emery, vice president of SuperiorControls.

Also helping drive the 30-year-old company's growth is the diversification of its client base. The firm has its roots in servicing the automotive industry, but has worked to find more clients in different industries. Some of those industries include aerospace, defense, food processing and pharmaceuticals. Automotive now makes up 15 percent of Superior Controls workload.

"We have seen a lot of growth and development in those areas," Emery says.

Source: Rod Emery, vice president of SuperiorControls
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Spider9 sees the growth potential in green technologies, such as alternative energy and electric automobiles, and it's capitalizing on them with new battery technology spun out of the University of Michigan.

"It's a battery-based technology where you could control the voltage and wattage that comes off the cell," says Glynne Townsend, CEO of Spider9. "It saves money and improves reliability."

Spider9's technology is known as OS Energy. It improves the energy output, life and reliability of renewable energy systems by optimizing the performance and efficiency of all components of the system ultimately increasing system life, and reliability while reducing cost.

The 1-year-old start-up is working with the University of Michigan Office of Technology Transfer and is based in Northville. It now employs 12 people and is in the process of commercializing the technology. It is now testing it with what Townsend described as a "large Edison utility."

Source: Glynne Townsend, CEO of Spider9
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Ron Jasgur and two of his partners started Woodward Asset Capital in 2007 when the real-estate market began to implode. Their idea was to help big banks handle bulk foreclosures. It worked. The Southfield-based company has since leveraged its success to evolve to a software firm in recent years.

Woodward Asset Capital found solid success with its original business model in its first years. However, it's owners saw more opportunities to create efficiencies for banks handling those foreclosures. The company created software that streamlined the foreclosure process, such as as complying with local ordinances and preventing fraud.

"We have gone from a bricks-and-mortar acquisition company to an online technology company in less than five years," says Jasgur, president of Woodward Asset Capital. "Our vendor relations and clients are the same  but we serve them differently."

That transition has allowed Woodward Asset Capital to grow its revenue by 30 percent and hire three people in customer service. It now employs a staff of eight and is looking to hire two more software coders.

Source: Ron Jasquar, president of Woodward Asset Capital
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Karma Yoga is growing in a number of ways. The Bloomfield Hills-based yoga center has been adding different types of classes, new types of customers, more staff to serve them, looking at opening a second location and partnering with a Detroit school.

The 9-year-old company now employs 25 people after hiring 10 over the last year, and there are plans to add more next year. Spurring that growth in staff is an expansion of yoga classes to a wider audience. Karma Yoga now offers family oriented yoga classes, such as pre-natal yoga classes for mothers and yoga classes for parents and their new babies. The company is also looking at adding yoga classes that service both parents and young children.

"Because of that I have been increasing my staff and my staff has been adding to its knowledge so it now has the certifications to teach those classes," says Katherine Austin, owner of Karma Yoga.

Karma Yoga is also working to establish a partnership with the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a high school in Detroit that specializes in education for pregnant teens and teen mothers. Austin Would like to begin teaching pre-natal yoga classes there.

Austin is also looking at expanding to a second location in 2013. Her business has increased its workload by 25 percent over the last year and expects it to keep growing in 2013.

"I'm really looking for a future expansion in another location," Austin says. We're really outgrowing our space."

Source: Katherine Austin, owner of Karma Yoga
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Kors Engineering is experiencing a good bit of growth in Waterford thanks to a new partnership with Plex Systems and diversification of its client base.

The 35-year-old business specializes on systems integration and automation for manufacturers and other industrial facilities. It focused more on facilities before this last year when it started to focus more on integrating manufacturing equipment to the SAAS-based ERP system employed by Auburn Hills-based Plex Systems.

"It has provided new growth opportunities," says Tony Kaczmarek, president of Kors Engineering.

That has prompted Kors Engineering to ramp up its operations and cross-train its employees to handle the increased workload. The firm is now looking at adding a couple of controls engineers to its staff of 12 people. It's also looking to add an intern or two in 2013.

Kaczmarek sees his company continuing to grow the manufacturing-integration-side of the business in 2013. It is looking at expanding further into Plex Systems' diverse customer base, such as adding food manufacturers.

"We're adapting into that product side," Kaczmarek says.

Source: Tony Kaczmarek, president of Kors Engineering
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Brenda Arbelaez has been in business for 30 years, running her language-services business PALS INTERNATIONAL. She sums up the secret to her business success in a few sentences.

"My passion for helping people," Arbelaez says. "It was never about the money. It's a beautiful thing to do."

Arbelaez, a native of Colombia, has molded PALS INTERNATIONAL into a language training, translation, live-and-telephone interpretation, foreign language voice-over, and cross-cultural education company. The Troy-based firm has serviced the Big 3 but now primarily helps automaker suppliers, both local and foreign, conduct business internationally.

PALS INTERNATIONAL has grown to a staff of 25 people after hiring a sales manager and translator in 2012. Arbelaez points out that her business is going strong despite the many recessions it has weathered during its time.

"Every four or five years we seem to have a recession," Arbelaez says. "We have survived all of them."

Source: Brenda Arbelaez, president & founder of PALS INTERNATIONAL
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Metro Detroit start-ups ran away with the top prizes in this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition earlier this month.

Plymouth-based Algal Scientific took home the grand prize of $500,000 in seed capital for its wastewater treatment system technology that uses algae to remove nutrients from contaminated water, leaving the raw materials for biofuel production. Livonia-based nanoMAG took home the $100,000 runner-up prize for its work developing a new type of Magnesium compound that can be used for biocompatible stents and implants.

Six people and an intern are now employed at nanoMAG, which moved from Ann Arbor to Livonia about a year ago to take advantage of a manufacturing facility. It expects to hire a few more people next year as it continues development of its technology. Steven LeBeau, president of nanoMAG, plans to use the cash and the win to leverage an even bigger seed capital round next year.

"We're using the contest as a PR tool to get in touch with people we have been in contact with over the last year for fundraising," LeBeau says. "We're hoping to leverage the $100,000 into seven figures."

Other Metro Detroit winners include:

- InfiChem Polymers, which won the $25,000 prize in the the Advanced Materials category.  The Sterling Heights-based start-up reuses a main chemical in polyurethane foam as a basic building block to manufacture new polyurethane foam. The old polyurethane foam comes from post-industrial scrap that is normally landfilled.
- BioSavita, which won the $25,000 price in the Life Sciences category. The Plymouth-based start-up is developing biotechnology focused on accelerating therapeutic antibody development.
- Coliant, which won the $25,000 prize in the Next Generation Manufacturing category. The Warren-based start-up's Powerlet brand is an electrical accessory in the powersport industry that allows users of things like motorcycles and ATVs to plug their gadgets into the vehicle.

Source: Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and Steven LeBeau, president of nanoMAG
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The advertising firm Organic continues to grow its presence in Bloomfield Hills. The firm has hired 20 people over the last year, expanding its Metro Detroit office to 120 people.

Driving this growth is the continued work from relatively new clients like Kimberly-Clark and Hilton Worldwide. Organic now handles five more brands within the Kimberly-Clark business. It has also landed work with Volkswagon, which company executives are promoting as quite the coup.

"That was a big accomplishment for us," says Joe DiMeglio, senior vice president & general manager of Organic.

DiMeglio expects most of the company's growth to come from within its existing customer base in 2013. That growth should allow the firm to continue hiring at a brisk pace next year.

"There is a ton of opportunity for us there," DiMeglio says.

Source: Joe DiMeglio, senior vice president & general manager of Organic
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The folks behind Brilliant Chemistry are so creative that they not only came up with a clever name for their tech-based marketing agency but they came up with an original way of describing it.

"We don't like to be called an agency," says Carl Rundell, partner with Brilliant Chemistry. "We liked to be called an ideation studio."

The downtown Royal Oak-based firm more accurately bills itself as a "creative technology and ideation studio." And it has been living up to that billing it its first year of doing business. The company has been creating awareness for its crowdfunding app, eRaise, through a campaign to purchase the Hostess brands (think Twinkies and Ding Dongs) with crowd-funded capital called "Dough for Hostess."

It also recently created an anti-bullying app for Defeat the Label, which is non-profit organization with the mission to make an impact against bullying. The app will help students report bullying anonymously, engage the bullying through a national call center and analyze data collected from it.

"We wanted to create a ubiquitous application that can fit across any organization," Rundell says.

Brilliant Chemistry employs six people and the occasional intern.

Source: Carl Rundell, partner with Brilliant Chemistry
Writer: Jon Zemke

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