Innovation & Job News
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Early Stage Partners plans to open VC office in Ann Arbor
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
Michigan’s investment in a couple of mezzanine funds is resulting in a new venture capital office in Ann Arbor.

The state’s 21st Century Investment Fund just invested $35.5 million into four funds. Among them is Cleveland-based Early Stage Partners ,which is getting a cool $10 million to invest venture capital into research companies in the Midwest. It plans to open an office in Ann Arbor soon as part of the deal.

Early Stage Partners provides early stage venture capital to research-based start-ups. Those companies are usually in the educational, scientific and medical industries.

The other three companies include Arsenal Venture Partners, which will receive $5 million and plans to open an office in Michigan soon, too. It also focuses on early stage venture capital but in the defense and commercial markets.  Detroit-based Peninsula Capital Partners, the state’s largest mezzanine fund, got $14.5 million. Triathlon Medical Ventures also received $10 million and plans to hire a Michigan-based full-time partner.

The 21st Century Investment Fund is part of Michigan’s 21st Century Jobs Fund. The $2-billion effort is focused on growing and diversifying the state’s economy over 10 years.

Source: Michigan Economic Development Corp
Writer: Jon Zemke
Accio Energy casts growth spell with magic wind system
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
The origins behind the name Accio Energy have some of the more random, yet interesting roots for a start-up.

The Ann Arbor firm takes its name for a spell in Harry Potter called Accio. Co-founder Dawn White's child was a big fan of J.K. Rowling's books, which means White knew more details about wizardry than the average Hogwarts student. That includes the spell Accio, which means "to summon". 

Today, the start-up, which focuses on an innovative new form of wind energy system, thinks the moniker is a perfect match.

"In this case we're summoning electricity from the wind," says Jeff Basch, General Manager for Accio Energy.

The design of wind turbines has enjoyed long-term design stability, like the internal combustion engine or AK-47. But like those world-famous items, the wind turbine must evolve, too.

"Energy that is captured from the wind hasn’t changed in 700 years," Basch says. "There has to be a way to harness that energy without a moving propellor."

Accio Energy's wind energy system has the potential to do that. It doesn't have any moving parts. Instead it harnesses the static electricity created from wind, so it’s almost like it's magically creating the electricity.

White and David Carmein founded the company in 2007. Today it employs four people as it develops the prototype. They just proved the concept and are working on creating an alpha and beta prototype for testing. It hopes to commercialize the technology by 2011 and employ tens of people by next year.

"It will grow quickly," Basch says. "It’s a very large commercial market."

Source: Jeff Basch, General Manager for Accio Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke
WhereToFindCare.com opens HQ in Ypsilanti’s SPARK East
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
The three women behind WhereToFindCare.com weren't exactly centralized when they started the firm last year.

The trio were spread out all over Metro Detroit, in places like Westland, Trenton and Allen Park. This type of virtual company didn't exactly lend itself to meetings and the like.

"It was very inconvenient," says Barbara O'Connell, co-founder of WhereToFindCare.com. "We're so spread out."

Not anymore. The fledgling business just signed on to claim space in Ann Arbor SPARK's East incubator in downtown Ypsilanti. The three women and an intern will help occupy the quickly filling space of entrepreneurs and established businesses.

"It seems like a good community for entrepreneurs," O'Connell says. "We want to be involved with that."

WhereToFindCare.com helps people choose health-care providers. Its website uses quality and satisfaction data of a number of different types of health care facilities and presents them in a format so users can make an easy decision.

The Ann Arbor SPARK East incubator opened earlier this spring in the newly renovated Mack & Mack building. It’s located in the ground floor of 215 Michigan Ave. next to Bombadill’s Cafe.

Source: Barbara O’Connell, co-founder of WhereToFindCare.com
Writer: Jon Zemke
LLamasoft opens German office as it grows in Ann Arbor
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes... LLamasoft just opened a new office in Germany and is getting ready to move into new digs in downtown Ann Arbor.

The Ann Arbor-based supply-chain network designer opened an office in Munich to head up its European operations. One person will staff it for the time being.

"The mindset for logistics has been centered in Germany," says Gary Bobalik, director of marketing for LLamasoft.

LLamasoft was recently named as one of the Edward Lowe Foundation's "Michigan 50 Companies to Watch" and is working on the USAID/DELIVER PROJECT to increase the availability of essential health supplies around the world. It employs about 20 people and and has an office in Asia. It’s looking at moving into new and bigger space in Ann Arbor to accommodate its growth.

LLamasoft provides software to design and modify supply chain network designs, allowing companies to optimize their supply chain operations for profit and shrinking carbon footprints. The privately-held company was founded in 1998. Its clients include big name corporations, such as ConocoPhillips, Dell and J. C. Penney.

Source: Gary Bobalik, director of marketing for LLamasoft
Writer: Jon Zemke
U-M students invent innovative suicide bomber detector
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
Students from the University of Michigan could soon be coming to the rescue of American soldiers serving overseas. A group of students are developing a new system of metal detectors that could be used to detect IEDs and suicide bombers in war zones.

The students decided to tackle the problem by seeing what combination of existing technologies worked best together. The trial-and-error process resulted in portable, palm-sized metal detectors that can be hidden in trash cans, under tables or in flower pots.

These detectors report to a main database through a wireless sensor network, telling when the deadly weapons might be entering the zone. This new system uses sensors that are cheaper, lower-power and longer-range. The seven-member team plans to continue to develop the technology and even create a plug-in sensor.

It hopes to commercialize the technology within the next couple of years.

Source: Ashwin Lalendran, 2009 mechanical engineering graduate of the University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke
U-M students turn school into start-up - Troubadour Mobile
Source: Concentrate, 7/1/2009
Everyone is creating application for iPhones and Blackberries these days, so a trio of University of Michigan students thought why not them, too?

The School of Information students (who recently graduated) ended up creating Troubadour Mobile last year. Two of the team are now heading out west for jobs with the likes of Microsoft but one of them plans to stay in Ann Arbor and make a go with the start-up. Gaurav Bhatnagar hopes to develop the technology into his full-time job this year.

Troubadour Mobile's application allows iPhone users to quickly connect with family and friends. It hopes to create three more applications by the end of the summer. A whole family of applications should be available by the end of the year. And that's not long after when the founders were trying to decide whether to focus on Blackberries or iPhones.

"We knew something big was going to happen, but we couldn’t nail it down," Bhatnagar says.

Source: Gaurav Bhatnagar, co-founder of Troubadour Mobile
Writer: Jon Zemke
HookLogic hires 10 people for new Ann Arbor office
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
HookLogic opened its new Ann Arbor office with three people about a year ago. Today that office employs 13 people and a few interns and expects to hire another 2-5 people this year.

That shouldn't cause too much of a surprise. Most of the New York-based firm got its start at a few software development firms in Ann Arbor at the height of the tech bubble about a decade ago. After the tech bubble burst those people moved to New York and started HookLogic before coming back to drink from the Ann Arbor talent pool.

"There is a lot of great talent in this city," says Gary Evans, general manager of HookLogic's Ann Arbor office. "We can get it a lot more reasonably priced here than we can in Manhattan."

HookLogic creates web-based software for a variety of industries. It deals mostly with delivery, management and measurement of customer incentives and promotional messaging for companies. The idea is to help firms get the biggest bang for their advertising and discount buck.

The company has offices in New York, London and Ann Arbor.

Source: Gary Evans, general manager of HookLogic's Ann Arbor office
Writer: Jon Zemke
U-M students launch downtown incubator - TechArb
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
"What about a place for the kids?" is a statement sure to make most eyes roll, but a group of University of Michigan students are dead serious about such a subject when it comes to business incubators.

These young adults know about Ann Arbor SPARK and co-working spaces in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, but they want their own home geared toward their needs. So instead of waiting for the grownups to get their act together, these kids decided to create their own – TechArb.

"The needs (that places like Ann Arbor SPARK cater toward) didn't necessarily cater to students," says Jason Bornhorst, an organizer behind TechArb. "The needs of students are definitely different than someone who has graduated."

Those needs range from not paying rent to being surrounded by peers who they aren't afraid to fail around. Bornhorst is a fourth year computer science engineering major at U-M and founder of the start-up Mobil33t.com. He and some other student entrepreneurs went looking earlier this year for an incubator space that fit them, such as a basement or a classroom.

The ended up leveraging RPM Ventures and the U-M College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship to find their own space in the basement of a downtown Ann Arbor building. About 10 student-run start-ups now call the basement home this summer as part of a trial run.

"It's a summer experiment," Bornhorst says. "We have been here for five weeks and its going great."

He is cataloging what happens at the incubator in the hopes that documented progress will show an institution like the university that TechArb is worth funding and not redundant. Bornhorst sees it as sort of minor leagues for young entrepreneurs where they can take big risks with little chance of embarrassing themselves in the big leagues of Ann Arbor SPARK or elsewhere in the everyday business world.

Source: Jason Bornhorst, organizer behind TechArb
Writer: Jon Zemke
Alphacore turns Pfizer closing into biz opportunity
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
After working together, off and on, for nearly 20 years, Bruce Auerbach, Reyn Homan and Brian Krause weren't about to let some cost-cutting corporate decision from the Pfizer to get in their way.

That's why the group of three scientists decided to start Alphacore Pharma shortly after Pfizer closed its Ann Arbor campus in 2007. Today the 2-year-old start-up on the city's west side provides steady paychecks for the three men and a growing stable of independent contractors.

"We've had a lot of good milestone success and a lot of fun doing it," Auerbach says.

The company specializes in early clinical research for a protein that could help treat cardiovascular disease. It got the help of some angel investors to help push its research through the early clinical trial process. Alphacore hopes to partner with a larger pharmaceutical company in the near future to further develop the protein into a drug after it finished the early clinical trials.

In the mean time the trio of ex-Pfizerites continue to do what they enjoy, work together on drug development research. The only difference between doing it today and three years ago is that they don’t have worry about the boss leaving town.

Source: Bruce Auerbach, president of Alphacore Pharma
Writer: Jon Zemke
U-M's VC Frankel Fund invests in Accio Energy
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
The venture capitalists at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business have struck again, investing $80,000 into an Ann Arbor-based company.

Accio Energy will use the money to develop a wind energy system that generates electricity differently than your standard wind turbine. The "aerovoltaic technology" uses charged particles and wind to generate electricity in a machine that doesn’t have any moving parts.

The money comes from the Frankel Commercialization Fund, a student-managed venture capital seed fund.

"It met our criteria," says Tom Porter, director of the Frankel Commercialization Fund. "Each investor has its own criteria."

That criteria includes Accio Energy's location because the Frankel Fund was formed to help speed up the technology commercialization and company formation at the university and surrounding area.

Accio Energy is also early in its development so this is one of its first investments. That allows the Frankel Fund to maximize its investment impact by getting in early. It's the Frankel Fund's fourth investment and its first in a alternative energy firm, an area the fund is aiming to invest further in.

Source:
Tom Porter, director of the Frankel Commercialization Fund
Writer: Jon Zemke
Great Lakes Drug Development turns old Pfizer expertise into start-up gold
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
Another happy band of ex-Pfizerites made the jump from corporate paychecks to start-up riches. But the guys at Great Lakes Drug Development didn’t travel the same road as most other start-ups.

The 10 guys at the Brighton-based life sciences firm originally opened the office for deCODE genetics a little bit before Pfizer closed its Ann Arbor campus in 2007. That didn’t work out the way they expected, and they decided the idea of working for someone else might not be all its cracked up to be.

"We wanted to do our own thing and take our destiny into our hands," says Kevin Hershberger, COO of Great Lakes Drug Development.

Today their year-old firm manages the development of drug compounds and provides consulting service. The original 10 are now nine, but there are a couple of independent contractors helping push the company forward.

Great Lakes Drug Development hopes to go on growth spurt within the next year or two now that it's established its footing. That could mean another 5-6 hires as more and more work comes in.

"We're expanding very nicely," Hershberger says.

It also wants more of a piece of an action. The company wants to evolve from a straight consulting firm to one that takes part ownership the intellectual property and drugs that its helps build at the onset.

"We'd like to have a little more ownership in the game," Hershberger says.

Source: Kevin Hershberger, COO of Great Lakes Drug Development
Writer: Jon Zemke
U-M Tech Transfer to students: Your ideas are safe here
Source: Concentrate, 6/24/2009
If a University of Michigan student builds a better mouse trap or reinvents the wheel, they can rest assured the university will keep its hands out their pockets.

The U-M Tech Transfer recently released a clarification of its Technology Transfer Policy - Student entrepreneurs are the sole owners of their inventions, even if they work on a project in a University design course, receive guidance from a faculty member, or use specialized University equipment.

"We really want to communicate the fact that we want to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship," says Ken Nisbet, executive director of the U-M Tech Transfer, adding this clarification is about making the student body feel comfortable about its ideas and pursuing them at the university.

The old policy was a bit ambigious about intellectual property ownership. The university can claim ownership of intellectual property created by its employees. However, students were considered a gray area until recently.

"If a student isn't an employee, end of argument," Nisbet says. "We thought why don't we make that crystal clear?"

Source: Ken Nisbet, executive director of the University of Michigan Tech Transfer
Writer: Jon Zemke
Axiobionics plans Ann Arbor move, to create 100 new jobs
Source: Concentrate, 6/17/2009
Ann Arbor took another one from Columbus, and this doesn't have anything to do with sports.

Axiobionics has called Columbus home for 15 years, but it's packing up and heading to the land of Maize and Blue before the summer is over. The life sciences company, formerly BioFlex, is bringing its dozen or so jobs and plans to hire another 100 here within the next five years.

The firm had looked at sites across the nation, but choose Ann Arbor after receiving a $1.4 million state tax credit over seven years. Locations Axiobionics considered included Arizona and Texas. The company also liked Ann Arbor's established software community and access to a top-notch teaching hospital like the University of Michigan Hospital.

"This is just a good environment for therapy and rehab," says Joel Dalton, vice president of Axiobionics. "That's something that Ohio lacks."

Axiobionics develops and markets medical devices for pain control and neuro rehabilitation in patients with severe spinal cord and brain injuries. This therapy system uses customized electrical stimulation devices designed to improve stability, build muscles and increase circulation in prosthetic patients.

Axiobionics plans to invest $2.89 million as part of its relocation. Some of those new hires that comes with that investment will be made in the near future.

Source: Joel Dalton, vice president of Axiobionics
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter Research Center plans to expand, hire 47
Source: Concentrate, 6/17/2009
Sometimes the sirens call for strategic partnerships is too strong to keep companies where they were founded. Not so with the Dexter Research Center.

The 31-year-old firm has renewed its lease on life by choosing to expand in its hometown, a move that will lead to 47 new jobs in the next five years. The defense contractor has strategic partnerships in Ohio and Massachusetts that were wooing the firm away from Michigan. A $313,000 state tax credit over seven years helped quiet them.

"We have always been here in Michigan," says Cory Ziegler, controller of the Dexter Research Center. "We enjoy being here."

The Dexter Research Center manufactures infrared thin-film thermopile and silicon detectors used in the automotive, oil and military industries. It's also working on new products in what will be the $3 million expansion the firm plans to undertake.

"The last couple of years we have had some good growth but we realized we need more products," Ziegler says.

The Dexter Research Center employs 58 people and has 4-5 positions open right now. It expects to hire another 2-3 people on top of those by the end of the year.

Source: Cory Ziegler, controller of the Dexter Research Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter  
U-M spin-off SITUMBRA looks to build a better window
Source: Concentrate, 6/17/2009
Imagine a window shade that's actually integrated into the window, eliminating the ugly shades that cover windows in otherwise beautiful buildings. The vision is becoming reality in Ann Arbor courtesy of SITUMBRA.

The University of Michigan spin-off is developing the technology that came from research conducted by Harry Giles, an architecture professor at U-M.

The window has two skins that sandwich an inner core. This passive solar technology allows the light to come in and warm a house during cold weather and reflects it when it's hot.

"It's transparent and energy efficient," Giles says. His research came from an EPA grant about three years ago. The concept won a prestigious EPA award.

SITUMBRA (the SIT stands for Structural Integrated Transparency and the UMBRA is a reference to umbrella) plans to continue to develop the technology for the next year. It then expects to raise money so it can begin production within the next couple of years.

Giles is working with a number of experts in the field at the university and in the private sector. He declined to name how many people work at SITUMBRA

Source: Harry Giles, founder of SITUMBRA
Writer: Jon Zemke
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