Innovation & Job News

Solidica has a new CEO this year as the company looks to spin out some of its own technology into start-ups this year.

John Ford took over as president & CEO of the Ann Arbor-based firm after Ken Johnson stepped down to head up the engineering department at his alma matter. That leaves Ford to handle the development of three of the company's primary product lines.

Solidica develops and creates wireless systems that utilize everything from Wi-Fi to cellular networks. These systems often have built-in wireless sensors that create real-time feedback. One of its applications allows fleets of heavy-duty U.S. military vehicles to speak to each other and send real-time information to a central command.

The firm plans to spin out its new technology that monitors heavy trucks later this year. "It's right on plan," Ford says. "If everything stays in place it will spin out into its own company called Fleet Recorder."

Source: John Ford, president & CEO of Solidica
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Imetris has watched its revenue increase by roughly a third in each of the last four years, allowing the Saline-based company to grow from a staff of 25 to 100.

The IT staffing-firm has hired 33 people over the last year to accomodate its success, including eight people since January. Most of its growth is coming from the software and IT sectors, industries in need of new talent.

"It's all organic growth," says Chandru Acharya, president of Imetris. "We haven't done anything special besides focus on our business and do the right thing."

The 12-year-old firm recently moved from Ann Arbor to Saline while maintaining its head of steam, providing tech firms staffing services in North America, Europe and Asia. Acharya expects that to continue as the company sticks to its knitting and plans for another year of 30-35 percent growth.

"We are very much focused on growth right now," Acharya says.

Source: Chandru Acharya, president of Imetris
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Azarias Reda decided to combine two key aspects of his adult life when creating his new start-up, Meritful.

The PhD candidate in computer science at the University of Michigan once worked at LinkedIn and has spent a fair amount of his time in Ann Arbor teaching at local high schools. While teaching he noticed every one of his students produced some sort of online content, usually through social media outlets.

So last spring he began building a start-up that helped students in high school and college create a professional online presence that would make potential employers happy and their parents smile.

"We want to help high school students present themselves better on the web," Reda says. "That's our underlying goal."

The Ypsilanti-based start-up plans to conduct a private launch in mid August at a U-M summer camp and fully open up the site in the fall. Reda and his team of four people plan to focus on students in Michigan in the first year and then move onto a national presence in year two.

"We want Meritful to become the de facto location if you want to learn the merit of high school students," Reda says.

Source: Azarias Reda, founder of Meritful
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

It's been a busy year for Swift Biosciences. The Ann Arbor-based life sciences firm has launched its first product, readied a handful of new products to hit the market within the next 12 months and nearly doubled its staff.

Swift Biosciences now employs 11 people after adding five in the last year, and plans to hire another four more soon. Most of those jobs are in research & development with a sprinkling of sales and marketing. Of the five most recently hired, Swift Biosciences was able to recruit three from out of state.

"The quality of life here in Ann Arbor is a significant feature for us," says David Olson, CEO of Swift Biosciences.

The 2-year-old start-up is developing molecular biology reagents for research and diagnostic applications that provide new ways to examine disease-related genes. This technology is expected to help researchers analyze samples faster, at a higher volume, and at a lower price-per-sample. It's first piece of technology, launched early this year, is a consumable product for genetic analysis that helps detect mutations in things like cancer with high sensitivity.

The venture-backed start-up, Houston-based DFJ Mercury has led its latest round of fundraising, is also working to release 2-3 more products over the next 12 months. Those include some variations of its current platform and new technology.

"It's focused on genetic sequencing," Olson says. "It's in the same general space as our first product."

Source: David Olson, CEO of Swift Biosciences
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The University of Michigan continues to establish itself as a major hub for researchers with entrepreneurial ambitions across the country now that it has been selected to become one of a handful of nodes for the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps.

The Innovation Corps, I-Corps for short, is designed to fast-track more research from the lab to the real world. The 1-year-old program trains National Science Foundation-funded scientists and engineers on how to extend their focus beyond basic research and toward practical applications that have value in the marketplace. I-Corps got its start at Stanford in Silicon Valley.

"This is the first time it has been taught outside of Stanford," says Doug Neal, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan. "U-M is one of three nodes that will be open across the country."

U-M joins Stanford and Georgia Tech in offering the I-Corps workshops for research scientists and professors at top universities across North America. U-M will receive a $1.5 million federal grant to get the program off the ground over the next two years. Those two years have the potential to attract top entrepreneurial innovators at research universities across the country to Ann Arbor to take advantage of this program and the area's other entrepreneurial resources.

"We're not just teaching U-M researchers about entrepreneurship," Neal says. "We're teaching researchers from across the country."

Source: Doug Neal, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Merit Network is aiming to pass some significant milestones over the next year, expanding high-speed Internet access to northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

The Ann Arbor-based organization received $100 million in federal grants two years ago to spread fiber-optic lines across the northern section of Michigan, 1,000 miles of fiber-optic infrastructure across 29 counties. The idea is to help create more economic opportunity in these rural areas by increasing access to the Internet. Merit Network is set to wrap up that project by next summer.

"The big piece is finishing our fiber-optic infrastructure build out into northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula," says Elwood Downing, vice president of member relations, communications & services or Merit Network. "It will help us stretch high-speed Internet into rural Michigan."

Merit Network also passed a significant milestone over the last year, crossing the 100 employee mark. It added a dozen new staffers in that time, expanding the employee base to 102 people and half a dozen interns with representatives all over Michigan, including the Upper Peninsula.

"We have increased our membership by a little more than 100 communities," Downing says. "We have also increased our outreach staff.

Merit Network manages high-bandwidth communication lines between the major universities in the Midwest, in cities like Ann Arbor, Chicago and Detroit.

Source: Elwood Downing, vice president of member relations, communications & services or Merit Network
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The battle over the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) led many of White Pine Systems' prospective clients to freeze until the Supreme Court made a decision. That forced the Ann Arbor-based firm to diversify its client base over the last year, a move that has led to some good growth and future prospects.

White Pine Systems specializes in providing online medical records, mainly to physical health specialists for its first six years. The company began making inroads with behavioral health specialists last fall, which has allowed it to keep the growth ball rolling.

"It looks like behavioral health is much more ready to engage patients than physical health," says Doug Dormer, founder & CEO of White Pine Systems.

White Pine Systems struck a deal last fall with Midwest-based Centerstone, providing software and social media technology to the non-profit as part of an $850,000 grant project. White Pine Systems provided online social media solutions, such as hosting chat services and discussion boards. It also provided online clinical tools, like digital recovery plans.

"Since last fall we have felt the market really start to turn and today we're feeling it turn even more," Dormer says.

White Pine Systems employs eight people after hiring two software developers over the last year. It is also looking to add some interns in the near future and expects its future growth prospects to push its staff to 20 within the next year.

"I see the behavioral health market taking off," Dormer says. "I see the U.S. Supreme Court decision opening up markets that have been dormant."

Source: Doug Dormer, founder & CEO of White Pine Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

More and more business professionals from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area are staking a claim in Detroit by working with programs that are helping spread entrepreneurship and technology across the Motor City.

The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center (which is run by Eastern Michigan University Business Prof Richard King) is launching its new statewide New Venture program from Detroit. New Venture aims to help aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs establish their business through a 10-week course, which teaches the basics about opening a business, how to make sure the venture is viable and consulting with the entrepreneurs after they are up and running. It has already graduated its first two entrepreneurs.

"It's going to be offered in a number of locations," says Wendy Thomas, associate regional director for the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.

Dave Koziol, founder of the downtown Ann Arbor-based mobile app firm Arbormoon Software, is the co-founder of Develop Detroit. The new initiative looks to help expand the mobile app workforce in the Motor City through a 12-week course that teaches the participants how to build their own mobile app. Develop Detroit is modeled after a similar program in Chicago called Code Academy.

Bruce McCully, CEO of Dynamic Edge, has been growing a technology club in the Detroit Institute of Technology. The institute is one of four schools from Detroit Public School's inside the former Cody High School on the city's west side. The Ann Arbor-based tech start-up's employees teach the students how to use cutting edge technology and how to make it work for them, such as applying for job or colleges.

Source: Wendy Thomas, associate regional director for the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Busch's Fresh Food Market plans to open a new grocery story in Canton, an investment that promises to create about 100 jobs in the region by next year.

The Ann Arbor-based grocery store chain bought a shopping plaza located at 225 S. Canton Center Road. The 54,000-square-foot store is set to open next summer.

"We've been looking at that area for 5-6 years," says John Busch, CEO of Busch's Fresh Food Market. "The opportunity to buy this shopping center came along and we took advantage of it."

This will be 37-year-old business' 16th supermarket. Busch's Fresh Food Market current has 15 stores across southeast Michigan that stretch to Tecumseh, Rochester Hills, Pinckney and Monroe. The company employs 1,400 people.

Busch says his firm has the capacity to add one new supermarket per year thanks to the "modest growth" is has experienced in recent years thanks to the economic rebound. Each market employs about 100 full-time and part-time people.

Source: John Busch, CEO of Busch's Fresh Food Market
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund is on a tear this year, investing $2.6 million in 12 start-ups so far this year and on pace for several more.

"Our average is 12 per year," says Skip Simms, manager of the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and a senior vice president at Ann Arbor SPARK. "I don't anticipate we will make 12 more this year. It probably will be 6-10 more. We have approved three more. We just haven't closed on them yet."

The three most recent investments, totaling $600,000, have gone to a variety of Ann Arbor-based start-ups, including FlockTAG, FreeStride Therapeutics, and Larky. FlockTAG is creating a mobile app loyalty system for quick service restaurants which creates a cross promotional platform with customized deals. FreeStride Therapeutics is developing therapies for treatment of bone-related conditions. Larky's application helps consumers manage discounts from retailers, membership organizations increase loyalty, and merchants generate business.

To date, the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund has awarded 75 Michigan companies with seed funding totaling more than $16.5 million. Those investments have allowed local start-ups to attract more than $22 million in matching grant and equity funds. They have also helped to create more than 120 jobs in Michigan.

The Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund is an equity fund that invests in technology-based companies to support business formation and acceleration. Ann Arbor SPARK serves as the Fund's administrator.

Source: Skip Simms, manager of the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The special sauce to Phire Branding Co.'s growth isn't about adding more clients. It's about concentrating on its current roster and expanding the scope of work with them.

That 14-year-old full-service marketing company has brought on a handful of new clients last year but has been able to steadily grow its revenue by expanding its relationships with longtime clients.

"Our growth comes from maintaining those older relationships," says Jim Hume, principal of Phire Branding Co. "We don't churn and burn our clients."

That has allowed the Ann Arbor-based company to hire an account executive this summer, expanding its staff to a dozen employees. That staff overseas cohesive branding campaigns for a broad range of clients, including MASCO Cabinetry, the University of Michigan Athletic Dept, ProQuest, UMS, Ann Arbor Summer Festival, DFCU, Cleary University and Harley Ellis Devereaux.

"We have a very diverse client base," Hume says. "It's that way on purpose."

Source: Jim Hume, principal of Phire Branding Company
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Consumers love to boast about the deals they have taken advantage of, and a new downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up would love to help them turn up the volume.

Larky is developing mobile apps that help consumers maximize the discount available to them through membership organizations, loyalty programs and coupons from local businesses. Gregg Hammerman, co-founder of Larky, was inspired to create the software when he realized he didn't have the time to keep up with all the opportunities his membership in things like the Detroit Institute of Arts, AAA and the University of Michigan Alumni Association offered when he needed them the most. Larky does that work for him now.

"I can walk into the DIA and it will tell me that my membership paid for me and a family member this week," Hammerman says. The mobile app makes money from the institutions and businesses that employ it and it doesn't come out of the consumer's pocket.

Larky has landed $650,000 in an initial seed round with money coming from angel investors, the Michigan Microloan Fund and the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. Larky's team of three employees, it is also looking to hire a business development and software programmer now, is working on testing the 6-month-old start-up's app and hopes to roll it out nationally over the next year.

Source: Gregg Hammerman, co-founder of Larky
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Adrian Fortino and David Linn are friends who wanted to start a company together for years. Fortino is one of the co-founders behind mass transit tech firm Shepherd Intelligence Systems and Linn owns Bubble Island in Ann Arbor. A little more than a year ago the two combined their different areas of business expertise to launch FlockTAG.

The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up has developed a mobile app that works as a universal loyalty card for a broad range of retailers and other businesses. "You don't have to carry around all these cards and wait for your punches or stamps," Fortino says. He adds that targeted deal software has a redemption rate of 30 percent, which he claims is well above the industry average of 8 percent.

FlockTAG now employs eight people and is being used in a number of Midwestern collegetowns, including Ann Arbor, East Lansign and Columbus. It has recently received a six-figure investment from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and is hearing up to release the 2.0 version of the mobile app and website in August.

"We will be using that for additional development," Fortino says. "We hope to leverage all of the students in the fall for an aggressive push."

Source: Adrian Fortino, co-founder of FlockTAG
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Shepherd Intelligence Systems is in turtle mode, i.e. slow and steady growth to win the start-up race.

The downtown Ann Arbor-based company has added a handful of new contracts over the last year. It has also hired one person, rounding out the company's staff to 10 people

"It continues to do very well," says Adrian Fortino, CEO of Shepherd Intelligence Systems. "We hope to add a a few more businesses and people this year."

Shepherd Intelligent Systems is commercializing the University of Michigan's Magic Bus program. That software, tested by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority in 2010, allows system riders to follow bus progress on their smart phones. Users can see where their bus is on real-time maps and estimate times of arrival.

The company has steadily added a few more bells and whistles to this technology and broadened it customer base to a range of vehicle fleets. The company first started with governmental mass transit agencies and has now grown to include fleets of vehicles at universities across the U.S. and private transportation fleets, such as limo companies.

"It has grown at a pretty steady pace," Fortino says.

Source: Adrian Fortino, CEO of Shepherd Intelligence Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Not all businesses started by University of Michigan students revolve around iPhone apps or bio-tech innovations. Sometimes it's just a simple, life-style business like Bella Beads.

A pair of 19-year-old U-M sophomores started the bead-bracelet company last spring and have watched it take off from their kitchen tables this summer. Bella Beads produces a line of trendy and fashionable bracelets for men and women, mostly made from beads and other attractive stones.

The company's line of products are now in two stores and is gearing up to add another store early this fall. The business hopes to have their wares in as many as 15 stores a year from now. More than enough work to keep the two college students busy outside of their coursework.

Liza Sherbin and Nicole Hollander, lifelong friends from Bloomfield Hills, were inspired to start the business because of their love for fashion and trends and the reality of limited budgets for college students. The saw the bracelets for sale for $100 or more and decided they could make a better product cheaper. They now sell the bracelets for less than half of that.

"This is something we have a passion for," Sherbin says. "We could have had someone make us an iPhone app and put our name on it but it wouldn't have been from us."

Source: Liza Sherbin, co-founder of Bella Beads
Writer: Jon Zemke

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