Innovation & Job News

A small group of consultants in the Ann Arbor area noticed a growing need for entrepreneurial expertise, so they decided to do something about it. They launched Learning to be Great six months ago.

"We saw a need for a place for people to get good tools, like survey instruments -- the types of things we use as consultants." says Stephen Gill, co-founder of Learning to be Great.

The website offers a number of those tools to its members in downloadable form, such as PDFs or software. The Ann Arbor-based company and its team of four people launched a Beta version last fall and is in the process of making its name in the local consulting business.

Learning to be Great offers its services to customers through memberships, which give them the opportunity to purchase the company's wealth of expertise. It also plans to offer consulting services and eventually advertising and marketing opportunities.

"Most of the revenue will come from the sales of the tools and memberships," Gill says.

Source: Stephen Gill, co-founder of Learning to be Great
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Ann Arbor SPARK's Entrepreneur Boot Camp is graduating its 21st class this week, bringing another 20 start-ups a crash course in entrepreneurship and how best to beat the odds and become a successful business.

What makes this class different is the way Ann Arbor SPARK, with some help from the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center, shows that the two-day intense learning environment is geared more toward the "Lean Start-up" model made popular by a number of different business-education books.

In previous boot camps, participants focused on working out the kinks of their business plans and creating an elevator pitch to give to potential investors and customers. The lean start-up version is now focused on meeting needs in the market before launching the next great idea.

"You try to come up with a market need first," says Bill Mayer, director of entrepreneurial services for Ann Arbor SPARK. "Then you come up with the technology second."

The underlying notion is to help build the entrepreneur more than the business idea. For instance, this class of aspiring entrepreneurs brought ideas that included IP-protected technology, software, life sciences and crowd-funding platforms. One of the teams working to create a crowdfunding platform (what is quickly becoming a crowded field) decided to drop the idea and move on to another one when they realized the odds were against their succeeding.

"You test an idea to see if it's good or bad," Mayer says. "If it's bad you shut it down and move into the next idea. It's about building the entrepreneur, not the idea."

Source: Bill Mayer, director of entrepreneurial services for Ann Arbor SPARK
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The University of Michigan is putting a little bit more of its money into the local economy, investing $15 million in the Huron Capital Partners.

The downtown Detroit-based private equity fund recently closed on a $500 million investment fund, the company's fourth and largest to date. The 13-year-old company has invested in 61 companies in its lifespan and was named Private Equity Firm of the Year for 2010 by Mergers & Acquisitions, a leading publication for private equity.

Huron Capital Partners specializes in investing $10 million to $70 million at a time into lower middle-market companies  with revenues up to $200 million. It targets growing companies looking for sponsor management buyouts, family succession transactions, market-entry strategies, corporate carve-outs, and recapitalizations of niche manufacturing, specialty service, and value-added distribution.

The University of Michigan Endowment Fund, worth $8 billion, made the investment in Huron Capital Partners, which was approved by the university's Board of Regents in December. The university has announced that it plans to invest more of its money locally through things like the Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups initiative. The Huron Capital Partners investment isn't part of that initiative, but fits into the university's overall goal of investing more locally. A university spokesman declined to elaborate of the reasoning behind U-M's investment in Huron Capital Partners.

"There is not much to say," Rick Fitzgerald, associate director at the University of Michigan's Office of Public Affairs & Internal Communication, wrote in an email. "The Investment Office prefers not to discuss the university's investment strategy."

Source: Rick Fitzgerald, associate director at the University of Michigan's Office of Public Affairs & Internal Communication
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

REthink, a real-estate software firm has opened a satellite office in downtown Ann Arbor and grown significantly in its first few months.

The Dallas-based company opened the office in October and now has a staff of 10 employees and one intern. The firm was attracted to Ann Arbor because of the presence of tech companies like Google and the ability of the University of Michigan to serve as a talent pipeline for future hires.

"From a start-up perspective, it was a great place to bring on talent," says Vijay Mehra, CEO of REthink. "Plus, the cost of acquiring taken here is less than in San Francisco."

REthink creates an on-demand real estate customer relationship management application for mobile devices. It partners with SaaS CRM platform Salesforce.com to create a customizable mobile software for real estate companies.

Source: Vijay Mehra, CEO of REthink
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Nutriinfo, a healthy-living technology start-up, has moved from Novi to Ann Arbor to help further the company's growth.

"We thought it was the best place to be to have access to more resources," says Mia Jang, CEO of Nutriinfo. "We thought it was a great place to find people when you need to hire."

Jang, who has a PhD in nutrition, started Nutriinfo in 2007 to provide a better way for people to become more healthy. She leverages online resources and other IT technology to create simple paths for the employees of companies and customers of health insurers to lose weight and lead healthier lives.

Nutriinfo now employs five people and expects to to hire a few more people before the end of winter. The move to Ann Arbor in July was made to help make this sort of staff expansion easier because of the close proximity to the University of Michigan.

The firm plans to launching a weight-loss challenge for corporations and communities in Michigan in March. The idea is to raise awareness about obesity and align with the current health and wellness initiatives underway with the state of Michigan. For information, click here.

Source: Mia Jang, CEO of Nutriinfo
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

CrowdJuice, an event-based tech firm, has recently secured a five-figure microloan and plans to release the public Beta of its mobile app later this winter.

The Tech Brewery-based start-up is developing software that makes it easy for event participants to find the people they want to connect with and background information on them. The idea is to help maximize networking time. This web-based and mobile attendee matchmaking software and mobile conference will in essence serve as a guide for professional events. It premiered at last year's Michigan Growth Capital Symposium.

"All of this is about connecting at events," says Ed Farrell, CEO & founder of CrowdJuice. "We take the traditional print guide and put it in your smartphone or tablet and add a bunch of valuable features to it."

CrowdJuice, a two-person start-up, plans to use its new financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program to help further its product development, marketing and sales efforts. The Michigan Microloan Fund Program, launched in 2009, has provided microloans worth between $10,000 and $50,000 to 76 companies.  

Source: Ed Farrell, CEO & founder of CrowdJuice
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Pinoccio is looking to raise some seed capital in a new way, crowd funding. The Ann Arbor-based start-up has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $60,000 to produce its new microcontroller technology and the company is nearly halfway there.

"We're in a state now where we feel good about reproducing them," says Sally Carson, co-founder of Pinoccio. "We just need the funding to do that."

Pinoccio is developing a wireless, web-ready microcontroller with WiFi, LiPo battery and built-in radio. This technology allows users to send commands to the microcontroller, about the size of your thumb, from their laptop using the Internet.

Carson and Eric Jennings began developing this technology about six months ago. They choose to base the company in Ann Arbor because Carson's husband is pursuing a PhD in biology at the University of Michigan. They hope to raise the $60,000 from the Indiegogo campaign by Valentines Day and have raised $25,000 as of Tuesday.

"I'd like to see this become a sustainable business," Carson says. "I am excited to see what people build with Pinoccio. It's exciting to build a tool and see what clever and smart people build with it."

Source: Sally Carson, co-founder of Pinoccio
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Esperion Therapeutics is bringing on some familiar faces to its staff, including a new CEO that has an extensive history with the pharmaceutical firm.

Tim Mayleben replaces Esperion Therapeutics' founder, Roger Newton, as president and CEO while Newton becomes the firm's executive chairman and chief scientific officer. Mayleben previously served as president and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Aastrom Biosciences before stepping down last summer.

Mayleben also once served as Esperion Therapeutics' COO and CFO a decade ago, helping it raise more than $200 million in seed capital and negotiating its sale to Pfizer in 2004 for $1.3 billion. Newton bought back the company four years ago and relaunched it.

"I am a business person by training. Roger is a scientist and a company builder," Mayleben says. "We complement each other really well."

Esperion Therapeutic's most advanced product candidate, ETC-1002, is in Phase 2 clinical trials for patients with hypercholesterolemia and other cardiometabolic risk factors. ETC-1002 is a small-molecule metabolic regulator of imbalances in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and inflammation. It is being developed to address the underlying causes of metabolic diseases and reduce multiple risk factors associated with them. In preclinical and clinical studies to date, treatment with ETC-1002 has been shown to be safe and well-tolerated while producing statin-like reductions in LDL-C and inflammatory markers.

Esperion Therapeutics plans to wrap up it's Phase 2 clinical trials later this year and begin Phase 2 D clinical trials in 2014. Phase 2 D clinical trials are one of the final steps before FDA approval and often take two years or more to complete. The company has historically called Ann Arbor home before moving to the Michigal Life Sciences Innovation Center, managed by Ann Arbor SPARK, in Plymouth. The company now employs 11 people after hiring three recently.

Source: Tim Mayleben, president & CEO of Esperion Therapeutics and Roger Newton, founder of Esperion Therapeutics
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Bank of Ann Arbor is seems to come up with new ways to grow each year with its newest innovation comes from acquiring Ervin Leasing Co, an equipment leasing and financing firm.

The Ann Arbor-based firm and its 15 employees were a subsidiary of Ervin Industries. It successfully navigated through the last recession and was ready to ramp up business when its lines of credit, about $100 million, were sidelined. Bank of Ann Arbor will now provide funding for that growth.

"It's an opportunity for us to add some diversification to our loan portfolio," says Tim Marshall, president & CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor.

Bank of Ann Arbor has been consistently growing its core business, too, over the last few years. Its total assets have expanded from $689 million in 2010 to $774 million in 2011 and $889 million in 2012. It has hired about a dozen people over the last year, bringing its staff to 148 full-time employees.

Bank of Ann Arbor is also about to expand the reach of its branches. The downtown Ann Arbor-based bank plans to open a new branch in Saline early this year, which will mean another five new jobs. Bank of Ann Arbor. The bank also plans to expand the staff of Ervin Leasing Co by more than double in the coming years.

"Our goal is to be at 35 employees there within the next 36 months," Marshall says.

Source: Tim Marshall, president & CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Integrated Sensing Systems, AKA ISSYS, is looking tot expand its product portfolio from micro sensors in the life sciences industry to micro sensors that can be used in the industrial space.

Since 1995, the Ypsilanti-based business has designed and developed microelectromechanical systems for medical and scientific sensing applications. Its latest piece of technology is an implant that allows medical professionals to wirelessly monitor the heart.

"We hope to begin clinical studies early next year," says Nader Najafi, president & CEO of Integrated Sensing Systems. He adds he hopes to begin sales in Europe in 2014 and in the U.S. the next year.

The company is also looking at selling fluid sensors in industrial manufacturing, however, the company is still in the early stages of exploring that new market. "We're trying to bring in strategic partners," Najafi says.

Integrated Sensing Systems employs 25 people and has made a handful of hires in 2012. It expects to add a couple more jobs in 2013.

Source: Nader Najafi, president & CEO of Integrated Sensing Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Blaze Medical Devices is gearing up to begin selling the first units of its blood transfusion product this year, and full commercialization in 2014.

The Ann Arbor-based startup's principal product specializes in quality control and optimization for the blood banking and transfusion industry. The technology analyzes stored blood to allow clinicians to predict the effectiveness of transfusions by assessing the levels and rates of quality loss during storage for individual units.

The 6-year-old start-up expects to finish initial development of the product early this year and begin sales of it to researchers by this summer. It expects to receive FDA approval sometime next year and begin commercial sales soon after.

"The product is in the final phases of its design," says David Weaver, CEO of Blaze Medical Devices.

Blaze Medical Devices, which employs three people and the occasional intern, is also in the later stages of fundraising for its angel-seed round. The company landed a $250,000 investment from the Great Lakes Angels Group and expects to close on $1.5 million worth of seed capital by this summer.

"We're about halfway (to our goal) now," Weaver says.

Source: David Weaver, CEO of Blaze Medical Devices
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Lyndsay Dusek was laid off in 2006. The Ann Arbor resident had a background in web development, graphic design, the fine arts and languages so she decided that adding all that up equaled the right mix for starting a business. Six years later, Meadow Fete Media is looking to hire its first employee.

The downtown Ann Arbor-based Internet business specializes graphic design and web development. It has done a number of projects with local small businesses, including Vinology, The Produce Station and a community-garden initiative for Project Grow.

"2012 was a huge growth year," Dusek says. "I am hoping to make this year an even bigger one."

To help make that possible, Dusek is looking to hire a person who specializes in front-end web development and graphic design. "I am essentially looking for a second me," Dusek says. To make that happen, Dusek plans to increase work from a growing list of locally based clients headed by people she can relate to and identify with.

"That's the major factor in the growth of the company," Dusek says.

Source: Lyndsay Dusek, CEO of Meadow Fete Media
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

QAD, a publicly traded company based in California, has acquired Brighton-based firm CEBOS.

Both companies specialize in creating software for manufacturers with QAD, a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, being much bigger. It paid $5 million for CEBOS. CEBOS employs 33 people, mostly in Brighton, after hiring a handful of people in 2012.

"We expect it continue to run in Michigan," says Gordon Fleming, executive vice president & chief marketing officer with QAD. He adds the main reason for this plan is to keep the current nexus of talent and expertise at the company intact by letting it remain in Michigan.

QAD specializes in creating manufacturing software for global companies. CEBOS makes software for quality management and regulatory compliance in manufacturing firms. It recorded revenues of about $4.5 million in 2012. It has about 500 customers, most of whom are based in the U.S.

QAD went ahead with the acquisition to add one more tool to its manufacturing software tool kit.  It expects to grow CEBOS as the company's revenues and customer base continue to expand.

"Our vision is to help every global manufacturer become what we call an effective enterprise," Fleming says.

Source: Gordon Fleming, executive vice president & chief marketing officer with QAD
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

ForeSee Results has experienced double-digit revenue growth (25 percent over the last year), which has allowed the Ann Arbor-based company to hire dozens of new employees in 2012.

The 11-year-old company has added 40 people over the last year, expanding its staff to 275 employees. It currently has 25 job openings right now and expects to keep adding to its staff at that pace in 2013.

"We should be to 300 in the next 30-45 days," says Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results. "There is a lot of hiring going on right now."

ForeSee Results provides user-satisfaction surveys, primarily through websites. It leverages the American Customer Satisfaction Index, developed at the University of Michigan, to measure the results. This year it has expanded the reach of its surveys, making headway into social media, mobile, call centers, and in brick-and-mortar stores. Online surveys still account for 80 percent of the company's business, but the other avenues are gaining ground.

"It's been pretty diversified," Freed says.

All of the company's growth has been organic and Freed expects that trend to continue in 2013. More double-digit revenue gains are also projected for next year.

Source: Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Dexter-based k-Space Associates is celebrating its 20th year of being in business and Darryl Barlett, the firm's general manager, attributes its success to two things:

"It's making products people can actually use," Barlett says. "That's No. 1. The No. 2 is giving people good technical support.

The manufacturer and tech firm develops and makes diagnostic tools for the semi-conductor industry. It recently doubled the size of its manufacturing and research-and-development facility, moving into the new space last summer.

The company has hired four people over the last year, expanding its staff to 25 employees and the occasional intern. The new hires include engineers, assembly workers and technicians. Barlett expects to hire two more people in 2013 and has one open position for an internal technical sales person.

"We need that person right now," Barlett says.

Source: Darryl Barlett, general manager of k-Space Associates
Writer: Jon Zemke

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