Innovation & Job News

The construction companies owned by Ypsilanti-resident Stewart Beal have gone through quite the growth spurt over the last year.

Beal Inc (a demolition and construction contractor company) and Beal Properties (a property management firm) have both notched 20-30 percent growth during 2011/2012, allowing them to expand their staffs from 40 employees to 180 employees. The Ann Arbor-based companies were also recently recognized as FastTrack firms by Ann Arbor SPARK.

Beal Inc does a lot of different work. Last year it started CityFARM, an urban-farming design company, and has tackled a number of large construction projects, including the recent work to renovate the Broderick Tower in Detroit.

"Right now we're looking for our next large project," Beal says.

Beal Properties specializes in property management, specifically rental properties. It has properties in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Detroit and Toledo. It recently hired eight people to manage the now-leased-out Broderick Tower. Beal expects his companies will focus on maximizing the strides forward it has taken in the near term.

"We're going to be concentrating on growth and profits instead of growth and revenue next year," Beal says.

Source: Stewart Beal, president of Beal Inc and Beal Properties
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The people behind Asq.us don't believe we have to wait for election results to find out what the people really want. The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up thinks it can enable local politicos to find that out through software and polling, helping save local officials time in moving communities forward.

Brad Chick was inspired to start the company because he had become frustrated with the political system and the impact money has on politics. So last May he started Asq.us, a free polling platform for politicians to reach out and ask the public about issues. He thinks had this technology been available in recent years, local leaders might have made different decisions about installing artwork by an out-of-town artist in front of the new city hall.

"There were town hall meetings but those are largely a relic of the past," Chick says. He adds that "traditional polling companies are missing a lot of people who aren't on the grid" because things like cell phone usage compared to landline usage. Many polling companies depend on interviews with people on landlines to conduct their surveys.

Asq.us's software will allow people to voluntarily sign up to be polled and utilize other methods to get a better picture of what the public thinks. He and his team of six employees and three interns plan to launch the technology early next year.

Source: Brad Chick, founder of Asq.us
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Paul Schrems has two ambitions these days. One is to start his own company and the second is to not have to keep untangling the earbuds for his smartphone. He's doing both with TurtleCell, a consumer-electronics start-up he is launching with Nick Turnbull.

Schrems and Turnbull are engineering students at the University of Michigan. They both love their smart phones and protective case they are in but hate reaching into the pockets to pull out a tangled mess of earbuds. So the enterprising pair invented TurtleCell, a smartphone case that has retractable earbuds built in.

"I thought why couldn't I combine the two and and save myself the time of untangling my earbuds for half of my walk to class," Schrems says.

TurtleCell has since developed a prototype and is working with mentors from the TechArb student incubator to refine the design and raise funding. The 4-month-old company plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in January to raise funds to build the first run of products to be sold later this year.

Source: Paul Schrems, co-founder of TurtleCell
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

SkySpecs recently graduated from the University of Michigan's student small business incubator, TechArb, and is looking to begin commercializing its technology next year.

The 8-month-old start-up is developing a small aerial device equipped with video and other detection equipment that can be used to inspect hard-to-reach infrastructure, such as bridges. The company got its start when Danny Elis founded the Michigan Autonomous Vehicles Team at U-M in 2009 and used the technology as his senior-year thesis.

"We have been working on this for a while," Ellis says. "For a while we played around with the idea of turning it into a company."

That became a reality last March. It currently has a prototype but it's close to finishing a second prototype thanks to some angel investment and the potential of landing a $250,000 grant from the state of Michigan in the next few weeks.

SkySpecs plans to take its fully developed prototype and begin selling its services within the next few months. It then hopes to leverage that business into producing enough of its aerial vehicles to sell.

Source: Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Brines Farm made a name for itself as the first year-round CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Washtenaw County with a few acres in Dexter a couple of years ago. Today the organic farming operation has much more room to grow after buying an adjacent farm in Webster Township.

The 80-acre farm was owned by the same family since they settle of the township. The family didn't have another generation willing to take it over so they sold the development rights to a greenbelt organization and then sold the farm to Shannon Brines, the owner and lead farmer of Brines Farm.

"It worked out perfectly for us," Brines says. "There is so much room so I can do all the things I imagined."

Previously, Brines Farms and its team of five people worked a couple of acres on a 10-acre parcel producing mainly fruits and vegetables. They supplied to produce to subscribers of its CSA and continued farming four hoop houses. Now the expanded farm will allow the group to work on a full-time basis and fill out 20 acres for vegetable produce and another 10-20 acres for orchards. But Brines prefers to keep his operation on the small side.

"I would never want to get to the point where I mechanize everything," Brines says.

Source: Shannon Brines, the owner and lead farmer of Brines Farm
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The team behind Child Care Daily App plans to leverage funding from the Michigan Microloan Fund for new outreach efforts and new hires that will help the start-up generate new sales in the new year.

The Ann Arbor-based firm developed an Internet platform that simplifies the daily activities of child care providers. The software automates handwritten tasks, organizes business operations and allows for better parent communication by providing parents real-time access to what is happening with their child throughout the day.

The 1-year-old company now counts 50 child-care facilities across the U.S. as customers. It plans to expand that number to 250-300 within the coming months. Helping make that happen is a five-figure loan from the Michigan Microloan Fund, which will help pay for the company's sales and marketing efforts.

"We need to beef up our sales force," says Bill Collins, COO of Child Care Daily App. "This helps pay for us going to a conference today and another one soon. These things cost money."

Child Care Daily App currently employs three people. However, it is in the process of bringing onboard some marketing and sales people that will almost double its staff size. Collins sees his market as more blue ocean and expects to need a larger team to explore it.

"(Our technology) is brand new to the industry," Collins says. "No one has done anything like it. That's a double-edged sword. Most people aren't familiar with it so we have to educate them. If I were selling a car people would understand."

Source: Billy Collins, COO of Child Care Daily App
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

PicoSpray is reaching a couple of new milestones this fall. The clean-tech start-up recently graduated from the TechArb incubator at the University of Michigan and has landed financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund.

The Ann Arbor-based start-up is commercializing a low-cost electronic fuel injection system for the small engine market. The business got its start last year when a mechanical engineering student began developing a super efficient fuel-injection system for the kinds of small engines that drive motorcycles and lawnmowers. The idea is to create a cost-efficient system that is both fuel efficient and cleaner.

PicoSpray has been developing its technology at the TechArb over the last few months, utilizing the student-driven small business incubator's resources to continue developing its technology.

"We're nearing the end of the development phase," says Lihang Nong, founder of PicoSpray. "We learned a lot. We want to focus commercializing the technology."

PicoSpray has also received a microloan from the Michigan Microloan Fund. The microloan specifics weren't released but those loans average about $50,000 in size. PicoSpray's microloan enabled the start-up's team of four people to buy testing equipment and showing quantifiable benefits of the technology. The company has also filed for a provisional ballot for its technology.

Source: Lihang Nong, founder of PicoSpray
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Augment Ventures is investing locally, making its second investment in one of downtown Ann Arbor's technology staples - LLamasoft.

LLamasoft is a combination of a logistics firm and a tech start-up. Its software helps optimize resources and streamline the logistical process, allowing its users to hit their goals while achieving sustainability targets by tracking the global carbon foot print of complex supply chains.

The company has been growing by leaps and bounds for years, but it recently raised $6 million to help accelerate that growth with Augument Venture participating in its seed capital round.

"There is tremendous potential there both in terms of product launch and market capture," says Sonali Vijayavargiya, managing director & founder of Augment Ventures. "They're doing tremendously well. That's why we wanted to be involved with it.

The downtown Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm launched last year as an early-stage venture capital fund. Its specialty is investing in clean-tech and IT start-ups. Those start-ups have defensible intellectual property, capital-efficient business models and global market opportunities. Its first investment came last year when it invested in Aperia Technologies. The San Francisco-based start-up is developing an automatic tire inflation device that should increase gas mileage, safety, tire life and profit margins (by 30 percent) in fleet operators.

Augment Ventures is aiming to raise a $20 million fund by the end of next year. So far the four-member VC has raised 20 percent of it. Vijayavargiya says her company has enough dry powder that it is considering making as many as three investments over the next few months.

"We are continuously getting deal flow," Vijayavargiya says.

Source: Sonali Vijayavargiya, managing director & founder of Augment Ventures
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Omeid Seirafi-Pour at first followed a fairly typical path after graduating from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. The freshly minted BBA took a consulting job in Chicago. That lasted about a year before he and some fellow grads came back to Ann Arbor and started walking down the entrepreneurial path with myfab5.

"I knew consulting wasn't right for me," Seirafi-Pour says. "I always wanted to do something entrepreneurial."

He came to that realization earlier this year and made the move back to Michigan to launch the tech start-up. He now oversees a team of five employees and another five interns. They're all working out of TechArb, a business incubator at the University of Michigan geared toward student entrepreneurs.

Ann Arbor-based myfab5 is creating an Internet/mobile platform that helps people rate and find eateries and retail businesses. While popular sites like Yelp! depend on a star system, myfab5 allows its users to name its top five businesses according to category, such as best pizza places or Chinese food.

"We found that it is much easier to think this way," Seirafi-Pour says. "People aren't geared to think in regards to star rankings."

Seirafi-Pour and his team are working on perfecting the platform now and expect to release a public version focused on Ann Arbor-area businesses within the next few weeks.

Source: Omeid Seirafi-Pour, co-founder & CEO of myfab5
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Real Time Farms has struck a strategic partnership with Food52, a popular cooking website. The Ann Arbor-based food transparency start-up sees their partnership with the New York City-based company as a way to build national recognition.

"It's a much bigger thing," says Cara Rosaen, co-founder of Real Time Farms. "It's one of the top cooking sites around. It's really a natural fit to partner with a nationally known cooking site."

Real Time Farms got its start a couple of years ago as a combination social media tool for foodies and online directory of farmers markets and their vendors. Users can share pictures of local markets and farm stands by posting them on the site, along with product information and handy tips for other patrons. Rosaen co-founded Real Time Farms with her husband Karl, a former Google employee who moved back to Michigan to start the venture.

Partnering with Food52 provides more capital to continue Real Time Farms' growth and add more farms, farmers markets and food artisans to its data base. It's currently shooting to expand the number of those food producers to 5,000-7,000 across the country over the next year. Roseaen expects the partnership with Food52 will allow them to do that.

"We're not worried about business models anymore," Rosaen says. "We're just worried about doing good."

Source: Cara Rosaen, co-founder of Real Time Farms
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

One of the first priorities of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition when it launched in 2010 was to connect local entrepreneurs with investors from near and far. Now that the $1 million business plan competition is entering its third year, it's starting to collect a roster of investment relationships.

Accelerate Michigan offers a $500,000 cash prize for the event's winner, along with a number of smaller prizes that usually clock in at the five-figure mark. It has attracted top tier Great Lakes State tech start-ups, as well as firms from across the U.S. interested in moving to Michigan. Organizers also use the competition as a platform to showcase the state's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem to both local and out-of-state investors and strategic partners.

Last year organizers were able to make a particularly significant connection: Alex Wong, a tech venture capitalist with roots in Ann Arbor and one of the top people at D.E. Shaw Group, a $27 billion fund based in Silicon Valley. Accelerate Michigan organizers were able to schedule a day of meetings with Wong and potential partners (both entrepreneurial and investor) during the competition.

"Everybody from that meet-up found it really valuable," says Lauren Bigelow, executive director of Accelerate Michigan.

The competition has also helped move the pens on some significant term sheets. Last year's winner, DeNovo Sciences, leveraged the $500,000 prize in last year's competition to a $1.75 million seed capital round this year. The Plymouth-based start-up is developing a platform for early detection of cancer from blood as an alternative to painful biopsies. DeNovo Sciences is hoping to land a $6 million Series A round next year.

Accelerate Michigan moved from Ann Arbor to downtown Detroit this year. It will be held at the Book-Cadillac Hotel, Guardian Building and Orchestra Hall over Nov 13-15. For information, click here.

Source: Lauren Bigelow, executive director of Accelerate Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Downtown Ann Arbor-based re:group is setting some personal bests this year as the Internet marketing and branding firm continues to grow.

The 9-year-old company has hired five people over the last year, including a copy writer, a digital strategist and some creatives. The firm now employs 25 people and an intern and it sees its business growing more in the near term.

"This has been our best year ever," says Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group. "We added DTE Energy and Citizens Bank as agencies of record. It's been a big, big year."

Over its first decade, re:group has traditionally handled clients in finance, bio-tech, retail and franchising. The addition of an energy utility and banking institution is helping the company grow its customer base and set the stage for more growth in 2013, a strategy that has worked well so far.

"Every year we built onto the prior year," Jernigan says. "The economy is improving so our clients have more money to spend."

Source: Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

What was once Biotechnology Business Consultants is now BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting, a new name for a longtime staple of Ann Arbor's tech scene.

The 22-year-old consulting company specializes in helping bio-tech start-ups develop their technologies and nurture their business. Stability and growth often take several years of work and millions of dollars in investment to bring new bio-tech innovations to the market. BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting has been there for a lot of that evolution.

And its growing. BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting has increased its staff from five employees and an independent contractor last January to seven employees today. Lisa Kurek, BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting's managing partner, credits the federal government's  recent reauthorization of the federal research funding, like Small Business Innovation Research grants, as the driving force of growth in the bio-tech space.

"Once we had that long-term commitment we picked up some steam because we have a solid national reputation," Kurek says.

BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting recently received a FAST grant from the federal and state governments that clocks in at the low six figures. She sees more more like that in the marketplace as the reason why her sector will continue to grow and why she is looking at adding more staff in the not-too-distant future.

"I would love to add someone else," Kurek says.

Source: Lisa Kurek, managing partner with BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Pure Visibility is all about change in 2012. The search-engine-optimization firm has transitioned its leadership earlier this year, is executing a move to a new space and revamping its business model over the next year.

"It's the year of change in a very positive way," says Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility.

Pure Visibility made its home in the First National Building in downtown Ann Arbor for a number of years. It is now relocating to the former offices of Menlo Innovations in Kerrytown, a move that is expected to take place in mid to late November. Girard not only welcomes the additional open space, with fewer walls and hallways, but more opportunity for her staff to communicate.

"I always wanted an open collaborative space where we are all in one room," Girard says. "We're in sections right now."

The move will also help accomodate the company's growing staff. It has hired three people this year, expanding to 20 people and one intern. It's looking to add one more staffer, a sales director, right now. Pure Visibility is expecting the new staff, home and leadership (one of the company's co-founders left earlier this year) will allow it to revamp its business model and enable it to offer more product and service offerings.

"We want to be buzzing with energy in our new space," Girard says. "I want the company to be highly energized. Sky is the limit around here."

Source: Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Youtrivia learned some valuable lessons from its time at TechArb, and plans to leverage those to not only grow its own business model but to create another space for start-ups in Ann Arbor.

The 1-year-old start-up was launched by a small group of University of Michigan students who decided to create software meant to help people build up brands through casual video games. The software allows users to create games using feature images, videos, and trivia related to a company's brand. This strategy helps to deliver deep marketing messages to consumers through an entertaining experience. Youtrivia's co-founders realized this wasn't the best business model when they took a closer look at the market while at the TechArb.

"We felt the market was very hard to compete in because brands normally trust established marketing firms to handle their brands," says Ricardo Rodriguez, CEO & co-founder of Youtrivia.

Youtrivia is now focusing more on end-users, turning itself into a game development company that is focused on producing entertainment products with a focus on music.

Youtrivia's founders are also looking to start their own tech hub on the south side of town. The four-person company was having a hard time finding a start-up community it felt comfortable with so it's starting its own. Rodriguez says his company is close to signing a lease for office space on South State Street and expects to share with five other tech start-ups.

"We are very excited that we were able to find our own space with other digital companies," Rodriguez says.

Source: Ricardo Rodriguez, CEO & co-founder of Youtrivia
Writer: Jon Zemke

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