"Second to none" isn't exactly the same as "The leaders and best", but Ann Arbor's entrepreneurial community will take it.Excerpt:It's no secret Ann Arbor is fertile ground for growing high-tech startups.Just ask Bhushan Kulkarni, president and CEO of GDI Infotech.He's a believer. He started three successful businesses here.Read the rest of the story here.
The number of reasons why Washtenaw Community College should open up a downtown campus are adding up -- five, to be exact.Excerpt:Washtenaw Community College is exploring options for a downtown satellite campus, with results coming in about six months. It's a good step for the school and the city.Here are our Top 5 reasons why:Accessibility: There's already a core employment base downtown and a transportation hub. Both make the location natural from a student convenience standpoint. Space availability: Vacancy is over 10 percent, meaning the price and selection should be attractive from WCC's operations standpoint.Read the rest of the story here.
Sleeping Bear Press, a downtown Chelsea staple, has made tracks over to Ann Arbor.Excerpt:Sleeping Bear Press will be leaving the Chelsea Clocktower on Friday.Heather Hughes said the move was a result of the changes made when the Press became part of Gale Publishing in 2002."The Chelsea Clocktower became our home 10 years ago as a publisher with three separate divisions," Hughes said in a written statement. "When Gale acquired Sleeping Bear Press in 2002, just the children's division was included and the other two parts of our business were sold separately.""This left us with many open offices and too much space. When our lease came up for renewal we were fortunate to find a wonderfully suited space that fits us perfectly."Sleeping Bear will be moving to 315 E. Eisenhower Parkway in Ann Arbor, across from Briarwood Mall.Read the rest of the story here.
Support continues to climb for the proposed Washtenaw-Livingston Line (WALLY) for commuter trains. The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority says that in a polling of 100 residents of Washtenaw County, 75 percent are in favor of the line, while 80 percent of 101 residents of Livingston County are in favor of it. Bellevue, Washington-based Illium Associates conducted the study.It also found that 61 percent of respondents from Livingston County would be interested in using WALLY for their daily commute. Other statistics show 79 percent of Livingston County and 92 percent of Washtenaw County respondents, respectively, believe that public transit services are important to the local economy. The study is not a scientific one. Instead, it focused on collecting the opinions of residents 18 years and older from phone interviews. The respondents live along the proposed route, which includes the townships of Ann Arbor, Northfield, Green Oak, Hamburg, Genoa, Marion and Howell, along with the cities of Ann Arbor, Brighton and Howell."It's the equivalent of having 10 focus groups in each county," says Mary Stasiak, spokeswoman for the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority.The authority is gearing up for a more comprehensive study to be conducted early this fall. Stasiak says this will give a more accurate picture of where the proposal stands.WALLY calls for creating a commuter rail line between Ann Arbor and Howell along the constantly congested stretch of U-23. Stops would include the north side of Ann Arbor, Green Oak Township, Hamburg Township, Genoa Township, and downtown Howell. Although proponents of the project have been fighting for it for years, they have not been able to nail down the several million dollars needed to upgrade the tracks and fund the service initially.Source: Mary Stasiak, spokeswoman for the Ann Arbor Transportation AuthorityWriter: Jon Zemke
There are people with X and Y chromosomes, and then there are MEN. Maddox knows the difference. Want to know how you (or the man you love) measures up? Come see the master of masculinity read from his hilarious The Alphabet Of Manliness. Chuck Norris haters need not attend.
As the debate over density rages in Ann Arbor, perhaps the city should consider looking to other similar university communities that have navigated the political twists and turns of urban renewal and found success on the other side.
The brain might seem like one big mystery to some folks, but it's pretty simple to Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo.The neuroscientists and co-founders of Backyard Brains are taking advantage of this, creating cheap kits than can show grade-school students how the brain works in real time. "We call ourselves Johnny Appleseeds," Gage says. "Instead of seeds, we're planting knowledge about neurons."The duo teach how the brain works in local schools, and about a year ago decided there had to be an easier (and cheaper) way to do this while reaching more people. So they decided to take on a $100 laptop-style project focusing on creating a kit to show how the brain's neurons work with simple parts purchased at a local Radio Shack. "Can you record neurons for less than $100?" Gage posits. "We spent last summer trying to figure this out and now we're able to do it."That led to the "Spiker Box," a $100 kit that students can put together to measure the brain waves of insects commonly found in one's backyard. Gage points out that an insect's brain is remarkably similar to that of a human. Right now the company, based in the TechArb in downtown Ann Arbor, is self-funding a small manufacturing run of its prototype. The two-person-plus-interns firm plans to double in size within the next year, as it expects to reach mass manufacturing of its products. It's also looking at developing an iPhone application.Source: Greg Gage, co-founder of Backyard BrainsWriter: Jon Zemke
Add Phonagle's name to the steadily growing list of Ann Arbor-based start-ups looking to cash in on the iPhone.The University of Michigan spin-off is a partnership between three U-M School of Information graduate students and one of the school's graduates. They are working with the School of Information and U-M's Center for Entrepreneurship to develop apps (jargon for applications) and games for the iPhone.The Phonagle foursome (Sergio Mendez, Jeremy Canfield, Eric Garcia, and Benjamin Malley) have also received a little funding to push their four-month-old start-up forward. Its first offering will be Outword, a combination geo-location and Scrabble game for the iPhone due out later this year. Future versions for other smart phones could also be in the cards."We'd love to expand to different platforms in the future," Mendez says.Right now the fledgling company is focusing on establishing Outword and a few other apps. That means not only creating the program, but creating awareness of it. Unless a firm has five figures' worth of cash to throw at it, that means viral marketing and taking advantage of social media outlets locally and spreading out from there."It's difficult to make a case for your applications," Mendez says.Source: Sergio Mendez, co-founder and project manager for PhonagleWriter: Jon Zemke
When Leslie Surel moved to Chelsea, she started looking for something to do. That basic need turned into a nice little Internet start-up – What To Do In Chelsea.In 2005, Surel started by putting together a simple website featuring the links of places she liked to get information on city events. She told about a dozen friends and now has 17,000-plus visitors a month, turning it into the top hit in Google searches for Chelsea, Michigan. "It's growing every month in regards to visitors and content," Surel says. The downtown Chelsea-based business has relied mostly on viral marketing and word-of-mouth to build its loyal base of followers. What To Do In Chelsea is now utilizing social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter, to further drive traffic.Surel wants to turn the website into (or maintain its presence, depending on whom you ask) the definitive news source for events and things to do in Chelsea. She could even see expanding it to other nearby cities like Dexter or Saline in the not too distant future."The more I added to it the more I realized there was more to add," Surel says. "It was inspirational to see everything there is to do in this town."Source: Leslie Surel, owner of Things To Do In ChelseaWriter: Jon Zemke
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