What would summer be without street fairs and music in the park? But with so much oriented toward bringing people into Ann Arbor, sometimes it's nice to have something specifically for the locals. Not only does Sonic Lunch deliver 12 weeks of free noon-time concerts to downtown, the president of Bank of Ann Arbor actually helps pick the bands.
The Internet has more content than its users can sort through, let alone use. That's where KnowledgeWatch comes in.The Ann Arbor-based start-up has developed software that aggregates, analyzes, and sorts content (think news stories like this one) in a way that is similar to how Google searches help you find just what you're looking for. KnowledgeWatch helps the people who put together trade publications or hobby sites find and sort through what they want to feature."All of these content managers have a serious content management issue," says Donald Hogan, CEO of KnowledgeWatch. "They all need to identify and format content that is fresh everyday."That can be incredibly time consuming for someone surfing the web and trying to put together an update about the latest field intel. And there are a lot of these people. Hogan says there are 17,000 trade publications and even more niche publications and pamphlets around the world.KnowledgeWatch expects to launch its new website later this month and begin a serious push at expansion. The firm now employs four staffers (including a former automotive engineer) and two interns. It hopes to add six more positions within the next year. The company is focusing on adding 10 new clients in 2010 and scaling its revenue to at least $250,000.Source: Donald Hogan, CEO of KnowledgeWatchWriter: Jon Zemke
An old hand is taking the reins of the University of Michigan's new North Campus Research Complex now that ex-Pfizer executive David Canter has agreed to serve as the complex's executive director.Canter, a physician and scientist, led the Pfizer pharmaceutical research operation on what was then Pfizer's Ann Arbor campus for most of the last decade until the company pulled up stakes and sold the 174-acre site to the University of Michigan. His appointment is up for approval by the U-M Board of Regents in mid-July. "What David really does bring is the ability to work with diverse groups of scientists and get them to work together in innovative ways," says Joan Keiser, managing director of the North Campus Research Complex. The university purchased the sprawling parcel with 30 buildings on the northeast side of Ann Arbor last year with a plan of turning it into a high-tech research mecca for university staff and private firms. Canter is responsible for mapping, developing, and implementing the university's strategy to make the most of the site.The North Campus Research Complex is a suburban campus that comes complete with dozens of acres of open space and buildings that offer office, laboratory, and manufacturing capabilities. Some university staffers have begun moving into the new space.Canter, who is already a member of U-M's vast research team, has spent 25 years in the pharmaceutical field, serving as the director of the Healthcare Research Initiative at the William Davidson Institute, a non-profit research and educational institute established at the university in 1992. Since 2008, he has led an effort to test business-based approaches to improving health care delivery in developing nations.Canter first came to Michigan in 1986 as a vice president with Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis, which was then purchased by Pfizer in 2000. He led the firm's operations in Michigan as a senior vice president with Pfizer Global Research and Development from 2000 until 2008.Source: Joan Keiser, managing director of the North Campus Research ComplexWriter: Jon Zemke
There is nothing small about NanoBio's plan to expand in Ann Arbor, thanks to an expected investment of $1.4 million and the creation of 32 new jobs over the next five years.NanoBio spun out of the University of Michigan in 2000 and now focuses on developing and commercializing vaccines for infectious diseases. The spin-off accomplishes this with a robust vaccine delivered through a nasal spray, which NanoBio's leadership expects will be able to move medicine to a more proactive stance, rather than being merely reactive."We have quite an expansive platform technology with a lot of things we want to take advantage of," says Dave Peralta, COO and CFO of NanoBio. "I think we're right in the middle of it with our vaccine."NanoBio plans to invest $1.4 million to expand its current facility over the next five years, thanks to a $434,378 state tax credit from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. That helped the firm choose Ann Arbor over a competing site in Washington, D.C. Jobs, most of which will be research-based and require either an MD or PhD, will be added steadily over the next five years. The company started with two people and now employs 21 and a couple of interns. This includes four hires over the last year.Source: Dave Peralta, COO and CFO of NanoBioWriter: Jon Zemke
Ann Arbor-based start-ups continue to take the lion's share of financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund, with two of the four firms taking loans in the latest round of financing hailing from Tree Town.Akervall Technologies and Blaze Medical Devices are both from Ann Arbor and old enough to count their age on one hand. The companies took two of the four microloans worth a combined $122,000. The other loans went to Ellison Corp (Detroit) and Waste Water Heat Transfers Systems (West Bloomfield).These loans are designed to help young companies meet a milestone, such as finishing a prototype or adding staff. The firms will use the money to pay for the first phase of clinical trials and to develop a marketing campaign. The latter is the strategy for Akervall Technologies, which is trying to make a high-end mouth guard called Protect Dent market ready."We realized that if we wanted to make it retail we needed to be visible," says Sassa Akervall, COO of Akervall Technologies, which employs three people and is planning to hire a fourth. "We need to stand out."Blaze Medical Devices created a system that focuses on quality control and optimization for the blood banking and transfusion industry. It is used to analyze stored blood that will allow clinicians to predict the effectiveness of transfusions by assessing the levels and rates of quality loss during storage for individual units. The microloan will help the company pay for the first clinical trial and hire its first employee on top of its three founding partners."This is very important to us," says Michael Tarasev, founder of Blaze Medical Devices.The state created the microloan fund last year to provide financing to growing start-ups starving for it in the wake of the financial crisis. The $1.2 million fund, which is run by Ann Arbor SPARK, has made dozens of loans to small businesses creating jobs rooted in the new economy. Its success has helped inspire the creation of similar microloan funds across Metro Detroit, including the First Step Fund in TechTown and others in Oakland County as well as the OU INCubator. Source: Ann Arbor SPARK, Sassa Akervall, COO of Akervall and Michael Tarasev, founder of Blaze Medical DevicesWriter: Jon Zemke
A little more than a year into its life, and MyBandStock is getting its footing in the music scene, landing its first customer and some seed capital.The Ann Arbor-based start-up that focuses on connecting bands to their fans now counts the After Midnight Project, which is signed to Universal Motown, as a client. MyBandStock will let fans buy "shares of stock" in the band through purchasing tickets and merchandise. Those shares can be used to gain insider access to the band."Anyone who buys a t-shirt or a record gets a tag for 100 shares of stock to the band," says Drew Leahy, founder of MyBandStock. "They can take that stock and use it to view exclusive video."The top 10 shareholders will be eligible to do a video chat with the band at the end of the Warped Tour this summer, in which the After Midnight Project is taking part. It's part of the firm's new business model of connecting underground artists and fans via digital access. User demand dictates which bands will be featured.MyBandStock has raised seed capital from angel investors, which is enough to hire six employees through the rest of the year. It hopes to sign another 5-10 artists by the end of 2010.Source: Drew Leahy, founder of MyBandStockWriter: Jon Zemke
Esperion Therapeutics is forming a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic to develop new advances in HDL therapies to treat cardiovascular disease in what promises to be one of many more collaborations in the near future.The Ann Arbor-based firm and its CEO Roger Newton are responsible for creating Lipitor, which led to Esperion's acquisition by Pfizer. Newton and his management team bought back Esperion in 2008 with the help of $22 million in venture capital. It is now developing new treatments for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in the Michigan Life Science Innovation Center in Plymouth, which is a wet lab small business incubator run by Ann Arbor SPARK.The Cleveland Clinic is world renowned as a medical research institution and many of its advances focus on cardiac care. The partnership will mean both institutions will work together on developing new therapies for HDL, which is more commonly known as the body's good cholesterol."We both have marching orders to do research on both sides," Newton says. "We're going to specialize in parts that we do best. It's more synergistic and playing to each other's strengths."He adds that more partnership announcements will be forthcoming in the near future. It's all part of making Esperion a more virtual company so it can continue to move its research forward in a difficult financing climate. Playing to the strengths of other large research institutions that specialize in cardiovascular research allows Esperion to get more research done faster without employing an army of personnel. That might have been the status quo procedure 10-20 years ago, but it's not the best business practice when financing and venture capital are hard to come by.That's not to say Esperion isn't expanding its staff. It has grown to 13 full-time employees, 2-3 interns on average, and a large stable full of independent contractors. Esperion has hired three people in the last year and expects to add a few more as it grows in the near future."We're taking advantage of a lot of talented people in the area," Newton says.Source: Roger Newton, President and CEO of Esperion Therapeutics and Troy Ignelzi, executive director of finance and business development for Esperion TherapeuticsWriter: Jon Zemke
Matt and Kelly Grocoff have gone from gathering local publicity to national publicity for their work to turn their house into the greenest in Michigan.Excerpt:Matt Grocoff has an ambitious goal. He aims to make his 110-year-old Victorian in Ann Arbor, Mich., produce more energy than it uses.That's no easy task, considering how leaky the 3-bedroom house was when he and his wife, Kelly, bought it in the fall of 2006 and began restoration. "You could stick a spatula through the window," he recalls. There was also asbestos siding, lead paint, zero insulation and a half-century old furnace.Yet Grocoff is game. As a contributing writer to Old House Web and host of greenovation.TV, he's been studying green building for years.Read the rest of the story here.
American automakers have been leaning on Ann Arbor-based research to push forward the electrification of the automobile, and evidence of that was on display at the Michigan Electric Vehicle Show in Ann Arbor.Excerpt:ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - People interested in electric cars can see everything from a 1916 Detroit Electric to a Tesla Roadster at the Second Annual Michigan Electric Vehicle Show on Saturday. The Chevy Volt may also make an appearance. Also at the show, production cars made in the 1990s to meet California's emissions standards, along with popular hybrids like the Toyota Prius, Ford Escape, Honda Insight and Honda Civic Hybrid.Electric car hobbyists have been converting gasoline-powered vehicles to battery-drive for decades in the U.S. Some of those - all road-worthy and street-legal - will also be on display.Read the rest of the story here.
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