Can a cutting edge startup be both success-minded and fun? According to Duo Security's Dug Song, the answer is an unequivocal "yes." Achieving astounding growth over four years, this Ann Arbor Internet security firm has not only become the local company to watch, it has developed a family-like workplace that's creative, supportive and innovative.
Another organization aimed at growing southeast Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem made its debut last week. It might seem like Startgrid is set up to duplicate the region’s numerous efforts to grow its economy, but actually it’s aim is to do the opposite. Startgrid plans to complement the region's existing assets in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, working cooperatively with local economic accelerators like Ann Arbor SPARK and the University of Michigan to make startup building a more seamless process. "It's the unique combination of the whole that will make the whole complete," says Dave Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative, which is helping fund the launch of Startgrid. Startgrid icomes courtesy the Detriot Regional Chamber and is an online portal that enables entrepreneurs to create a collaboration page that fleshes out their idea or business plan. The users can incrementally expand their page to their circle of friends, mentors and industry experts throughout Metro Detroit. The idea is to create an environment where people help each build their business in southeast Michigan. Startgrid wants to fill those gaps to accelerate the formation and growth of local businesses. To watch a video about what Startgrid is about, click here. Source: Peter Gardner, founder & CEO of Startgrid, and Dave Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Craft brews are all the rage - here and abroad. So the decision to bring Ann Arbor Brewing Company's brewpub concept to India seemed like an easy, sure-fire hit of a business plan, right? Not quite. Matt and Rene Greff share their experiences opening ABC in Bangalore, a city with very different rules, customs and expectations.
Jim Geary set out to change a neighborhood in Detroit. He began with homes in the Woodbridge neighborhood, but things really started to swell when he finished rehabbing a commercial building and opened the Woodbridge Pub, the new center for community in the neighborhood.
An Ann Arbor-based start-up believes it has the developed the next generation of technology for grow lights. Grow lights are large lights that are used for a number of purposes, ranging from providing artificial light for growing organic vegetables year round to medical marijuana. Those lights have traditionally used incandescent lights. Michigrow's technology utilizes LED lights, which consume far less energy than incandescent bulbs and run much cooler. The use of LED lights and Michigrow's technology allows for not only more energy-efficient operations but helps accelerate the grow cycle of the plants it provides light for by altering its night-and-day biorhythm. "Think of it as a factory that needs to be shut off 12 hours a day," says Jim Beyer, president of Michigrow. "If you can make the factory run 24 hours a day it is much more efficient." Beyer works as a software engineer for his day job but has already begun selling some of the prototypes of his patent-pending technology. He acknowledges that selling his technology to medical marijuana growers would allow for most direct path for rapid start-up. However, he adds that Michigrow's has a number of different potential revenue stream, especially for people in traditional agriculture. "It would allow people to do more of their own food growing in a more economical way," Beyer says. Source: Jim Beyer, president of Michigrow Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Serial entrepreneur and U-M lecturer Jim Price is not your everyday homegrown entrepreneur. He's a transplant who came to Ann Arbor in 1988 for a business opportunity and stayed, facilitating the success of several local companies. In a candid Q&A, Price weighs in on the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The risks to startup culture are a two-way street. Not only must you convince investors to make a calculated leap of faith, you also need talent that's willing to commit sweat equity to an uncertain future. The Adams Entrepreneur Fellowship Program is looking to make the second half of that equation a little easier while applying a slow-food strategy toward fostering local entrepreneurship.
There’s something different about the Eastern Market neighborhood of Detroit. It’s evident today in the creative investment happening on Gratiot just north of Russell, where a beautiful Art Deco building is being brought back to life, inside and out. The project continues a trend that began on the same block more than 30 years ago when upper floor housing first made an appearance in the neighborhood. Now, the residents living in Eastern Market make the mixed-use area uniquely vibrant, spurring increased redevelopment.
Rumor has it that Ann Arbor is ripe with small business job growth. But who's been growing and why? Jon Zemke, Concentrate's Innovation And Jobs News Editor, reflects on 2012's third quarter and which sectors were doing their part to reduce unemployment. (Hint: Techies rule!).
Are You a Human started as a student project in an Ann Arbor incubator before joining a cluster of innovative small businesses in downtown Detroit's suddenly thriving M@dison Building.
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