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Ann Arbor-based LLamasoft grows business and jobs

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Economic Development

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November 18, 2015

How do we know that LLamasoft is burning economic rubber? Well, first, it was named to the Deloitte 2015 Technology Fast 500 for the fourth consecutive year. Second, it's currently looking to add 20 new employees. Excerpt: LLamasoft has been on a relatively fast growth track, according to company officials. It added 75 employees last year and expects to do the same by the end of this year. In each of the last three years, LLamasoft has ranked as the fastest-growing supply chain software company in the Deloitte Fast 500 list of North American technology companies. Read the rest here. The company will hold a career fair from 4-7 p.m. Nov. 19  at its headquarters at 201 S. Main St.

HealPay spikes in revenues and clients, looks to expand

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Economic Development

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November 11, 2015

HealPay is locking down clients from a broad variety of industries, and the Ann Arbor-based startup has plans to pursue the biggest ones next year. The tech startup's platform helps bill collectors increase their accounts receiving by enabling users to pay what they owe faster and more efficiently. It started off by helping creditors collect debts owed through its Settlement mobile app. Now it is expanding to a broader range of billing agencies, such as landlords. "We have widened our scope to include family law firms and bankruptcy attorneys," says Erick Bzovi, CEO of HealPay. "We have expanded more horizontally." Which has allowed it to spike its revenue and number of clients. HealPay currently does about $10 million in transactions a month, which is double its amount from last year. It is also enjoying a consistent 10 percent bump in transaction per month. That growth has allowed the company to hire two software engineers, expanding its staff to six employees and a couple of independent contractors. HealPay is also looking for an intern. Bzovi expects those numbers to spike even harder next year. HealPay is currently in talks with municipalities and utilities to handle billing for them as the startup continues to go after larger and larger clients. "We are slowly getting into new verticals," Bzovi says. "Anybody who does billing would fit." Source: Erick Bzovi, CEO of HealPay Writer: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor startups score big wins at Accelerate Michigan

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Economic Development

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November 11, 2015

When Steve Schwartz went up to collect the ceremonial $100,000 check for taking second place at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition last week, he was surprised but not shocked. The CTO of Genomenon didn’t expect to win big, but he knew the Ann Arbor-based startup’s team has a lot of potential when it comes to the fight against cancer. "We all know someone in our lives who has been impacted by cancer," Schwartz says. "We're all passionate about it." Genomenon is a life sciences company developing a technology platform focused on personalized medicine with simplified genome interpretation software. The University of Michigan spinout's platform tackles the challenges of analyzing DNA sequencing data, including gathering, organizing and interpreting the results. This is process is called tertiary analysis and typically requires extensive manual review that can be frustratingly inefficient and error-prone. Genomenon’s software accelerates tertiary analysis so it can treat patients and publish findings faster. The 1-year-old startup’s team of seven has built out the product and has begun introducing it to its first paying customers. A larger product roll-out is planned for next year. "We are now in the process of raising a seed round," Schwartz says. "This (the Accelerate Michigan win for $100,000) is a nice little bump for our seed round." Five other Ann Arbor-based startups, all of which receive help from Ann Arbor SPARK, also walked away from Accelerate Michigan with $25,000 in prize money. Those include Akervall Technologies (winning the advanced materials category), Arborlight (alternative energy), FlexDex (medical device), Workit Health (IT), and PicoSpray (Advanced manufacturing). Accelerate Michigan is Michigan's biggest business plan competition. It awards more than $1 million in prizes each year. Ann Arbor-based startups normally dominate the winners circle each year. Source: Steve Schwartz, CTO of Genomenon Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Putting Ann Arbor artists on the payroll

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Arts & Culture

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November 11, 2015

Being a professional artist can be a hard row to hoe. Luckily, there are Ann Arbor businesses that see the value in bringing creative folks onto their staff. 

Arbor Brewing Co puts on a new face after 20 years downtown

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General

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November 11, 2015

Big changes are coming to Arbor Brewing Co as the ownership plans to mark its 20th anniversary with a comprehensive face-lift of the brewpub.The microbrewery plans to revamp its bar, dining room seating, entryway, kitchen, and bathrooms in an effort to modernize the establishment and make it more accessible. The restaurant has also promoted one of its employees to executive chef and plans to launch a new menu when it reopens early next year. "We're doing a lot," says Rene Greff, who co-founded Arbor Brewing Co with her husband Matt Greff. When all the dust settles patrons will notice the changes right away, and throughout the eatery. The entryway will be reconfigured so the door is on the side of the entry vestibule. The bar will also be redesigned into a U shape by removing a faux wall behind the existing bar. The new bar will be able to accommodate more seating and make it easier for people to move through the dinning area. "It's going to make it a more pleasant entrance," Greff says. "It's also going to make it a more pleasant experience for the people at the bar." The connection between the main dinning room and game room will be enlarged by removing parts of the wall and a few booths. The downstairs bathrooms will also be renovated. The Greffs also plans to repaint the interior, tear out the old carpet, do some improvements to the kitchen, and upgrade the lighting. The $200,000 renovation will keep the overall capacity (210 people) and seating (150 people) neutral because of the larger bar and loss of some booths. Work is expected to begin January 4th in the basement. The whole brewpub will shut down for two weeks on January 11th. The new menu will debut when it reopens, featuring vegetarian- and vegan-friendly fare made from scratch inspired by a recent menu revamp at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, which the Greffs also own. "I like to think of it as gastropub meets food truck," Greff says. "It's still pub fare but with more interesting ingredients." Source: Rene Greff, co-founder of Arbor Brewing Co Writer: Jon Zemke  

New apt building planned for south of downtown Ann Arbor

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General

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November 11, 2015

A new mid-rise apartment building is heading for the greater downtown Ann Arbor area. The Residences at 615 South Main will replace three commercial buildings on the 600 block of South Main with a six-story apartment building. Plans have recently been submitted to the city and the approval process is expected to go on through this winter. The development would go up across the street from 618 South Main, another mid-rise apartment building that opened earlier this year. The Residences at 615 S Main would feature ground floor commercial space and 245 units, including townhomes, micro-studios (less than 400 square feet), studios, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, four-bedroom, and five bedroom units. "We probably have the most diverse collection of housing for any development in the city," says Brad Moore, president of J Bradley Moore & Associates, which is the co-architect on the project. About 51 percent of the units are comprised of the studios, micro studios and townhomes. The larger bedroom-count units only account for a handful of units. The townhomes will feature two bedrooms and a flex space for a potential work-from-home business. Moore says the development isn’t targeting any one specific demographic. "Anybody who wants to live close to downtown," Moore says. "We imagine the micro studios will be popular with people who work downtown and want to live close to downtown without paying a lot of money." The development will also feature one floor of underground parking of about 180 parking spots. It will also have 5,000 square feet of commercial space where the builders plan to incorporate an 19th Century buggy factory into the overall development. The current businesses that occupy the commercial space The Residences at 615 South Main will replace will also be given an opportunity to reopen in the new building. "It's possible some of the tenants from the existing buildings could locate into the new buildings," Moore says. The development is currently scheduled to go before the city's Design Review Board later this month. The approval process is expected to take the rest of this winter and possibly go into the spring. A construction timeline is roughly set for 14-18 months. Source: Brad Moore, president of J Bradley Moore & Associates Writer: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor libraries are on the cutting edge of innovation

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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November 11, 2015

The rise of the Internet culture has challenged libraries across the nation to rethink their role in the community. Luckily, the Ann Arbor Library is on the cutting edge of this thinking, evolving its mission and offerings in exciting and unconventional ways. Excerpt: The Ann Arbor District Library has been adding to its voluminous collection of circulating science equipment. It offers telescopes, portable digital microscopes and backyard bird cameras, among other things — items that many patrons cannot afford to buy. Dave Menzo, a 28-year-old musician, created a whole album by borrowing electronic music equipment, including a photocell-controlled synthesizer called a Thingamagoop. Read the rest here.

Ghostly Records featured in NY Times

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Arts & Culture

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November 4, 2015

We here at Concentrate have long sung the praises of Ghostly Records, which was founded by U-M alum Sam Valenti. Heck, they even provided us with music for our videos. Now, the New York Times' business section is finally noticing this cooler-than-cool company. Excerpt: "A diversified product line can be a smart survival strategy in a struggling business, which the music industry continues to be 16 years after Napster shattered the highly profitable model of selling CDs. But according to Sam Valenti IV, Ghostly’s founder, the nonmusical goods that it sells are not a hedge against declining record sales. Music, he said, is profitable and by far Ghostly’s biggest product." Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor’s SkySpecs preps to launch drone technology

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General

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November 4, 2015

SkySpecs is gearing up to launch its drone technology early next year. It's on the brink of raising a significant amount of seed capital and already testing its product with customers. The Ann Arbor-based startup is developing aerial drone technology that uses artificial intelligence to inspect infrastructure in dangerous locations, such as the blades of wind turbines. It's WingMan platform allows the aircraft to hover near an object without fear of hitting it. Check out a demonstration of the company's WingMan technology here. "Our first field prototypes are working well," says Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs. "We have customers who are working with them in the field. We’re planning a full roll-out in 2016." SkySpecs got its start three years ago with aspirations of making drones in the rapidly growing industry. That focus shifted to creating technology that makes sure drones can avoid running into objects they are buzzing around, such as wind turbines or hard-to-reach parts of bridges. Now SkySpecs has shifted again to offering an end-to-end solution for its customers, equipping drones with its technology so operations are turn-key for its customers. Ellis noticed many of SkySpecs potential customers loved the technology but didn’t know much about drones. "It was extra work for us," Ellis says. "They would come to us and ask us which drones to buy." SkySpecs won the grand prize worth $500,000 from last year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and is part of the Techstars accelerator in New York City. It currently has a team of eight people mainly based in Ann Arbor after hiring a couple of engineers and a business development professional over the last year. The seed capital raise is expected to help SkySpecs grow out its team rapidly next year as it begins to roll out its technology on a national scale. It currently has two enterprise customers but Ellis doesn’t expect that his client list to remain that short for long. "We have more in the pipeline," Ellis says. Source: Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Mountain Labs brings big data muscle to healthcare industry

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Economic Development

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November 4, 2015

Healthcare is known for its seemingly insurmountable bureaucracies and mountains of data. Mountain Labs wants to simplify that. The Ann Arbor-based startup recently launched a public health surveillance platform called "Symport" that helps hospitals and medical researchers simplify big data and complicated processes. The end goal is to streamline the healthcare system. "We're tracking clinical data to alert hospital administrators what they are doing that works," says Alex VanDerKolk, president of Mountain Labs. "It also helps clean and classify data sets." Mountain Labs counts the University of Michigan and Henry Ford health systems as customers, along with a smattering of other research health systems across the Midwest. It raised a $200,000 angel round last year and is in the process of securing more capital. "We raised another $350,000 on top of the seed round," VanDerKolk says. The 1-year-old company currently employs a team of eight people. VanDerKolk expects his staff to continue to grow as it targets more health systems as customers. "We are growing quickly," VanDerKolk says. "I'd like to have a presence in every state in the Midwest by the end of next year." Source: Alex VanDerKolk, president of Mountain Labs Writer: Jon Zemke