Economic Development

Llamasoft expands Ann Arbor headquarters, plans up to 40 new jobs

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October 31, 2012

It's firms like Llamasoft that are contributing to Ann Arbor's declining jobless rate, which fell to 5% in September, according to the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. Llamasoft, a global developer of supply chain software, has added another floor to its headquarters office in the First National Bank building, at 201 S. Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor. The firm is now adding the 5,800-square-foot fifth floor to its office domain. It also occupies the building's fourth floor and half of the third floor. "We've already got about half of our folks in [the new space] and will be fully migrated in before the end of the year." Llamasoft Executive Vice President Toby Brzoznowski says. The company recently announced a partnership with Nike, Inc. to co-develop supply chain software to facilitate the athletic wear firm's logistics and environmental aims. It also recently received a $6 million Series A financing round, a combination of venture capital and an investment from Nike. Llamasoft has almost 150 employees. "We have pretty aggressive growth plans. We've basically doubled in size almost each of the last two years," Brzoznowki says. "I suspect that over the next twelve months, there'll be another 30-40 additional heads that will come on board." Source: Toby Brzoznowski, Llamasoft executive vice president Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Latest in Economic Development

Lindsey Hall Photography adds flash to downtown Ypsilanti

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Arts and Culture

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October 31, 2012

Photographer Lindsey Hall finally has a place to rest her gear after years of working on location to build her business. This Friday, Nov. 2, she opens her own studio, Lindsey Hall Photography, in downtown Ypsilanti, joining other creative entrepreneurs in the area. "There are a lot of new businesses opening up [downtown] and there are a lot of existing businesses. The Rocket is a good one," Hall says. The 700 square-foot second-floor space at 133 W. Michigan Avenue contains an office, waiting area, and studio full of props. Hall specializes in wedding, maternity, family, and portrait photography, done indoors or outside. Hall is working on her own for now, but hopes to hire an assistant as business picks up. "I've had a pretty busy fall...as I get busier I will have a lot of extra work so hopefully I can partner with someone that's very artistic and like-minded and gets as excited as I do about photos." Hall will host an open house on Fri., Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Guests will receive a complimentary short photo session. Source: Lindsey Hall, owner, Lindsey Hall Photography Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Green rental housing program kicks off in Washtenaw County

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Community Development

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October 31, 2012

With its high proportion of college students, rental housing makes up a significant chunk of the housing stock in Washtenaw County. In Ann Arbor alone, rentals comprise about 50% of the residential market, according to Jamie Kidwell, a sustainability associate for the city of Ann Arbor. Accordingly, the city received a grant to improve the energy efficiency of rental units in Washtenaw County, under the umbrella of the county's $3 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Sustainable Communities Challenge grant. The three-year, $250,000 "greening rental housing" grant will be implemented through a partnership between Washtenaw County, the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Michigan, and will focus on two big categories of rentals: student and affordable housing, Kidwell says. Landlords tend to pass utilities costs onto tenants, which gives them little incentive to make energy-cutting improvements to their properties. "Just to put it in scale a little bit, I think U-M cranks out about 7,000 new renters each year...Our residential sector counts for about 20% of our community-wide greenhouse gas emissions. When you start to stack these numbers up, you see that making an impact on our rental housing is going to help our community a lot in terms of energy conservation, increasing our housing affordability," says Kidwell. While there are already city and countywide energy-savings programs in effect, such as the PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy) program for commercial properties and the Better Buildings for Michigan program for homeowners, "I think the challenge will be those smaller-scale landlords, trying to figure out what's the right kind of program for them." The grant funding will cover staffing for the program over the next three years, as well as education and outreach. Over the next couple of months, focus groups of tenants, landlords, and contractors will be convened, with policies and programs likely defined by fall of 2013, says Kidwell. She adds: "Our community energy spend, excluding [U-M's buildings], I believe is about $140 million for natural gas and electricity, so even if you could save 10% of that energy, you've got about $14 million in theory that would go back into our local economy." Source: Jamie Kidwell, sustainability associate, city of Ann Arbor Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

U-M student start-up Youtrivia graduates from TechArb

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 31, 2012

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.

Downtown Ann Arbor-based re:group hires five people

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 31, 2012

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.

BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting adds staff in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 31, 2012

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.

Toyota Tech Center celebrates 35 years of R&D

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 31, 2012

Toyota's North American research and development facilities found not one but four homes in Michigan. To celebrate their three and a half decades here they handed out grants to local non-profits like 826Michigan, Ele's Place, The hope Clinic, and Growing Hope. Excerpt: "Toyota Technical Center (TTC) has been the driving force behind Toyota's North American engineering and research & development (R&D) activities since 1977. Headquartered in Michigan, TTC has R&D facilities in Ann Arbor, Saline, Plymouth and Livonia. In California," Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor VC chairs launch of TiE Detroit Angels

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 24, 2012

An Ann Arbor-based venture capitalist is helping connect Metro Detroit's emerging investment community with the rest of the world by opening the Detroit chapter of TiE called TiE Detroit Angels. Sonali Vijayavargiya is the managing partner of Augment Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that launched out of Ann Arbor last year. She is now chairing TiE Detroit Angels as a way of growing the region's investment community and connecting it with opportunities around the world. TiE Detroit Angels will focus on investing in a broad range of promising start-ups. "This group is made up of a diverse group of people," Vijayavargiya says. "We have physicians and entrepreneurs. We will invest across sectors." TiE is a global, not-for-profit, non-political, and non-religious organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurs around the world. When TiE first started it stood for The Indus Entrepreneurs, which signifies the ethnic South Asian or Indus roots of the founders. Today TiE stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise. TiD Detroit Angels will focus on forming an investment consortium of wealthy individuals willing to provide seed capital to promising startups in Metro Detroit. The group expects to grow to a size of about 30 members within its first year and will look at the pitches from dozens of local startups from a number of different sectors. Source: Sonali Vijayavargiya, chair of TiE Detroit Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

AdAdapted expands staff as it expands mobile app platform

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 24, 2012

Internet companies big and small have been struggling with how best to commercialize advertising on mobile devices. A new start-up based in Ann Arbor, AdAdapted, thinks it has an answer. "Mobile advertising really isn't working for anyone," says Michael Pedersen, founder of AdAdapted. The Tech Brewery-based start-up's software solves this problem with an advertising platform that allows advertisers to work with developers to strategically place ads in things like mobile video games. Think of it as an in-app product placement. "We allow the developer to have more control where an ad will go," Pedersen says. AdAdapted recently received financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund. Loan amounts from that fund aren't disclosed but are about five-figures in size on average. The 4-month-old start-up and its seven team members plan to use its loan to expand its product platform and prepare for the launch of its Beta version. "The Beta should be done with in the next few weeks," Pedersen says. "We're also working on landing our first pilot." Source: Michael Pedersen, founder of AdAdapted Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Mary Thiefels at her studio on North Main Street

Photo Essay: The Art Of Transformation

By Doug Coombe

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Arts and Culture

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October 24, 2012

Aesthetically speaking, the shelter in Ann Arbor's Allmendinger Park is best described as functional. Others might be less generously inclined. This weekend, however, it becomes an example of how public art and community engagement can transform a nondescript building into a vibrant neighborhood asset.