Entrepreneurship

Ann Arbor start-ups dominate Accelerate Michigan semi-finals

Ann Arbor-based start-ups are dominating the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, taking half of the 50 spaces in the semi-finals.Elizabeth Parkinson, director of marking and public relations for Ann Arbor SPARK, says this sort of showing isn't an anomaly. Tree Town-based start-ups regularly take half of the cash from Michigan's statewide Pre-Seed Capital and Microloan funds. "We used judges from across the state," says Parkinson. Ann Arbor SPARK is the lead organizer behind the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. "Everyone has three looks from three different judges. Everybody got a fair look."And Ann Arbor firms shined through. On top of that another three startups are based in (Saline-based Sensors and Brighton-based Spinal Ventures) or have ties to (ShadePlex started in Ypsilanti) communities nearby. The list includes a number of firms that are well known for a variety of reasons, including Discera, which emerged as an issue in the recent gubernatorial race.Among the companies are Accio Energy, Advanced Battery Control and POWERleap in alternative energy, along with Arbor Photonics and ePack in next generation manufacturing. The medical device companies include Compendia Bioscience, Epsilon Imaging, Hygieia, OcuSciences, Vir(Sn) and ImBio. The life science firms are FreeStride Therapeutics, Life Magnatics, NextGen Metabolomics, and RetroSense Theraputics. The rest include Current Motor Company (advanced transportation); ElectroDynamic Applications and Mayaterials (both in advanced materials); Evigia Systems and Pixel Velocity (both defense & homeland security); Ix Innovations and Monarch Antenna (both products and services); TherapyCharts, and Reveal Design (IT).The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is offering $1 million in prizes to start-ups in Michigan or planning to move to Michigan. The idea is to showcase the state's entrepreneurial ecosystem to a large audience of investors in town for the Big Chill hockey game at Michigan Stadium on Dec. 11.Source: Elizabeth Parkinson, director of marking & public relations for Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon Zemke

Ghostly International celebrates decade of electronic music innovation

Ghostly International celebrates a decade of making electronic music in the music industry by helping reinvent the sector. The Detroit Free Press takes a look at how Sam Valenti IV and company did it.Excerpt:How do you make a young record company thrive in a battered industry? You stop trying to sell records, and start selling a concept.Such is the mission for Ann Arbor's Ghostly International, which came to life a decade ago in a U-M dorm room and has blossomed into one of the indie world's most respected names."The music industry has changed so much," says founder Sam Valenti IV. "There's a push toward live performance, toward artists as brands -- the things that can't be downloaded. The experience and the energy around music is still high, but the actual medium is just not as important to people."Read the rest of the story here.

Leon Speakers turns speakers into art, jobs

Leon Speakers got its start in 1997 when a trio of University of Michigan graduates who loved music, art, and engineering decided to combine art with audio by creating a custom speaker company."We're still trying to mix art with audio and business with Bohemia," says Noah Kaplan, president of Leon Speakers and the only one of the original three co-founders still with the company that reinvented the speaker industry. The firm got its start building custom speakers using silk screens and exotic hardwoods, taking advantage of a market that wanted better looking stereo speakers that could be installed in odd places. Kaplan says Leon Speakers came up with sound solutions for flat-panel TVs, developed the first speakers specifically for plasma TVs, and invented the sound bar."We were always trying to get the momentum," Kaplan says. "We knew plasma would take over the world. We have been working our faces off to keep up with technology."That has allowed Leon Speakers to establish a downtown Ann Arbor retail presence, a Whitmore Lake factory, $3 million in annual revenues, 650 dealers and a staff of 30 people. It expects to grow its revenue 55 percent in 2011 and make a few more hires on top of the six people it added this year."We're just starting to hit our stride," Kaplan says.Source: Noah Kaplan, president of Leon SpeakersWriter: Jon Zemke

State should dig into “Economic Gardening”, U-M says

In what might be the academia version of Buy Local, a University of Michigan report says the state's government shouldn't be trying to lure other region's corporations. Instead, it should be practicing "economic gardening," or focusing on growing its own organic start-ups. Excerpt:Economic gardening is a new economic development strategy used to grow local economies by cultivating existing businesses, rather than, or in addition to, hunting for new businesses to relocate from the outside. This report presents findings about economic gardening and related activities in communities across Michigan, as well as the opinions of Michigan's local government leaders about whether or not the strategy can succeed in their communities.Read the entire report here and more here and here.

Founder Q&A: Bill Wagner and Dianne Marsh

With over 100 start-ups, Bill Wagner and Dianne Marsh of SRT Solutions see Ann Arbor as a worthy contender to Silicon Valley for talent and jobs. Concentrate gets the duo's view of employee-friendly work spaces, active learning, and the TED talks.

Building An Empire With A Burrito Joint

To the untrained eye, Adam Lowenstein and Justin Herrick look like accidental entrepreneurs. Tossing aside their academic studies, the former Californians opened a burrito joint and just kept growing. From Big Ten Burrito to Goodtime Charley's to Alley Bar to the alt-fueled BTB party buses, the two friends have built a small kingdom of successful businesses.

Silicon Valley transplant founds start-up Staxup

It all started with a XXX. Brendan Doms had just moved to Ann Arbor from Silicon Valley last spring and needed a cost-effective-yet-reliable Internet connection for his laptop. The options were plentiful but the system that provided feedback on them wasn't as dynamic. That led the young serial entrepreneur to start working on Staxup."I saw a lot of room for improvement," Doms says. "So I just took my idea and made it."Staxup creates a rating system for a variety of products and topics, showing how certain products stack up to similar choices. The new Ann Arbor-based website provides a quick, visual alternative to reading product reviews using aggregated web info. Think of it as sort of a Kayak for product reviews.Doms got the website up and running earlier this fall. He is focusing on a viral marketing campaign of search engine optimization and social media to promote it over the next year. He hopes to harness advertising and referral sales to places like Amazon to create enough revenue to make it a self-sustaining business. If that plan works out, he expects Staxup to make its first hire in 2011.Source: Brendan Doms, founder of StaxupWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ann Arbor’s Dug Song calls for grassroots entrepreneurial support; Xconomy listens

BodegaBid establishes virtual goods exchange, plans to double staffing

Lots of people love the games on social media sites like Facebook's Mafia or Farmville. So much so that gamers are usually willing to spend a few bucks for virtual goods. But what do you do when you're done playing and all you have is a few bucks worth of nada? BodegaBid thinks it has the answer.The 3-year-old startup has created a secondary website for Facebook game trading where gamers can trade and sell virtual goods and recoup some of their money. The website launched out of downtown Ann Arbor in July and is about to announce some new partners for iPhone games. BodegaBid was also recently named "One of the Most Promising Top 10 Early Stage Internet Start Ups" by TiECON Midwest 2010."The growth of virtual goods and currency is huge," says Mark Sendo, founder and CEO of BodegaBid, adding the average gamer spends $22 on virtual goods for these games. "When people are done playing the game they have nothing. I think there is a market for these goods."BodegaBid now employs seven people, five interns, and a few independent contractors. It expects to add 15 positions over the next year as the website grows in popularity. Sendo is working to move the new website's traffic from a few hundred people right now to 100,000 daily users within the next year."We're going to be growing quite a bit," Sendo says.Source: Mark Sendo, founder and CEO of BodegaBidWriter: Jon Zemke