Entrepreneurship

Coverage of those starting up businesses and community resources to help them thrive.

Gaming firm inDepthLearning expands to 7 in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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March 17, 2010

The evolution of in Depth Learning has been a bit of an, um... well, learning curve.The Ann Arbor-based firm got its start in 2001 as an Internet-based learning firm, creating programs and applications that let students access and absorb more information online. Today its has moved to video games, putting a new game on the market and developing another."We realized we could do a lot more with gaming," says Res Midgley, president of in Depth Learning.The switch in emphasis has let the company that started with two people, grow to seven including an independent contractor. It recently hired two people and has plans to continue to hire to keep up with its growth. The company has doubled in size in the last 18 months and has high hopes for 2010-11."We have great expectations for the next year and half," Midgley says.It's latest game is called "Drug Scene Investigators," a video game for kids in grades 7-10. The game works to incorporate reading, library search, and decision-making by combining interest in science, heath and mysteries. Users need to figure out which illegal drugs were consumed by game characters, students search the library, take notes, link discovered information with facts, and reason from the evidence to form conclusions.Source: Res Midgley, president of in Depth LearningWriter: Jon Zemke

Latest in Entrepreneurship

U-M students turn Green Silane into award-winning start-up

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Education

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March 17, 2010

The student entrepreneurs aren't building an empire with Green Silane. They're building an acquisition.It's an idea that is commonly used in the advanced entrepreneurial ecosystems on the coasts, where entrepreneurs build their start-ups with the idea of hitting a big payday not from customers so much as competitors."In 5-6 years we would like to see the potential opportunity of acquisition by one of our competitors," says Matt Schaar, vice president of product development at Green Silane.Schaar, an MBA student at the University of Michigan, and two other university students started Green Silane in September. Since then they have taken the Erb Award for Sustainability at U-M's Ross School of Business' Michigan Business Competition and third place at the Clean Energy Prize, which is sponsored by U-M and DTE Energy. It has led to the acquisition of more than $10,000, which serves as both prize and seed money.Green Silane produces silane gas for customers on-site in a manner that is flexible, low-cost, and environmentally benign. "It compartmentalizes this so it only requires silicone and and hydrogen," Schaar says.Source: Matt Schaar, vice president of product development at Green SalineWriter: Jon Zemke

WSJ describes economy through Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Saline

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Community Development

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March 17, 2010

How the economy is recovering, or at least trying to, can be easily illustrated through the stories of businesses in Ann Arbor, Saline and Ypsilanti.Excerpt:YPSILANTI, Mich.—Thomas Harrison, chief executive of Michigan Ladder Co., has a plan that would contribute to the U.S. economic recovery: Expand the 108-year-old company, adding at least 20 jobs in the process. His chances of getting the loan of $300,000 or more he needs to do so, though, depend in part on what happens to folks like home builder James Haeussler.Both are customers of the same community bank, the Bank of Ann Arbor. Mr. Haeussler is struggling to repay $8.3 million he and a partner borrowed to build a residential community in nearby Saline, Mich. In this economic environment, the bank doesn't want to take a chance on what it sees as a risky new loan to Mr. Harrison."In a world where Jim Haeussler makes it, Tom Harrison will make it," says Timothy Marshall, the bank's president. "But it's not prudent to do both loans at this point in time. We're in a more risk-averse mode."Read the rest of the story here.

MASTERMIND: Rich Sheridan

By Constance Crump

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Arts & Culture

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March 17, 2010

Rich Sheridan feels your pain. As the co-founder, president, and CEO of Menlo Innovations, he's turned a passion for computers and customers into a successful company that produces kinder, gentler, user-friendlier software.

Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor start-ups take big bite of microloans

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Economic Development

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March 10, 2010

The Current Motor Co sees a promising future for its business, especially now that it has received a small-yet-significant chunk of change from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program.The company and its staff of six makes electric mopeds and motorcycles. It will use the money to develop a new moped scooter, among other things."We're using it to help expand our market and protect our intellectual property by writing patents," says John Harding, founder of Current Motor Co.The Ypsilanti-based start-up is one of four companies to split $155,000 in loans from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program. The other company's include Avicenna, Shepherd Intelligent Systems and TRIG Tires and Wheels. These other companies will use the loans, which range between $10,000 and $50,000, to help further develop and market their products and build their core business.Avicenna, a University of Michigan spin-off based in Ann Arbor, develops health-care software applications. Shepherd Intelligent Systems, another U-M spin out based in Ann Arbor, creates software that predicts arrival times for mass transit vehicles, like buses. Southfield-based TRIG Tires and Wheels, based in Southfield, is developing a anti-roll off and run-flat system for vehicle tires.The $1.5 million Michigan Microloan Fund Program is made up of three distinct microloan funds, including the Eastern Washtenaw Microloan Fund ($225,000), Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund ($1 million) and the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Local Development Financing Authority ($275,000). The Michigan Microloan Fund Program, which is administered by Ann Arbor SPARK, has distributed $911,500 to 23 companies since last year.Source: John Harding, president of Current Motor Co.Writer: Jon Zemke

Ypsilanti biz helps IdeaPaint become reality

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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March 10, 2010

When only family and friends believed in IdeaPaint, a promising Massachussetts-based start-up, Ypsilanti's CAS-MI Laboratories gave them a shot at the big time.Excerpt:The young entrepreneurs refused to believe it. "Our joke was, if we could put a man on the moon, we can make dry-erase paint," says Newman, 25.Then they found CAS-MI Laboratories in Ypsilanti, Mich., where the scientists were willing to give their plan a shot and even cover some of the development costs.With the help of $1 million from family, friends and a few angel investors, the group spent the next four years fine-tuning their recipe.Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor’s ERT Systems adds 1, plans for growth

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Community Development

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March 10, 2010

ERT Systems growth has been slow, steady and growing enough to expand its employee base.The Ann Arbor-based software start-up has added one person over the last year, bringing its staff to six people. It is also in the midst of hiring another person, expects to add one more person this year and hopes to bring on a couple more in 2011."We should pretty easily double in size this year," says Dennis Carmichael, president of ERT Systems. "We're also signing some contracts for 2011 that should allow us to maintain that growth rate."ERT Systems creates a product that allows first responders and military-style commanders know exactly where their forces are at all times. Its core product, Onsite ERT (Emergency Resource Tracking), uses a GPS-like system to provide a complete view of the operating theater in real time using lightweight tags and a fast IT system that transmits the information on rugged laptops. The start-up has signed on 30 new customers and a Canadian reseller in 2009. It's in negotiations to land a national reseller this year.The business was born four years ago when John Ellis, a veteran firefighter, ran into Dennis Carmichael, an IT services company owner. Source: Dennis Carmichael, president of ERT SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke

Sakti3’s Sastry points way to Mich recovery with green jobs

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Education

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March 10, 2010

Green businesses are the path to sustainable firms that produce long-lasting jobs and improving the over all environment in Michigan. At least that's what one of Ann Arbor's best known entrepreneurs believes.Excerpt:Ann Marie Sastry, CEO and co-founder of Ann Arbor-based Sakti3, said Michigan can lead the way in vehicle electrification and, in doing so, reduce the state’s carbon footprint and oil dependence and create green jobs.Read the rest of the story here.

Miilo targets Internet sales for minority cosmetics

By Newsroom

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Education

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March 10, 2010

The problem: Finding the best cosmetics for people of color. The solution: Miilo.At least that's what the three budding entrepreneurs at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business are hoping happens with their new start-up. Kimberly Dillon, Oswaldo Maxwell and Kelley Washington are creating a website that specializes in selling cosmetic and hair-care products for women of color."There is a contingent of us who regularly go to Ypsilanti or Detroit to buy beauty products," says Dillon, a U-M MBA student and founder of Miilo. "It's a universal problem. Anytime you go to a new city you have to find the store that sells the products b because they aren't sold at mass retailers."The Ann Arbor-based start-up recently won $1,000 from the Michigan Business Challenge, which is sponsored by U-M's Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. The trio of women is using that cash to finish developing their website, which they hope to launch before the end of the year. Source: Kimberly Dillon, founder of MiiloWriter: Jon Zemke

Tech Brewery comes of age as home for Ann Arbor start-ups

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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March 10, 2010

The Tech Brewery in Ann Arbor is more about the former than the later (Ie. tech not beer) as a good cross section of Tree Town's new economy entrepreneurs continues to congregate where the good beer is made.Excerpt:Ann Arbor’s technology entrepreneurs chose office space in the Northern Brewery building on Jones Drive over the years because of its location, its historic loft-like offices and its reputation as a creative hub.But for nearly a year, a portion of the building has been building its own identity as a unique collaboration among many early-stage companies.Dubbed the Tech Brewery, a vacant 2,000-square-foot space now offers short-term desk space in a collaborative environment that makes it unique among Ann Arbor offices.Most office incubators provide services and shared resources, founder and entrepreneur Dug Song said."That's not really what we're doing here," he said. "…There's a lot more social interaction. More synergistic relationships, since there are a lot of companies doing similar kinds of things."Read the rest of the story here.