Coverage of those starting up businesses and community resources to help them thrive.
Inventor, author, former Marine and Ann Arbor original, John Rosevear has the kind of biography that makes misfits proud. And now, after 45 years of development, his greatest invention --the Skyclock-- may finally earn him his due.
Ask University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman about economic and entrepreneurial opportunity, and she'll say there is no better place than Michigan and no better time than now.Excerpt:University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said Friday that she believes that Michigan is filled with economic opportunity.Coleman, speaking Friday to the media at an event organized to highlight U-M's University Research Corridor coalition with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, said the state still faces significant challenges. But she said she's "very optimistic" about the future."One of the things that I hear from, at least, business people is we’re become actually a very economical place," she said. "We used to be a high-priced place for companies to come. Now, hey, you can get some pretty good deals here. And it’s beginning to get attention."Read the rest of the story here.
A new type of demolition/rebuild is about to take place just north of downtown Ann Arbor, turning a little house into an ultra-sustainable bed and breakfast.Lansing-based Against The Grain has made plans to convert a late 19th Century home on Fourth Avenue near Wheeler Park into a greener-than-thou bed and breakfast this year for the woman who lives there. "It's a very cool house," Belous says. "We're going to save as much as we can. What we can't save we're going to reuse."The 1,800-square-foot farm house was moved to its current location in the 1920s. It will be deconstructed into a 2,800-square-foot B&B complete with organic garden. The owner plans to also hold organic cooking classes.The $350,000 investment will create a colonial-style home with columns and other architectural details that fit in with the historic neighborhood. The project is expected to take one year to complete.Source: Jason Belous, owner of Against the GrainWriter: Jon Zemke
Apple is hoping to hit it big with its new iPad computer tablet. The software development companies in Ann Arbor plan to take their slice of that pie if it does. Excerpt:Software developers in the Ann Arbor region believe that Apple’s long-rumored digital tablet announcement today could generate more opportunities to create and sell mobile applications.Despite a firestorm of rumors about Apple’s announcement, most reports point to a 10-inch device that hastens electronic book reading, allows Internet browsing and introduces a new way to access newspapers, magazines and possibly even TV.Many Ann Arbor software developers are energized by the opportunities that Apple’s tablet could present.“I think absolutely everyone who’s an iPhone developer will also be a tablet developer,” said Ben Kazez, CEO of Ann Arbor-based Mobiata, which reaped more than $1 million in app sales through Apple in 2009. “It does feel like a similar climate to me with the launch of the iPhone.”Read the rest of the story here.
A little more than a year ago, Rich and Mickey Swortzel started New Eagle. Today the Ypsilanti-based start-up cuts paychecks for 12, including independent contractors and interns. It hopes to hire another 10 engineers by summer.New Eagle specializes in creating electronic control modules (think of the computer systems that help make your car run) for hybrids and the engineering services that support them. The Swotzels started New Eagle after the company they worked for (MotoTron) was acquired and moved many of its operations to Colorado."We wanted to start our own company," says Mickey Swortzel, business manager of New Eagle. "We wanted to enter this market."This market (Ie. Metro Detroit) is building the brains behind electric and hybrid vehicles. New Eagle's principal product, MotoHawk, facilitates electronic controls. There are about such controls in an average car today that control everything from the windows to the locks."Picture 20 laptops in your car measuring X and telling your car to do Y if Z happens," Mickey Swortzel says.New Eagle plans to facilitate its growth this year by pushing its engineering service sales. The idea is they will spark more sales in its principal product.Source: Mickey Swortzel, business manager of New EagleWriter: Jon Zemke
With a little more than a year into its operations, Ann Arbor State Bank is picking up the slack as other banks remain gun shy about, well, banking.The downtown Ann Arbor-based bank opened in one of the worst financial environments in modern memory, and it has surpassed most of its goals when it comes to deposits, making bank loans and extending lines of credit. Oh, and it hired another five people and plans to do so again this year."We actually exceeded our loan and deposit volume goals," says Peter Schork, president of Ann Arbor State Bank. "That's due to the current environment and that generally banks are not lending. We are."Ann Arbor State Bank closed $58 million in deposits, $48 million in loans, including $18 million in residential loans. It serviced about 1,000 customers. Around 95 percent of the bank's business consisted of commercial loans to small businesses, owner-occupied residences and home-equity lines of credit.The company started with 16 employees and has grown to 21 today. Schork expects the bank's growth to continue this year, allowing it add another 3-5 employees.Source: Peter Schork, president of Ann Arbor State BankWriter: Jon Zemke
One of the main ideas behind Ann Arbor-based start-up Saagara is that proper breathing will lead to a healthier life. The year-old firm also believes it will lead to some new jobs, too.Nagabhjenam Peddi started the company shortly after he left his surgical residency. The firm focuses on providing a holistic approach to better health centered around breathing called Pranayama. "Simply by diet, breathing technique and some exercise you can improve people's health significantly," Peddi says.Today that concept employs Peddi and five independent contractors and the occasional intern. The company hopes to have six employees by this summer when it launches its full service. The goal is to start its customer base this year, taking in a few corporations, health-insurance companies and even people who just want to live healthier lives.Saagara, which is sanskrit for an ocean of ideas, hopes to expand into other languages and both Internet and smart phone applications in the near future. It has already taken in some Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Funds to help accomplish this and is working on bringing in some venture capital."We're speaking to some private-equity firms to get some more capital," Peddi says. "We're doing this in stages."Source: Nagabhjenam Peddi, president of SaagaraWriter: Jon Zemke
The little student-bred start-up that could, MyBandStock.com, is switching up its game.The year-old start-up based around selling stock in local band projects is tweaking its business plan and relaunching its website this week. The new business model focuses on connecting underground artists and fans via digital access and will feature bands based on user demand. Also, instead of just purchasing straight shares in a band, users can create their own investment through purchasing the band's material or interacting on its website. That can range from buying band merchandise to gaining access to a live stream of a video Q & A with the artist.MyBandStock.com is run by a collective of about a dozen young people and a few more behind-the-scenes investors. Think of it as a Wu-Tang Clan style of conglomeration with students and new alumni from the likes of the University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Michigan State University. They all work from their own virtual offices (i.e. laptop), laboring away on their passion – music. Source: Taylor Hulyk, spokeswoman for MyBandStock.comWriter: Jon Zemke
here is a new bit of conventional wisdom forming in local circles: Michigan (the Ann Arbor area especially) is way ahead of the rest of nation when it comes to building small businesses and cultivating entrepreneurs. Some concrete evidence of that popped up last week at the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship in Ann Arbor's Skyline High School. Attendance almost doubled, going from 550 last year to 917 last week. That helped create a buzz of optimism about the state's small business climate that seems to be hitting a tipping point."Michigan really does do certain things well," says Gerry Roston, chair of the planning committee for this year's ACE and owner of the Pair of Docs Consulting in Saline. "There are a number of organizations that support entrepreneurship. We seem to have a lot more of these than other states and they work together really well."He points to newcomers like Ann Arbor SPARK as gaining traction and working well with established organizations, like the New Enterprise Forum. A main focus of groups like this revolve around the idea of what's best for the entrepreneur. It's ethos like this that have attracted economic development agencies from Delaware and California to this year's ACE."They come to Michigan to see how it's done," Roston says.That's not to say the local entrepreneur community has arrived. There is a lot of work to be done to support these burgeoning small businesses. Chief among those is start-up capital in an environment where it seems lenders are frozen in carbonite Han Solo style."We need to grow our venture capital community," Roston says. "We have fund here. They're great funds but they're smaller funds."Which might explain one of the reasons why ACE was so popular this year. The event holds several contests that feature cold, hard start-up cash for the winners. Some of those include $1,000 for Intercollegiate Business Idea Pitch Competition (won by Ken Lange of Saginaw Valley State University for a telescoping dock), a year of corporate membership for NEF and virtual incubator tenancy in Ann Arbor SPARK (won by Howard Brown of Oak Park-based CircleBuilder) and even $140 for the Twitter Biz Idea Contest, which was won by Barbara O’Connell of Ypsilanti's WhereToFindCare.com.Source: Gerry Roston, chair of the planning committee for Annual Collaboration for EntrepreneurshipWriter: Jon Zemke
One billion is quite the number. That includes nine zeros, takes up 10 digits and when talking about money makes an awful lot of people happy.Those people are involved in research at the University of Michigan, which crossed the $1 billion mark, and included $218 million in federal stimulus cash, for research spending last year. It's a first for U-M."It has a substantial impact in accelerating the programs we have already," says Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the University of Michigan. An audio link of his presentation to the U-M Board of Regents about the university's research efforts can be found here.Of course the problem with reaching new heights is staying there. A $200 million plus bump in one-time funding from the federal stimulus isn't a long-term proposition, so it seems logical the university will have to work hard to keep its research spending in the billion-dollar range. However, Forrest likes to point to trends to answer whether such spending is sustainable."We've never fallen back from a number," Forrest says. "It's always increasing."Other fun numbers recently released from the university in regards to recent research activities are: Research spending is up 9.4 percentThe university produced 350 inventions last yearEight new start-ups were licensed300 university employees are being moved into the newly acquired orth Campus Research Complex (the old Pfizer campus) Source: Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke
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