Innovation News

Esperion Therapeutics adds 5 staff, preps for IPO

By Newsroom

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May 22, 2013

Esperion Therapeutics is adding staff, closing on a round of seed capital and prepping for an initial public offering of stock later this year. The pharmaceutical firm's staff recently jumped to 13 people after making five hires over the last year. It also has a job opening for a senior director of clinical & PT staff. Helping make that expansion possible is the recent securing of $33 million in preferred stock financing. The seed capital round was led by Longitude Capital with Aisling Capital, Alta Partners, Domain Associates, Arboretum Ventures and Asset Management also participating. Tim Mayleben, Esperion Therapeutics' CEO, declined to comment on the company's growth because it recently filed for an IPO. IPOs come with quiet periods where company representatives are not allowed to promote the upcoming IPO, often leading them to decline speaking about the company altogether to be safe. Esperion Therapeutics has historically been an Ann Arbor-based company, scoring a $1.3 billion exit when Pfizer acquired it in 2004. Company founder Roger Newton reacquired the firm in 2008 and eventually moved to the Michigan Life Sciences Innovation Center in Plymouth, which is managed by Ann Arbor SPARK. Esperion Therapeutic's most advanced product candidate, ETC-1002, is being developed for patients with hypercholesterolemia and other cardiometabolic risk factors. ETC-1002 is a small-molecule metabolic regulator of imbalances in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and inflammation. It is being developed to address the underlying causes of metabolic diseases and reduce multiple risk factors associated with them. Source: Tim Mayleben, CEO of Esperion Therapeutics Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Latest in Innovation News

Kentaro launches real-estate web product in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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May 22, 2013

Kentaro, formerly Kentaro Web Design + SEO, has traditionally made its way through its first few years providing web services to local real-estate agents. Now the Ann Arbor-based business is coming out with its own web platform to serve the same purpose. Real Estate Espresso launched last month with a handful of local real-estate agents. The web platform serves as a lead-generation service for real-estate professionals by focusing on connecting home buyers and sellers with local agents. "This product is a means to automate a majority of the real-estate process," says Kentaro Roy, founder & president of Kentaro. The four-person firm hired a web developer about six months ago. It is currently working on perfecting Real Estate Espresso and developing a marketing plan for it. "We have gotten really good results and feedback from the first agents," Roy says. Source: Kentaro Roy, founder & president of Kentaro Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Amanda Taylor at Eastern Michigan University

Guest Blogger: Amanda Taylor

By Amanda Taylor

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Diversity & Equity

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May 22, 2013

Continuing our series of new college grads giving their post-grad outlooks, EMU alumna Amanda Taylor, who chose to remain rooted in Ann Arbor for her graduate psychology studies, writes on the area's educational and socioeconomic diversity.

Commerce Guys to launch online mobile shopping app

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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May 15, 2013

Commerce Guys is adding to its staff in America, hiring three people in the last year, adding another now, and is looking bring another three on soon. The Ann Arbor-based tech firm employs 48 people, including 18 in the U.S. The 5-year-old e-commerce company merged with a French firm three years ago. Commerce Guys also has two interns in Ann Arbor, who are French students working in the U.S. It is also in the process of hiring for a new position with a candidate from MichiganWorks! and has three more job openings for software developers. Commerce Guys is an e-commerce company that integrates Drupal, a popular open source content management system, with its customer's Internet sales platform. It is transitioning from a service-oriented firm to one that creates its own software platform thanks to a 30-percent jump in revenues. It is in the process of launching Commerce Mobile, a mobile app that brings the online shopping experience to consumers on any Apple mobile device. "The real value we can add is based around a repeatable product we can sell," says Scott Dahlgren, managing director, North America, for Commerce Guys. Commerce Guys is also working to make its Commerce Mobile platform customizable for its clients to help accelerate its adoption. "It really has the opportunity to grow adoption very rapidly," Dahlgren says. "It allows somebody to use it easily." Source: Scott Dahlgren, managing director, North America for Commerce Guys Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

HistoSonics looks to add jobs as it preps for clinical trials

By Newsroom

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Innovation News

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May 15, 2013

HistoSonics is getting ready to start clinical trials later this year, which will mark the beginning of the last product development phase for the Ann Arbor-based start-up. The 3.5-year-old firm, a spin-off from the University of Michigan, is developing a medical device that uses tightly focused ultrasound pulses to treat prostate disease in a non-invasive manner with robotic precision. The company's name, HistoSonics, is a combination of histo (meaning tissue) and sonics (meaning sound waves). HistoSonics recently finished its regulatory approval process and institutional board of review approval. It is now prepping to begin its first clinical study, which will take up to one year to complete. "I expect we will have this done in the next month or so," says Christine Gibbons, president & COO of HistoSonics. She adds that the main clinical study after that will take two to three years to complete. The company is currently looking to add two clinical research managers to its team of 10 employees and one intern. Making that possible is the $11 million in venture capital HistoSonices scored in 2009. It is in the process of raising a Series B round of seed capital. Gibbons hopes to land between $12 million and $15 million in the Series B. Source: Christine Gibbons, president & COO of HistoSonics Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Dynamic Edge hires 6 as it grows IT work in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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May 15, 2013

Dynamic Edge is growing its business thanks to its customers' ability to sleep. The Ann Arbor-based IT firm's Fixed IT program specializes in providing a holistic and comprehensive solution for its customers. The idea is that Dynamic Edge's technology either comes in and takes care of IT problems before they crash a system or nips them in the bud before they even happen. "It allows people to sleep better knowing their systems are always up," says Bruce McCully, CEO of Dynamic Edge. "We updated our ability to do that for them." Sales of the the Fixed IT program have increased with existing customers, which has allowed the 14-year-old firm to add some additional clientele. Many of those customers are also looking for automated systems to help them deal with new healthcare and SEC regulations. The jump in revenues from that work prompted the company to hire six people, such as systems administrators, in the last year, bringing its staff to 39 employees and an intern. It also has four IT positions open right now, and a spot for an intern. Source: Bruce McCully, CEO of Dynamic Edge Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

DavaRay turns light into healing power for chronic pain

By Newsroom

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Innovation News

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May 15, 2013

Cliché tells us that sunlight is one of the best weapons to make something better. One Ann Arbor-based start-up is turning those words of wisdom into a business. DavaRay is developing a proprietary heat dissipation technology that uses light to stimulate the healing process. The technology uses a monochromatic LED ray to help soothe chronic pain. DavaRay claims that its Nanobeam 940 is used by a number of professional sports teams, including the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Pistons. "It's really getting a lot of attention in the sports industry," says David Arndt, co-founder of DavaRay. Arndt was inspired to start the business after suffering through chronic neck pain from a motorcycle accident. He found some relief in infrared therapy but the company that made the technology went out of the business, so the mechanical engineer decided to make his own product. The 6-year-old company now employs seven people and a couple dozen independent contractors. It is currently working to raise seed capital so it can ramp up production and marketing. The company will present at next week's Michigan Growth Capital Symposium. "We have gone from one guy with a sore neck from a motorcycle accident to treating thousands of patients with chronic pain," Arndt says. "We're taking it to the next level." Source: David Arndt, co-founder of DavaRay Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ann Arbor State Bank adds 7 staff, opens new offices

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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May 15, 2013

Ann Arbor State Bank is growing on a number of different fronts, expanding its loan portfolio, adding to its staff and opening new offices. The downtown Ann Arbor-based bank launched in 2009 and has grown to $187 million in assets with $153 million in deposits. It has grown its assets by $29 million in the last year, partly thanks to $20 million in new deposits over that same period. "Our growth is easily filled with deposits," says Peter Schork, president & CEO of Ann Arbor State Bank. "We have no triggers to stop making loans besides loan demand." Ann Arbor State Bank opened a mortgage office in downtown Ann Arbor last year, which now has a staff of 10 people. The bank also opened a loan office in Jackson with a staff of two people. Its commercial loans have grown from $83 million last year to $103 million today. "We have done very well in terms of growth and loan portfolio," Schork says. Ann Arbor State Bank has hired seven people in the last year. It now has a staff of 32 employees and the occasional intern. Source: Peter Schork, president & CEO of Ann Arbor State Bank Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

FlockTAG’s loyalty card technology hits major milestones in 1st year

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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May 15, 2013

A little more than a year ago, FlockTAG was a dream of a couple of entrepreneurs looking to reinvent customer-loyalty programs. Today it's a start-up with technology that can be found in numerous small businesses across most of Michigan's major cities. The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up raised $250,000 in angel funding last year to create a technology platform that works as a universal loyalty card for a broad range of retailers and other businesses. That technology is now being used at 100 retail businesses in Detroit, Novi, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Bloomington (Indiana), Champaign (Illinois) and Columbus. It also has 100,000 card holders who have used them 1.2 million times. "We learned you can never be customer-centric enough," says David Lin, CEO & co-founder of FlockTAG. "How can we provide better user experience? How can we provide more value?" FlockTAG is looking to expand further throughout the Midwest later this year. It is now focusing on creating more customer engagement on how best to deliver customer data to businesses without overwhelming them with information. "It's really a careful balancing act," Lin says. FlockTAG has expanded its staff to a dozen employees and two interns. It recently made four key hires of sales and technology professionals. The 1-year-old business is also working to raise a Series A round of funding worth $1.5 million. It's presenting at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium next week to help hit that goal. Lin hopes to wrap up its Series A financing this summer. Source: David Lin, CEO & co-founder of FlockTAG Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Race car simulation firm Image Space capitalizes on steady growth

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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May 8, 2013

Apparently slow and steady does win the race, even for tech firms that make race car simulation software. Image Space has made its mark as a video game development firm since 1992. Its principal product is the rFactor and rFactor2 systems, which allow users to build their own four-wheel vehicle and use it in a racing simulator. Slowly and steadily improving those platforms has allowed the downtown Ann Arbor-based company to continue its relentless growth in recent years. "Our growth will be slow and steady," says Gjon Camaj, vice president of Image Space. "We only bring people in as we need them. Our growth has always been slow and steady." Image Space now employs a staff of 20 people, a dozen of which work in downtown Ann Arbor. The rest work remotely. The firm hired one engineer six months ago and is in the process of hiring another engineer right now. That expanding team will help to continue to grow the rFactor platforms, including its new rFactor Pro. Its new products are being used both by professional racing teams and by companies looking to provide a realistic game-playing experience. "We have sold that to a number of racing organizations, including a number of Formula 1 teams," Camaj says. "We have also used that software in other ways and sold it to marketing companies." Source: Gjon Camaj, vice president of Image Space Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.