Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor’s North Coast Tech Investors hits $100M in VC

By Newsroom

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March 25, 2009

Twenty years ago venture capitalist Hugo Braun left California and came back to Michigan, taking a job at Access Ventures. Ten years later he and another partner turned it into North Coast Technology Ventures with $10 million under its management. Today that number has reached $100 million and is still expanding.The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm is getting ready to close on another investment vehicle (fund) this summer. It will be another large chunk of change that will allow North Coast Technology Ventures to make investments for at least the next few years."We feel this is an excellent time to make investments," Braun says. "Even though it's a depressing time there are a lot of excellent ideas out there."North Coast Technology Ventures is made up of Braun, one other partner and one more employee. The company will also have interns during the summer months, occasional venture partners and entrepreneurs in residence. It also uses its offices to help incubate companies in which it has made investments. Most of those companies are local."The nearer they are to us the more attractive they are," Braun says. "Our investments are in the Midwest and most of them are in Michigan."North Coast Technology Investors invests in a wide range of start-ups. They include the likes of software firm Arbortext and life sciences company Avidimer Therapeutics. Source: Hugo Braun, principal of North Coast Technology InvestorsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti pushes envelope with news consumption

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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March 25, 2009

A media revolution is taking place in Washtenaw County and the first casualty appears to be The Ann Arbor News, a venerable 174-year-old local institution.Replacing it will be a news website, AnnArbor.com, and a newspaper that publishes every Thursday and Sunday. The Ann Arbor News as we know it will cease to be in July. Booth Newspapers, which owns the paper, plans to continue providing news coverage in the Ann Arbor area.The purpose of reporting on local news will be the same, but the website's staff will be significantly smaller than the newspapers. How that reporting is done, what it looks like and how its presented are still details that are being worked out."This is not the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor," says Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor News and who will serve as the executive vice president of AnnArbor.com. "This is just a changing in how it's served."But what happens next for local journalism is not as clear. A number of independent, web-based news organizations have popped up in recent years, including this publication, YpsiNews.com, The Ann Arbor Chronicle and the Ypsilanti Citizen. Local blogish websites, Mark Maynard and Arbor Update, have also surfaced as information alternatives.Much of the initial conversation in the aftermath of The Ann Arbor News' announcement has centered on how the business model for newspapers is irreparably broken, leaving a huge void when it comes to a community voice and watchdog. Some are not so certain."The model of current journalism is broken," says Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com. "It's not unusual that the people who broke that model are running around saying the sky is falling."Almost in the same breath, Pierce says the recent developments with The Ann Arbor News are a "huge concern for me." Pierce started his website in 2006 after he thought local news coverage in his community was lacking and decided to step up. He isn't a journalist by trade, but his sometimes muckraking site has served as a watchdog of local government and events. But he concedes the community needs more than just him. He credits the Ann Arbor News for having the wherewithal and deep pockets to go after the hard investigative stories."There is no way my little media outlet can afford to do that," Pierce says. "The Ann Arbor News has been willing to spend the money on important fights like the President's house and the EMU murders. Even if The Ann Arbor Chronicle, Ypsilanti Citizen and Ypsi News combined resources there is no way we could take the EMU lawyers to task."He is currently looking at other avenues to help deepen local pockets, like Spot.us, and keep local media watchdogs barking. Not that there aren't working watchdogs today. It's just that they are more in the puppy stage of life. But they have been able to bark loud enough recently to make local government meetings more accessible and open to the public."There is this notion that real journalists are doing investigative reporting, routing out corruption, asking tough questions," says Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. "There is the idea of the Fourth Estate. We aspire to some extent to fill that."Source: Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com, Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle and Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor NewsWriter: Jon Zemke

Home But Not Alone

By Amy Kuras

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Community Development

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March 25, 2009

Cohousing - It's not just for hippies anymore. Sure, suburban condo complexes are the last place you'd expect a cooperative living community, but Scio Township (of all places) actually boasts three. And they focus on the virtues we've been taught since kindergarten: participation and sharing.

Ann Arbor’s MyBandStock.com opens local music to local investors

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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March 25, 2009

Many music entrepreneurs try to go the Berry Gordy route of making it in the biz: Start an independent label, sign acts, tour, sell records, repeat. The dozen or so people behind Ann Arbor's MyBandStock.com look at things from a slightly different view point.MyBandStock.com's motto is to give music back to the people who are passionate about it: the artists and their fans. It does that by letting customers buy stock in the bands they like through their website. Think of it as viral grassroots funding."This is a business but it's not all about making money," says Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.com. "This is us out there to help spread the music. MyBandStock.com wants to put the focus back on the music. We want to give the power of the music back to the people who love it."Right now there are 11 active young people (and a few more behind-the-scenes investors) getting the website and its accompanying web-based community off the ground. The founders are all Michigan-based people who went to the likes of University of Michigan, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Michigan State University.They all work from their own virtual office (i.e. laptop) where they continue to labor away on their passion – music. Right now that's all about their local music scene, but they have big plans on growing that."We hope to expand regionally in the next year and nationally after that," Hulyk says. "It's going to be a slow process."Source: Taylor Hulyk, director of public relations for MyBandStock.comWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M innovation helps push computer chip development

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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March 25, 2009

Words like memristor, kilobit and nanoscale might as well be sci-fi jargon to most casual computer users. But University of Michigan electrical engineer Wei Lu knows enough to translate them into vernacular computer users can appreciate: smaller, faster and cheaper.The assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at U-M has come up with a way of making computer chips more efficient by allowing memristors to store more kilobits on a nanoscale. Such things have been done before, but Lu's innovation is considered a leap that will push computer chip technology forward significantly.In plain English this mean that it will allow for the chips to store and move more information quicker. That makes computer chips smaller, less clunky and cheaper to make. Which conversely may result in huge investments in the technology. Stay tuned for further information.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

Video Tech Transfer

By Keith Jefferies

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Economic Development

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March 18, 2009

From laboratory to marketplace, U-M's Tech Transfer Office plays matchmaker, introducing local venture capitalists to promising new technologies. And with $850 million in research and over 300 discoveries each year at the university the potential for crossover is tremendous.

Thixomat hires in Ann Arbor as it rolls out new products

By Newsroom

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Innovation News

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March 18, 2009

Thixomat has come up with a product so special that it's about to make the company the exception to the rule.The research-and-development company's M.O. is to create new technologies and license them out. That's not the case with Thixomat's latest product NanoMag, an environmentally friendly process for the production and marketing of high strength, light weight magnesium sheeting with nanometer microstructures."NanoMag is going to by dynamic," says Herb Pritzker, director of marketing of Thixomat. "We're going to market it directly. It can be used anywhere from automotive to military to healthcare."The Ann Arbor-based recently hired a new person, bringing its staff to nine people. Many more could be on the way if Thixomat achieves everything it hopes for with NanoMag. It's gearing up to create a manufacturing facility in the local area, a move that could create a significant number of jobs soon.Source: Herb Pritzker, director of marketing of ThixomatWriter: Jon Zemke

Biotechnology Business Consultants adds to staff

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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March 18, 2009

For a long, long time Ann Arbor's Biotechnology Business Consultants stayed the same size, toiling at the firm's downtown office. Recently the company added a sixth person to ease the load.The company started in 1990 helping biotech start-ups get their feet under them. Today the company has expanded its reach beyond that, working with economic development agencies, like Ann Arbor SPARK.Some of the time their clients will be both the start-up and the business incubator assisting its growth. That has allowed the firm to add more customers both inside and outside of Michigan. "The demand of what we do has grown significantly but the funds to pay for it have been challenged," says Lisa Kurek, managing partner with Biotechnology Business Consultants.But she sees that challenge downsizing as more and more communities focus on economic development to grow their tax base and revitalize their areas. Enough so that she hopes to break with her company's habit of staying small and adding 1-2 more people within the next few years.Source: Lisa Kurek, managing partner with Biotechnology Business ConsultantsWriter: Jon Zemke

EMU MBA student healthcare research wins award

By Newsroom

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Education

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March 18, 2009

Most students write papers so they can graduate but at least one Eastern Michigan University student is writing papers that win awards.The Association for Marketing and Health Care Research honored EMU MBA student Jarrod Sandel for his paper on healthcare. The Ann Arbor native's paper, which he co-wrote with the head of EMU’s Marketing Department, deals mainly with providing healthcare at home and the role technology plays.The paper follows the development of home healthcare (an option becoming increasingly popular as Baby Boomers age and finances tighten) and its market. It also expands on the how technology has evolved to play a role in this situation.And this is all from a supply chain management major in EMU's business school. However, he does work for the IT Dept in the University of Michigan Health System.Source: Eastern Michigan UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Logic Solutions scores double-digit growth, new jobs in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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March 18, 2009

Last year is the year most companies wish they could forget. This year isn't shaping up to be much better. Not so with Ann Arbor's Logic Solutions.The software-development company hit double digit revenue growth in 2008, while adding 27 new clients and a number of new employees. It expects to repeat that feat this year, too. This isn't a new thing for Logic Solutions either. The firm, which splits its staff between the U.S. and China, grew its revenues 20 percent in 2007 while creating 25 new jobs, five of which were local. Much of its growth comes from taking advantage of the Chinese markets. It helps manage software development and IT for quite a few companies out there, but remains headquartered in Ann Arbor.Source: Logic SolutionsWriter: Jon Zemke