The real question is how many of them will just complain about potholes? Excerpt: "Nearly 3,000 wirelessly connected cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles already are operating in Ann Arbor as a part of the study conducted by the university’s Transportation Research Institute and funded in large part by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Read the rest here.
Of the 11 people on Ann Arbor's city council, only one is under 40. Which is one more than Ypsilanti's city council. So, how do our communities prepare for the next generation's needs without their participation? Concentrate chats with a trio of millennials who have decided to get involved with charting their city's future by becoming civic leaders.
IROA Technologies, formerly known as NextGen Metabolics, has sent its first test kits to market this year as the Ann Arbor-based firm hits few early milestones in 2014. The life sciences startup released its first two testing kits for yeast and bacteria and is getting ready to release another testing kit this quarter. IROA Technologies testing kits help identify key metabolites that can be used to diagnose diseases, such as cancer in samples including blood and urine. The technology cuts through the clutter of information from the analysis of blood or other bodily fluids and tissues to find the critical metabolites that relate to disease and illness, making for shorter diagnosis times. "Folks can use them to study any sort of mammalian system," says Felice de Jonge, CEO of IROA Technologies. "You can use them to diagnose disease so you can see if a disease is metabolically different from a control sample." IROA Technologies landed a Series A worth more than $1 million last year. Its core team of two people have used that seed capital to finish development of the test kits and plans to market them aggressively throughout this year. IROA Technologies has also brought on Nicolas Barthelemy as a member of the startup's board of directors. Barthelemy held various executive positions at Life Technologies for nine years, including serving as President of the $850 million Cell Systems Division and finally Chief Commercial Officer. "He has a lot of commercial expertise on cell manufacturing and life sciences in general," de Jonge says. "He knows how to grow life sciences companies." Source: Felice de Jonge, CEO of IROA Technologies Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Brilliant strategist or cold-blooded villian? Whatever your opinion of Jeopardy! champ Arthur Chu, his nearly 3 month reign has come to an end - at the hands of an Ann Arborite. I knew we were smart. Excerpt: "She won the game that aired Wednesday night, ending an 11-win streak by Chu that earned him $297,200 -- the third-largest haul in the popular show's history." Read the rest here.
Olark is moving to bigger digs in downtown Ann Arbor as the spring officially begins in Michigan. The software startup creates a messaging platform so businesses and their customers can connect online faster and with fewer headaches. It was launched in Ann Arbor and is upgrading its space from 1,000 square foot office to a 1,500-square-foot office with much better conference rooms at 205.5 S Main St. "We were playing musical chairs with our conference rooms," says Zach Steindler, chief olarchitect at Olark. "One person would step out and another would go in." Conference room space is critical to Olark because the startup's employee base is becoming more remote-based. Olark has gone from a staff of 12 people at the beginning of 2013 to 25 today. It has two primary offices in Ann Arbor and Silicon Valley where half of its employees work. The other half work remotely around the world. Olark has hired three people so far this year. It also has four open positions in office administration, web development, senior UIX engineer and senior mobile engineer. More info about those openings can be found here. "We're all excited to keep growing our organization," says Steindler, who is also one of the organizers of A2 New Tech Meetup. "We might slow down a little bit, but we're definitely excited to keep growing." Olark has bootstrapped its way to this point. It hasn’t accepted any sort of seed capital from outside angel investors or venture capitalists and it doesn’t plan to anytime soon. "All of our growth comes from our customers," Steindler says. "We're very happy to continue growing our company organically." Source: Zach Steindler, chief olarchitect at Olark Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Okay, so not only do I have a new podcast I must listen to but there's a place in Ann Arbor I simply need to find. If anyone can take a lowly editor to Heyoon it would be much appreciated. Excerpt: "Mars focuses on the nearly invisible. "It tries to focus on all the thought that goes into the little things that people don't think about,” he added. For example, a personal favorite was when he delved into the logic behind revolving doors. The simpler the concept, the better it resonates with listeners, such as one of his bigger hits about a secret place in Ann Arbor, Mich. called "Heyoon." Read the rest here. Here's the episode in question.
Ghostly International, the ambient music label, has taken advantage of its growth opportunities this year through a number of partnerships with other creative-based firms. The Ann Arbor-based firm, it calls the Tech Brewery home, has hired one full-time employee and another part-timer over the last year. It currently has a staff of 11 employees across the company’s five divisions and in other cities, such as New York City and Los Angeles. Driving the growth for the firm has been partnerships on a variety of projects. For instance, Ghostly International teamed up with Warby Parker to create a Ghostly International brand of sunglasses. You can check out a video about the partnership here. Ghostly International is also partnering with Honeyslug Games to create the soundtrack for the Hohokum video game for PlayStation. The team at Honeyslug Games approached Ghostly International with a music playlist in mind for the video game and it turned out to be all Ghostly International songs. "We will have an entire soundtrack for that surrounding the release," says Jeremy Peters, director of creative licensing & business affairs for Ghostly Songs, a division of Ghostly International. "They have been awesome to work with." Ghostly International is also still releasing electronic music. It is release the new album for Tyco, Awake, this week. You can more information on the new album here, including its first single Spectre. Source: Jeremy Peters, director of creative licensing & business affairs for Ghostly International Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
The location is a secret but if you follow the Onion's non-satiric site A.V. Club on Twitter you may end up with an invite to a rock show with Those Darlins. Excerpt: The second city The A.V. Club intends to visit on their road-trippin' series is Music City, where they'll chill out with Cream faves (and recent inaugural performers in the Cream's "Live in the Morgue" series) Those Darlins. The Club will also kick it in Ann Arbor, Mich., with Protomartyr, who I very recently described as making "extremely The Fall-esque post-punk that vacillates between heavy and tuneful." This Friday, March 21, Those Darlins will play their "Pioneering" set in a secret location, and if you'd like to attend, all you have to do is a Twitter thing. Read the rest here.
One of Ann Arbor's venture capital staples officially scored a big exit early this year, and chances are you haven't heard about it. NTT Communications, a Tokyo-based multinational corporation, acquired Denver-based Virtela Technology Services for $525 million. The deal was finalized in January, and Ann Arbor-based North Coast Technology Investors was one of the early investors in Virtela Technology Services. "These don't happen everyday," says Hugo Braun, partner with North Coast Technology Investors. "We're pretty excited about it." The 15-year-old venture capital firm is currently in the midst of deploying its third investment fund worth $30 million. North Coast Technology Investors' team of three people have made nine investments from the fund and recorded two exits. The other exit was Ford's acquisition of Ferndale-based Livio last fall. "We're still in investment mode," Braun says. "We have half of our money left in our fund. Some of it is committed to other investments but we think we will make a few more this year." One of its most recent investments is in VNN, formerly Varsity News Network, which recently raised a $3 million Series A round. The Grand Rapids-based startup is pushing forward a collaborative effort between traditional and community sports journalists to provide media coverage for every high school sport. It took first place and $500,000 in seed capital in last fall’s Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. Source: Hugo Braun, partner with North Coast Technology Investors Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Ann Arbor is just one of many communities cited where transit use is on the rise. While local naysayers argue that expanded public transit isn't a necessity, trendlines show that they may be on the wrong side of history. Excerpt: "Cities showing big ridership increases include Ann Arbor, Denver, Cleveland, New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles (yes, car-crazed L.A.), Indianapolis and Tampa. Some 17 of 27 transit systems report light rail drawing bigger crowds. Bus ridership, meanwhile, is stable, but up 3.8 percent in smaller cities (those with a population below 100,000.)" Read the rest here.
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