Ann Arbor

MyFab5 pivots to combine online rankings with Instagram

By Newsroom

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March 5, 2014

MyFab5 got its start as a new way for people to review eateries and stores online. Now it’s pivoting to become an additional feature on Instagram. "We're not trying to be Instagram," says Omeid Seirafi-Pour, co-founder & CEO of MyFab5. "We’re trying to be an added layer on Instagram." MyFab5 allows its users to take pictures of their meals at restaurants and then rank their experience. The Ann Arbor-based startup has developed technology that allows users to rank their top five businesses in certain genres in local areas, their top five picks for Chinese restaurants in Ann Arbor, or five favorite places to grab a burrito. "We have found that foodies love the pictures on Instagram and love our ranking system," Seirafi-Pour says. The startup launched its ranking system last August and is currently being employed in major cities across the U.S. The startup has facilitated 18,000 rankings across the country so far. "We're seeing the most activity in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Portland, New York and Austin," Seirafi-Pour says. MyFab5 is currently made up of a team of four full-time employees and two part-timers. It also has a small group of marketing interns helping grow its Instagram following to 30,000 members. Source: Omeid Seirafi-Pour, co-founder & CEO of MyFab5 Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

OpEd: What Ants Can Teach Us

By Peter Wagner

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Education

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March 5, 2014

Taking our blinders off to experience a foreign culture often translates into new ways of seeing our hometowns. Recent U-M graduate Peter Wagner writes on his teaching stint in Thailand's villages, and on what ants can show us.

Swift Biosciences leverages VC for multiple hires

By Newsroom

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Innovation News

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February 26, 2014

Venture capital and hiring helped make for a big year at Swift Biosciences. When we last checked in at the life sciences startup in early 2013, it had just secured a $750,000 investment in its Series A. Since then it secured $7 million more in a Series B round of venture capital and hired seven people. "We just hired three people this month," says David Olson, CEO of Swift Biosciences. The hires over the last year have been in the Ann Arbor-based startup’s R&D and commercial groups. Olson adds, "That funding (the Series B) is directly related to the three hires we made this month. We’re looking to expand, specifically in our commercial group." The 4-year-old company is developing molecular biology reagents for research and diagnostic applications that provide new ways to examine disease-related genes. This genomic sequencing technology is expected to help researchers analyze samples faster, at a higher volume, and at a lower price per sample. It has raised $13.15 million to further the development of this technology platform. Swift Biosciences launched its first two products last year and is set to launch its third product next week. The new product is a sample prep test kit that can work with damaged and small samples. "It can do everything," Olson says. "It has a lot of capabilities." Source: David Olson, CEO of Swift Biosciences Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Media Academica establishes itself with local video work

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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February 26, 2014

When Shannon Kohlitz launched Media Academica in Ann Arbor, she was looking to take advantage of the growing demand for video work. It is turning out about as well as she could have hoped for. "It did better than I had hoped," Kohlitz says. "We kept busy with mostly technology work." The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm specializes in web animation and other sorts of online video work. Kohlitz has watched her firm’s revenue jump 25 percent over the last year thanks to work from the likes of Rave Computer, Ingeniose and XanEdu. Media Academica also did the kickstarter video for TurtleCell. "I kept getting more, more clients," Kohlitz says. "I would love to be a vendor with advertising agencies." Media Academica is getting ready to release two online videos for Rave Computer later this winter. Kohlitz hopes to add her first employee later this year as the work for her firm continues to pile up. Source: Shannon Kohlitz, owner of Media Academica Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ryan Gourley at the A2Share Clothing Swap at Canterbury House

A Shared Future: Ryan Gourley of A2Share

By Patrick Dunn

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General

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February 26, 2014

In the Internet Age everything old is new again. Take bartering and trade. Not a new concept. But wIth the rise of services like Sidecar and Couchsurfing.com, or even local efforts like Selma Cafe, there have been exciting innovations in collaborative consumption. Ryan Gourley, a U-M grad student, thought that local sharing-based organizations could use a better way to connect.

Q LTD recruits intern, adds Portlandian to staff

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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February 26, 2014

QLTD made a couple of solid hires in the last year, one from within and another from across the country. The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm, it calls Kerrytown home, hired one of its interns recently, expanding the company’s staff to 13 employees. The 30-plus-year-old firm also recruited a web designer from Portland to join its team earlier last year. "She found us online and was intrigued," says Paul Koch, creative strategist at Q LTD. "It was a good hire. She was just a good fit." Q LTD specializes in corporate branding and building an online presence for businesses. Some of its recent projects include designing the online presence of TOA Wellness, a handheld workout device that debuted at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It also redesigned the branding and built the web presence for the American Concrete Institute, which hadn't undergone a rebranding in about half a century. "We want to continue to grow and do good work for our clients," Koch says. "We also want to grow the work we do with Q Gmbh." Q Gmbh is a design firm based in Germany. Q LTD has been doing work with the Q Gmbh for years and it has grown that workload over in recent years. Source: Paul Koch, creative strategist at Q LTD Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Grand Angels expand investment reach into Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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February 26, 2014

Grand Angels has been spreading its wings across Michigan, making investments across the Great Lakes State including in Ann Arbor. That's a significant step for the Grand Rapids-based angel investment group. Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals (think millionaires) who invest in early stage startups. The Grand Angels started a decade ago with the idea of investing in those startups in the Grand Rapids area. It quickly realized that opening up that area meant more opportunities to invest. "We said we will look at deals anywhere in Michigan as long as it looks like a good deal," says Jody Vanderwel, president of Grand Angels. "That opened up the pipeline quite a bit." One of those deals is in Local Orbit. The Ann Arbor-based startup is developing software that helps connect food producers (think farmers, co-ops and farmers markets) with grocers, restaurants and other eateries. Local Orbit's online marketplaces are active across a dozen states. That enabled local farmers' sales through Local Orbit to grown 300 percent between 2012 to 2013. Local Orbit is leveraging its investment from Grand Angels to expand its targeted regions. Source: Jody Vanderwel, president of Grand Angels Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Michigan Business Challenge sends 113K to student startups

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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February 26, 2014

A wide variety of student-led startups scored thousands of dollars in seed capital at the most-recent Michigan Business Challenge. The annual business-plan competition at the University of Michigan awarded $113,000 from the Michigan Business Challenge and Dare to Dream grant program. The competition awarded money to 16 teams that ranged from $200 to teams that made it past round one to $20,000 for the top placer. Among the winners were clock generator technology for the microprocessor market and a workout water bottle that can be turned inside out so it can be washed. "When you have that kind of diversity of really smart people all in one place it is unusual if you don’t see that sort of breadth of diversity when these competitions come up," says Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, which organized the competition. Among the top winners are: Movellus Circuits won the Pryor-Hale Award for Best Business (worth $20,000) for its patent-pending clock generator technology for the microprocessor market. Flipsi won the Pryor-Hale runner-up award for best business ($10,000) and the marketing award ($2,500). Flipsi is creating a reusable drinking bottle that flips completely inside out to facilitate easier cleaning. A group of three U-M graduate students studying engineering ands business won the Erb Institute award for Sustainability ($7,500). The trio is developing an energy system that installs heavy-duty power electronics and battery storage units in commercial buildings for fast-charging services to electric vehicle drivers. MyDermPortal won the Outstanding Presentation award ($2,000) and the Marketing award ($2,500) for its web-based app for dermatologists to provide follow-up treatment via the Internet for the most common diagnoses in significantly less time than an in-person visit. Lab Compass won the Most Successful Undergraduate Team award ($2,500) for its cloud-based software enabling more efficient collection, storage and sharing of sensitive healthcare data used in medical research. Nodify won the Best Written Plan award ($2,000) for its mobile apps that automatically refine a user’s professional network into a manageable group of important contacts and suggests relevant reasons to stay in touch. "The ones that did emerge at the tip of the heap are the one that showed the most promise," Thornhill says. Source: Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies Writer: Jon Zemke

AlertWatch scores FDA clearance for healthcare tech

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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February 26, 2014

The Food & Drug Administration recently gave a big green light to AlertWatch, which will get the Ann Arbor-based startup on the trial to cash-flow positive. AlertWatch is developing patient-monitoring software to hospitals. The platform helps anesthesiologists monitor patients in the operating room, aggregating data from physiological monitors, anesthesia records, lab results and medical history to produce a dynamic real-time display of a patient's condition. The software determines whether things are normal, marginal or abnormal. The FDA gave it clearance earlier this month. "If we didn't get that we'd be in in a pretty tricky situation," says Justin Adams, CEO of AlertWatch. "It is the major milestone for our product." The 2-year-old startup has doubled its staff to four employees over the last year, hiring a developer and a technical writer. AlertWatch’s technology is currently being used in three pilot programs, including one that has analyzed more than 17,000 surgeries at the University of Michigan Health System. "We're starting to get the word out and get some installs going," Adams says. "We're starting to create some revenue." Source: Justin Adams, CEO of AlertWatch Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Two Ann Arbor firms in the running to pitch to Google

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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February 26, 2014

Seven metro Detroit businesses enter, one business... pitches its plan to Google. MyFab5 LLC and Wisely Inc hope to emerge as finalists in Google's national Entrepreneurs Program. Excerpt: "Google Demo Day is part of the Google for Entrepreneurs Program, with competitions being held across the U.S. One winner from each city will advance to the finals." From 5:30-7:30 p.m. TONIGHT, the seven finalists will make pitches to become the local winner at Grand Circus, at 1570 Woodward Ave. Detroit. The event is open to the public. Read more here.