Ann Arbor

Blaze Medical Devices raises $1.1M of $2M VC round

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November 20, 2013

Blaze Medical Devices is more than halfway to its goal of raising $2 million worth of seed capital, raking in $1.1 million as of this fall. "My goal is to close on all of that before the end of the year," says David Weaver, CEO of Blaze Medical Devices, adding it might take until early 2014 to hit the target. The 7-year-old company originally had a goal of raising $1.5 million in seed capital but bumped that number up to $2 million after encountering higher demand from investors than expected. The Ann Arbor-based startup, which made the semi-finals of this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, is developing blood transfusion technology that will enable medical professionals to better control and optimize blood banking and transfusions. Its clinical tests help assess the quality of stored blood and its laboratory instruments help facilitate blood research. The company has finalized the design of its product this year and hopes to begin sales early next year. "We have a queue of people who are interested in the product for research," Weaver says. "We expect to roll it out next year." Blaze Medical Devices has hired three people over the last year, expanding its staff to six employees. Weaver expects to make a couple more hires in 2014. Source: David Weaver, CEO of Blaze Medical Devices Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

PHASIQ works to commercialize lab tool tech

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Innovation News

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November 20, 2013

University of Michigan spin-out PHASIQ is looking to bring its new research instrument to a life sciences lab near you in the not-too-distant future. The Ann Arbor-based startup's technology genesis came from research developed by Shuichi Takayama and Arlyne Simon at U-M. The 1-year-old company instrument "provides an ultra-specific diagnostic platform for detecting protein biomarkers in biological samples," according to its company description at this fall's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, where the startup made the semifinals. It offers "the most stringent quality custom assays to pharmaceutical companies for drug and biomarker discovery, advancing personalized medicine." PHASIQ's instruments are currently being used by clinical researchers at the University of Michigan. The company is still tweaking the instrument’s design to streamline its operation. "We're trying to change it so anyone can use it," Takayama says. "We want to make it simple." A $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant is currently funding the development of PHASIQ's technology by the startup's core team of four people. The company is aiming to commercialize the instrument midway through next year and is currently working to raise a round of seed capital to make that happen. "We anticipate we will need at least $2 million by 2014," Simon says. Source: Arlyne Simon and Shuichi Takayama, co-founders of PHASIQ Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ann Arbor startups set growth curve at Accelerate Michigan

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Economic Development

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November 20, 2013

If the student competition at this fall's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is supposed to be a stepping stone to bigger prizes in the main event of the business plan competition, then startups from Ann Arbor are proving the theory true. Accelerate Michigan got its start in 2010 as an event to provide access to seed capital, resources and investors to fledgling tech startups based in Michigan or those looking to move to the Great Lakes State. This year the organic growth of Michigan's startups started to show. Covaron Advanced Materials won the student portion of Accelerate Michigan last year under the name Kymeira Advanced Materials, taking home $25,000 in seed capital. Last week the Ann Arbor-based company took second place in the overall competition, which comes with a $100,000 check. It was the most prominent example of a young, up-and-coming startup setting the growth curve at Accelerate Michigan. Ann Arbor-based SkySpecs took third place (with a prize of $10,000) in last year's Accelerate Michigan student competition. The 1-year-old startup is developing aerial drones that use artificial intelligence to inspect infrastructure in dangerous locations, such as the blade of wind turbines. This year it made the semifinals of the overall competition, going against older, more developed startups. Tom Brady, one of the startup’s co-founders, says "the competition is stiff" when talking about the other startups pitching at Accelerate Michigan. He and his co-founders felt much more confident about their pitch because of their previous experience in the student competition. "If we had gone straight from an idea to the business plan competition we wouldn't have done well," says Danny Ellis, co-founder of SkySpecs. Source: Tom Brady and Danny Ellis, co-founders of SkySpecs Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ann Arbor in the TV spotlight

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Economic Development

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November 20, 2013

C-Span is taking Book TV and American History TV on the road, spotlighting the literary life and history of select cities. Guess who made the list? Excerpt: A film crew descended on the city for a week in late October, visiting local literary and historic sites. Comcast channel 104, Book TV, will feature its Ann Arbor block of segments on Saturday, November 16 at noon; Comcast channel 105, American History TV, will feature its Ann Arbor block of segments on Sunday, November 17 at 5 p.m. Read all the deets here.

Local-gone-superstar Michelle Chamuel’s new single released today

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Arts & Culture

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November 20, 2013

Local girl makes good! Okay, technically Michelle Chamuel was a transplant. But we're still proud (and missing My Dear Disco). The Voice runner-up, former U-M grad and local pop diva releases her new single "Go Down Singing." You can listen to it stream here.

Software sales help propel Caelynx growth

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Economic Development

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November 13, 2013

Caelynx has grown its revenue at least 20 percent each year since it opened in 2005. Back then the engineering firm operated out of the founder’s house. Now it has $3 million in sales and a staff of 23 employees and the occasional intern. It has hired one person over the last year (a sales and marketing professional) and is looking to hire two mechanical engineers to keep its revenue growth in the double-digits. "It's amazing that we have been able to keep that up," says Hans Steiner, director of business development for Caelynx. The Ann Arbor-based firm specializes in engineering software to provide consulting services. Although the consulting services still make up the core of the business, Caelynx has found a lot of room to grow in selling the software platforms it employs. Software sales accounted for zero revenue two years ago. Now it's 25 percent of the company's bottom line and could reach 50 percent over the next year. "That's really taking off," Steiner says. "It has become a bigger and bigger part of our revenue." Caelynx recently was named as one of Ann Arbor SPARK's FastTrack companies, which means it has had revenue of at least $100,000 in 2009, with a verified annual growth of 20 percent for the following three years. It received the five-year FastTrack award for its continued growth. Source: Hans Steiner, director of business development for Caelynx Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

ForeSee creates 60 new jobs, wants to hire 30 more

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Economic Development

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November 13, 2013

One of the constants of ForeSee, formerly ForeSee Results, has been its growth. The Ann Arbor-based firm has enjoyed double-digit gains in each of its 12 years and has been expanding its staff at a similar rate. "We are a company that has had really consistent growth every quarter of every year," says Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee. The user-satisfaction business has been on a bit of a hiring binge over the last year. It has hired 80 people over the last year, including creating 60 new positions. It is also looking to fill 30 more positions across the board right now. The company now has a staff of 330 employees and six interns, including 250 people in Ann Arbor. "I think we have hired in just about every team this year," Freed says. ForeSee provides user-satisfaction surveys for business both online and in the real world. Its secret sauce utilized the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index to measure results. The company got its starts offering these surveys online, which formed the foundation for the firm’s growth. ForeSee has expanded the reach of these surveys, offering them in social media, mobile, call centers, and in brick-and-mortar stores. "The web business is growing really, really nicely," Freed says. "The other areas are growing as well." Source: Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Local high school entrepreneurs peddle team ‘Spirit Specs’

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Economic Development

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November 13, 2013

Speaking of innovation, a pair of Ann Arbor high school senoirs have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. They've launched Spirit Specs, sunglasses that are emblazoned and dyed with your favorite college team's colors and mottos. Excerpt: "Noah Hirschl and Josh Carn-Saferstein, seniors at Community High School and Skyline High School, are co-founders and co-owners of Spirit Specs — a custom sunglass startup. The pair, who went to Hebrew school and middle school together, started brainstorming business ideas their sophomore year. They settled on making glasses to leverage their location in a college football hotbed." Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor area has new technology job mojo

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Economic Development

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November 13, 2013

Washtenaw County secures further evidence that we are a destination for technological innovation... at least when it comes to private-sector jobs that are in related to technology and information. Considering the cities on the Progressive Policy Institute's list, being ranked 18th in the nation is pretty darn good. Excerpt: "On average, the top 25 counties, as measured by the Index, showed an average private sector job gain of 2.4% between 2007 and 2012. That doesn’t seem like much, but the remaining counties had a decline of 3.5%. In other words, a vibrant tech/info sector tended to make the difference between a local economy that had recovered by 2012, and one that was still in decline. The implication is that policies to encourage tech/info growth are more likely to boost the overall economy. Innovation creates well-paying jobs. What’s more, the diversity of places on our list suggests a high-growth economy is not just for traditional tech powerhouses such as Silicon Valley, but has broader applicability." See the rankings here.

Ann Arbor’s HistoSonics named Innovator of the Year

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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November 13, 2013

HistoSonics has produced a device that uses sound waves to treat tissue in lieu of invasive surgery. Clinical trials have been set for patients with urinary problems due to an enlarged prostate. Pretty cool, huh? Excerpt: "Christine Gibbons, HistoSonics president and chief operating officer, said the Vortx Rx was approved for investigational use in clinical trials on humans in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada. Clinical trials began in July to treat patients with urinary problems due to an enlarged prostate. The trial phase is expected to last several years. The discovery and development work on the technology was performed at the University of Michigan. Six units were made, three of which are being used for clinical trials at sites in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario. The hope is the device will be used for other clinical indications beyond urology." Read the rest here.