Ann Arbor

Life Technologies acquires U-M spin-out Compendia Bioscience

By Newsroom

●

October 17, 2012

Life Technologies has acquired University of Michigan spin-out Compendia Bioscience. Suzanne Clancy, a spokeswoman for Life Technologies, confirms the Ann Arbor-based start-up will remain in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future and under its current leadership. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Clancy declined to speak about Compendia Bioscience's current employment levels. Compendia Bioscience specializes in cancer bioinformatics, which is used by the pharmaceutical industry to identify novel gene targets for drug discovery and development. The California-based Life Technologies, a public company listed on the NASDAQ, plans to leverage Compendia BioScience's oncology expertise and proprietary assets to enhance its diagnostic development capabilities across multiple platforms, including next-generation sequencing, qPCR and proteome analysis. Compendia Bioscience spun out of the University of Michigan in 2006 and has been led by Daniel Rhodes ever since. It received $1.75 million from the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund in 2008. It had as many as 30 employees as of 2011, according to the company's website. Source: Suzanne Clancy, spokeswoman for Life Technologies Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Ann Arbor has the cutest street art

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

October 17, 2012

Blink and it's gone. Ann Arbor artist and street quirkmaker David Zinn catches the attention of a UK writer with his delightful chalk drawings. Excerpt: "David Zinn makes streets a little brighter, if only for a few hours. The chalk artist has become known in his hometown of Ann Arbor, America, for his brightly coloured little creatures dotting the pavement. Zinn, who has been "drawing for as long as [he] can remember", started the project because he wanted to create "something absurd, anonymous and temporary"." Read and see the rest here.

U-M grad catches entrepreneurial bug in college, starts Casey’s Head

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

October 17, 2012

Casey Frushour first got a taste of being his own boss while going to college at the University of Michigan. There he worked on freelance graphic design projects while studying art and design at the university. When he graduated he didn't have enough of that sort of work to support himself so he became the in-house graphic designer at a local bio-tech firm. He kept with the freelance gigs during his four years at his day job until it reached a point where he had to decide whether he wanted the job of being his own boss or continue under someone else. "It got to the point where I was making more money with side jobs than I was working full-time," Frushour says. "I just couldn't do the 80-hour work weeks anymore so I went out on my own." That was the beginning of Casey's Head. The Ann Arbor-based graphic design agency has served as Frushour's bread and butter ever since. It has reached a point now where he is starting to feel himself being stretched thin and expects to hire his first staffer within the next year. "It's a matter of finding the right person," Frushour says. Source: Casey Frushour, founder & creative director of Casey's Head Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Plight and hope for the Ann Arbor skateboarder

By Newsroom

●

Health

●

October 17, 2012

Concentrate has long written about the need for a skatepark in Ann Arbor, a point made all the more relevant when you consider the general hostility the community shows toward boarders. The Michigan Daily captures in words and photos why. Excerpt: "Being a skateboarder is tough. Learning tricks and having balance doesn't come easily to many people. But it's particularly difficult to be a skater in Ann Arbor. The nearest skate park is miles away, and it's illegal to be on a skateboard in the majority of the city. Fines for skateboarding can reach up to $150 and skaters' boards can be confiscated. Campus police, Ann Arbor police and private security constantly kick skaters out of parking lots, alleyways and parking garages." Read the rest here.

Ann Arborite hatches Kickstarter board game biz, The Perfect Heist

By Newsroom

●

Entrepreneurship

●

October 17, 2012

Karl Tiedemann has always been a fan of heist movies (think Oceans 11) and board games (Trivial Pursuit) so the Ann Arbor resident decided to combine the two into his own heist-themed board game - The Perfect Heist. "How fun would it be to play a board game about a heist where you build your own team and stuff like that," Tiedemann says, explaining his thought process behind creating the game. Tiedmann, a UIX designer for Barracuda Networks during the day, started working on it as a hobby about seven years ago but got serious about it within the last year. He launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd fund the creation of the game, setting a goal of raising $13,000. Today he has raised a little more than $50,000 after his wife started posting about it on the popular message board Reddit creating a significant buzz about it on the Internet. "I'll probably hit $52,000 within the week," Tiedemann says. For now he's staying with his day job while keeping The Perfect Heist as a hobby business. But the Ann Arborite and his wife wouldn't mind if it grew into something bigger. "It's still an open question, 'Where do I go from here?'" Tiedemann says. "It's just a hobby job at the moment." Source: Karl Tiedemann, creator of The Perfect Heist Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

20 years of murder and mystery

By Newsroom

●

Economic Development

●

October 17, 2012

It's murder most foul in downtown Ann Arbor every day of the week at Aunt Agatha's bookshop. And this oasis for mystery devotees in celebrating two decades of poisonings, stabbings, shootings, and whatever fatal deeds villains hope to get away with. Excerpt: "When asked her thoughts on the store's success, Agnew said that she and her husband had created not just a store, but a "community space." "We're small. We know our customers," she said. Agnew added that they are careful about how much inventory they keep and tend to order one copy of a new book at a time." Read the rest here.

Cayman Chemical hires 30 for Ann Arbor office

By Newsroom

●

Education

●

October 17, 2012

Cayman Chemical's Ann Arbor office is becoming the happy hunting ground for those looking for a job or internship in southeast Michigan. The bio-tech firm that specializes in providing researchers with bio-chemical tools has had a growing office in Ann Arbor since the 1980s. Today that office is the company's largest with 200 employees and a steady influx of interns. The firm has hired 30 people in the last year and expects to hire more, including from its intern program. "We're hiring about 20 people a year right now," says Chris Booher, vice president of human resources for Cayman Chemical. "We also hire about 20-25 interns each year. We feel it's a very good way to find potential job candidates." This growth has allowed the company to expand its physical office presence, taking on a third and fourth building on the south side of Ann Arbor. It now occupies three buildings on its campus on Ellsworth Street and a fourth off of State Street that used to be a University of Michigan building. The new buildings will both accommodate its current growth and future expansions. "We know we're growing," Booher says. Source: Chris Booher, vice president of human resources for Cayman Chemical Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Perich Advertising & Design adds 7 as it grows digital team

By Newsroom

●

Arts & Culture

●

October 17, 2012

Perich Advertising & Design is beefing up its digital presence now that is has been hiring more web programers, software developers and other similar professionals. The Ann Arbor-based advertising firm has hired seven people over the last year, expanding its staff to 31, along with a handful of interns at any given time. Those new hires will be handling both traditional and new media projects. "It's a little bit of everything," says Ernie Perich, president & creative director of Perich Advertising & Design. "Staying on top of everything digital is very important to us." He adds that his company's growth is coming evenly from both traditional and digital revenue sources. The 25-year-old company got its start handling more traditional work, such as TV and radio. It has moved more and more into the digital spectrum as the Internet has grown and taken a more prominent position in the advertising world. Making that transition to handling both ends of the advertising spectrum has allowed Perich Advertising & Design to continue to grow throughout the years. "We're going to project a steady growth," says Ernie Perich, president & creative director of Perich Advertising & Design. "We're going to keep doing it the same way we have done it all this year." Source: Ernie Perich, president & creative director of Perich Advertising & Design Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Wolverine Energy finds second niche in explosives detection

By Newsroom

●

Education

●

October 17, 2012

Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology is not only a green start-up, but one that helps detect explosive materials. Stick with us for a few more paragraphs. The 2-year-old company launched out of the lab of Theodore Goodson III, a University of Michigan chemistry professor. He first developed a organic material that could help make super capacitors more energy efficient, which led to the creation of the start-up Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology. Now further exploration into the that technology has also led the start-up to realize it can used for the "creation of a remote and safe explosive detection device, which offers an integrated wide-area surveillance solution with relatively high sensitivity and low cost," according to the company's website. The four-person company is still working toward developing the super capacitor and explosive detection angles of the technology. They hope to add on a few more employees next year as it pushes forward with the development of its technology. "I would love to see our personnel triple, at least," says Stephanie Goodson, president of Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology, who is also the wife of Theodore Goodson III. "I would love to see us produce samples for a third party." Source: Stephanie Goodson, president of Wolverine Energy Solutions & Technology Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

By night, downtown A2 parking lot becomes Bill’s Beer Garden

By Tanya Muzumdar

●

Arts & Culture

●

October 17, 2012

The parking lot behind Ann Arbor's Downtown Home & Garden, which is arguably as scenic as parking lots get, is getting its own scene. Bill's Beer Garden opens there on October 18, next to Mark's Carts outdoor food court. Patrons may bring food from the carts into the garden. It's "the combination of the location, the existence of [Mark' Carts] and the incredible Michigan craft beer industry all kind of coming together, and I think we're going to produce a very nice operation, a very nice place where people will want to come to and want to be," says owner Bill Zolkowski. A beer shed modeled after a Parisian news stand now sits in the lot. A pavilion with a permanent roof, radiant heat, and seating has been built on either side of the greenhouse to the rear of the garden store at 210 S. Ashley St. Bill's Beer Garden will be open from 5-11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 4-9 p.m. on Sundays, until December 2. It will re-open on St. Patrick's Day 2013, Zolkowski says. He plans to hire 8-12 staffpersons. It can seat 160 people at tables on the pavilion and classic open-air beer garden benches. "You're very likely to be sitting next to someone you don't know and end up in a conversation with people, interactions with people that you did not come in with and you didn't anticipate when you walked in the front gate. And that really has been almost a trademark of classic beer gardens, and we want to replicate that..." Zolkowki says. "We'll expand the community, give the community a space with which to come and to hang out. We think it's going to work real well in a city like Ann Arbor." Source: Bill Zolkowski, owner of Bill's Beer Garden Writer: Tanya Muzumdar