When Pfizer left Ann Arbor it was hard not to view the glass as half empty. Five years and 16 start-ups later, that perspective has started to reverse. And in many ways, the transition from one large company to many more entrepreneurial efforts is exactly what our community and state needs to establish a healthier long term economy.
The Michigan Clean Energy Challenge is evolving and the latest version has added a new word to the business plan competition's name: Michigan Clean Energy Venture Challenge. The Clean Energy Challenge began a few years ago, thanks to a partnership between the University of Michigan and DTE Energy. The idea is to create a platform to launch green-tech startups in Michigan with an annual prize purse of $100,000. This year's competition is shifting its focus from awarding the best of the startups with cash prizes to helping more of these startups make it to launch, hence the name change. "We're really focused on venture creation," says Amy Klinke, assistant director of small company initiatives at the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering. "Before it was sort of a formal business plan competition. This time we let all the teams stay in and we grow them." This year, 16 student-led startups from six universities across Michigan will present their green technology solutions later this week for a chance to win a piece of the $100,000 pie. The Clean Energy Venture Challenge encourages students from Michigan colleges and universities to grow clean-energy solutions into thriving businesses. "We found in the past that a lot of the teams have great ideas but need mentoring and work," Klinke says. Source: Amy Klinke, assistant director of small company initiatives, Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Shri Thanedar spent a few years in Ann Arbor in the early 1980s conducting post-doctorate work at the University of Michigan's Department of Chemistry, but the serial entrepreneur ended up elsewhere in the U.S., founding and exiting startups. He sold the last of his startups and retired when fate, or more specifically his son Neal Thanedar, came calling him back to Ann Arbor. "At the time I was living on the beach in Florida," Shri says. "My son's preference was to stay in Ann Arbor and start something in Ann Arbor." Neal had just graduated from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in 2010 and recruited his father to help him launch Avomeen Analytical Services. The Ann Arbor-based startup features a full-service chemical testing laboratory specializing in pharmaceutical testing and investigative analysis. Avomeen Analytical Services has grown from the father-son duo 14 months ago to 10 employees, four independent contractors and a few interns today. It has a client list with more than 200 companies from across the U.S. It plans to keep growing, attracting new clients and growing its brand with wins like coming out on top of the Startup America Super Bowl Pitch Contest at this year's ACE event in Ann Arbor. "We're growing very rapidly, at actually twice the rate as my previous companies," Shri says. He credit's Neal's enthusiasm and skills for driving that growth, which Shri expects will allow Avomeen Analytical Services to double its revenue and staff this year. Source: Shri Thanedar, CEO & owner of Avomeen Analytical Services Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
HandeHolder, the handheld tablet computer accessory, has gained traction as a Michigan-made product in the Great Lakes State, but the Ann Arbor-based startup has its eyes on going national this year. HandeHolder has watched its sales on Amazon take off in recent months, with more units moving in the last two months than the previous nine months. The 19-month-old startup is working to get its products in big box retailers this year and is also undergoing preliminary tests to sell its products to branches of the U.S. military. "We're working very hard," Mike Burns, president & owner of HandeHolder. "We have dozens of lines in the water. Hopefully, this will ramp up so we sell thousands and thousands per week." The device is a handstrap that allows users to easily hold and use tablet computers. The device was inspired when Burns, owner of Burns Computing, got his first iPad. He nearly dropped it right away while using it for his company's race event app. A few minutes later he had created the first version of HandeHolder. Today the company ships thousands of HandeHolders and is developing more versions, including a holster-style and shoulder strap version. The company employs about half a dozen people and a few independent contractors who are trying to get more and more of mainstream America to adopt the product. "We're in the process of going aggressively after business to business groups," Burns says. Source: Mike Burns, president & owner of HandeHolder Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Plymouth Venture Partners is looking for a few good startups to invest in, but the Ann Arbor venture capital firm needs one in particular to take advantage of its executive in residence program. Plymouth Venture Partners is specifically looking to lend Kevin Terrasi's talents to a Michigan-based company. Terrasi, a serial entrepreneur who has helped lead startups to profitable exits, is the executive for the Michigan Venture Capital Association's executive in residence program. The program is geared toward helping retain executive talent in the Great Lakes State. "We're looking for a Michigan-based company," Terrasi says. "One that is close to commercialization and has existing revenue." Terrasi was a senior executive and part owner at Pump Engineering, a water supply company. He helped guide it to an acquisition in 2009. He is now an investor in Plymouth Venture Partners' recently closed investment fund worth $41 million. Plymouth Venture Partners plans to insert Terrasi into the executive team of one of its portfolio companies later this year. The venture capital firm is evaluating potential startups and hopes to have a deal done and Terrasi in place by this spring at the earliest. "This is based on a 12-month cycle," Terrasi says. "We're hoping to have this done within the next 12 months." For information on participating Plymouth Venture Partners executive in residence program, click here. Source: Kevin Terrasi, executive in residence for Plymouth Venture Partners Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
There's little doubt that the university is an incubator for big ideas. But how many of those ideas can be translated into business? And what is the process for doing that? Tim Mayleben, CEO of biotech firm Aastrom Biosciences and former COO of Esperion Therapeutics, decided to help that process along. Excerpt: "“There’s this gap between ‘I have this cool idea,’ which is not a business, but it’s a cool idea, it’s a kernel of a business, but how do you transfer into the framework of a business which you could then go do a feasibility study on to see if it’s worth doing?” said Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell Lurie Institute." Read the rest here.
Business ideas don't always make profitable businesses. A new program at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business hopes to make that transition more commonplace in Ann Arbor. U-M is launching the Mayleben Family Venture Shaping Program through the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. The new program is being funded by a gift from Aastrom Biosciences president & CEO Tim Mayleben (a U-M graduate) and his wife, Dawn Mayleben. The grant program will teach student teams from across the University how to transform identified opportunities into businesses. "It takes an idea and transforms it into a business structure," says Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "We see a lot of ideas." The U-M Venture Shaping Program will provide teams of student entrepreneurs with guidance from faculty while going through a three-part process. That process includes directed discovery, value system synthesis, and profiting from capabilities framework evaluation. The idea is to prove that the startup meets a validated market need and will provide a cash prize so they can take the business to the next level. Breaking through that key wall of building a business (taking it from an idea to a reality) is the major constraint that has been identified by U-M officials. The Venture Shaping Program hopes to help 25 student-led business each year. "We see it as the big bottleneck in the process," Faley says. "We're happy to have a program to handle that program." Source: Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Startup Michigan, the Great Lakes State's node for the Startup America entrepreneur network, is set to launch from the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurs event next week. The Startup America Partnership is a national effort dedicated to helping startups grow by connecting entrepreneurs, investors and more than $1 billion in resources across the U.S. Regional affiliate Startup Michigan will launch with 10 other states next week. "It's the first time on a national level that there is a concerted effort on a national level to communication in the entrepreneurship community," says Diane Durance, executive director of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, which oversees this year's Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurs, or ACE 12. She went on to compare Startup America's potential impact to the interstate highway system and how it connects businesses and people from states across the country. ACE 12, which will be held at Ann Arbor's Skyline High School on Tuesday, is an annual event that revolves around entrepreneurship in Michigan. The event features opportunities for entrepreneurial education, networking, funding and mentoring resources. This year's attendance is expected to exceed 1,000 participants. "We have a great entrepreneurial infrastructure," Durance says. "Other states don't have this kind of infrastructure." Source: Diane Durance, executive director of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Is it tea or is it an alcoholic beverage? For Rachel and Tarek Kanaan, owners of Unity Vibration Kombucha, the state's question had potentially far-reaching consequences for their probiotic drink business. But instead of over-reacting, they adapted by adding kombucha beer to their product line. It's turned out to be one of the best decisions they ever made.
The Michigan Business Challenge, a business plan competition at the University of Michigan, is entering its second of four rounds this week, judging 14 student-led start-ups that span a wide variety of industries. The Michigan Business Challenge attracted 45 teams, comprising 145 students interested in starting their own business. They are competing for $60,000 in cash prizes, including the grand prize of $20,000. "We have a number of web-based businesses," says Anne Perigo, program coordinator for the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and the manager of the Michigan Business Challenge. "We have a number of student teams that are looking at medical devices or assistive technologies." The student-led start-ups complete an executive summary for their proposed business. Those that make it to the later rounds of the competition write a marketing and financial overview for their company and finish a complete business plan. These teams also pitch their businesses to a panel of judges comprised of entrepreneurs and investors. The competition will wrap up by Feb 17. "The Michigan Business Challenge is one of several programs the Zell-Lurie Institute and Ross School of Business runs that engages student entrepreneurs across the university," Perigo says. "Our number one goal is to give these students the tools and experience to become successful entrepreneurs." Source: Anne Perigo, program coordinator for the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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