Talent: some have to work at it, some are just natural-born. Jewelry designer Audrey Wong Chung, whose baubles line the gift bags of Oscar nominees and Dancing With The Stars performers, is the latter. A computer science grad and former guest actress on The Cosby Show, Audrey is jewel outfitter to the stars, and she runs worldwide operations supplying her pieces to national retail brands.
Higher education has been a major inspiration in Bhargav Sri Prakash's business life. It inspired him to start CADcorporation and reinvent it with a potentially big video game spin-off, Friends Learn.Sri Prakash started CADcorporation in 2001 after taking a business class at the University of Michigan entitled, "Idea to Ideal in 14 Weeks." A little bit of seed capital and team work later, and the budding entrepreneur began to sink his business roots in Ann Arbor."The goal of the class wasn't just to work on a business plan but to start a company," Sri Prakash says. "That got me thinking about how I could do this for real."Today CADcorporation, a simulation technology firm, has 11 employees and six independent contractors and interns. It began experimenting with video games a few years ago and ended up helping the U-M Law School create 3-D video games, now commonly called Vmerse, to recruit students.That blossomed into Friends Learn, which is producing a line of 3-D video games that revolve around higher education. About 3-5 people at CADcorporation are working on its video game arm. Sri Prakash expects Friends Learn to develop four game titles with 200,000-500,000 users, while expanding the project team to a dozen people. It's part of his plan to spin Friends Learn out into its own company."It's poised to take off," Prakash says.Source: Bhargav Sri Prakash, CEO of CADcorporationWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
If your early swimming lessons were held in a dingy natatorium, a newer company has figured out how to warm the mini-set to what's often a fearsome affair. Goldfish Swim School, which first opened in Birmingham, Michigan in 2006 (it also has a franchise in Farmington Hills and others planned for Rochester and Macomb), will be adding a new location in Ann Arbor this August. CEO Chris McCuiston cites Ann Arbor's family friendliness and walkability as reason for opening there.Goldfish offers year-round lessons for babies, toddlers, and kids in bright Caribbean environs topped by thatch and tiki. "It's very welcoming and warm to kids so that when they walk in they don't feel like it's a sterile environment like typical pool enclosure areas," explains McCuiston, who co-founded the company with his wife Jenny, an avid swimmer and two-time Olympic trials qualifier. The pools are heated to 90 degrees and the air temp is a steamy 92, versus a standard gym pool that might be 83 degrees, he says.The co-franchisers, Richard Simtob and Jack Barbat, have just leased the 10,000-square-foot property, a former bike shop, at 2107 W. Stadium Boulevard and are starting construction of a 75-foot-long, 28-foot-wide pool in the next month. The interior will have the same island tropic theme and new windows will be added.Besides daily lessons, the school will host birthday parties and open swim for families. And in case you left your tyke's suit hanging to dry on the clothesline, a retail shop for swimsuits, goggles, and other gear will be on site.Chris Thompson, a 2000 Olympic bronze medalist in the 1,500 meter swim, will be the general manager. Thompson is a former swimmer at Club Wolverine in Ann Arbor. And a new business brings, of course, new job posts. The school will be hiring a bevy of swim instructors who will be cross-trained in front desk duties. "We're looking to hire up to 40 people," Simtob says. Sources: Chris McCuiston, CEO of Goldfish Swim School; Richard Simtob, co-franchiser, Goldfish Swim School (Ann Arbor)Writer: Tanya Muzumdar* Interested parents can pre-register by emailing swimannarbor@goldfishswimschool.com. Job applicants may also inquire there.
As Michigan slashes higher education budgets, state university programs that encourage entrepreneurship and innovation are confident that support from businesses and private donors will keep them healthy.Excerpt:"Tim Faley, managing director of the University of Michigan’s Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, says such programs are “beyond the tipping point.”Like MSU’s Entrepreneurship Network, Wayne State’s Blackstone LaunchPad or his own center, most campus innovation programs are endowed, Faley said."Read the rest of the story here.
A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation shows some impressive numbers from southeast Michigan's budding entrepreneurial ecosystem, spearheaded by the efforts of regional business accelerators like Ann Arbor SPARK. Jobs created, more than 1,000. Cash invested in local start-ups by local business accelerators, $18 million. Number of start-ups that have received portions of that pool of money, 339. Amount of seed capital start-ups have been able to leverage thanks to these investments, $101.2 million."We've come back," says Skip Simms, vice president of entrepreneurial business development for Ann Arbor SPARK. "People are feeling better in general. The private sector in general is more aware of the opportunities in our state -- opportunities that provide good investment return for their capital."The Kauffman Foundation study, conducted in the first half of 2010, also identifies the strengths for the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan, which is composed of TechTown, Automation Alley, Macomb-OU INCubator and Ann Arbor SPARK. Among those strengths are maximizing and growing relationships with local universities, such as the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, and providing mentoring for entrepreneurs.Ann Arbor SPARK has been able to claim a number of profitable exits as strengths, several of which have come after the study completion. Some of those include high-profile acquisitions of Mobiata, Adaptive Materials, and Accuri Cytometers."The entrepreneurial activity and opportunity has grown a lot in the last few years," Simms says.Source: Skip Simms, vice president of entrepreneurial business development for Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
The story of SimuQuest is a testament to the idea of "I can do it better." When it came to developing mathematical models for software creation, the company's founder, John Mills, decided he could do it one better than his former employer. Today he is preparing for a significant growth spurt after taking on the marketing efforts for his Ann Arbor-based firm.SimuQuest creates algorithms that enable software to be automatically generated from mathematical models. The company's special sauce lies in providing the final step to make this solution a viable reality for clients, such as manufacturers."I see this paradigm taking off," Mills says. "We have really been pushing some unique ideas."Which means SimuQuest has been faring well. The nearly 10-year-old company has added two people over the last two years, expanding its staff to six employees and a handful of independent contractors. It has also pushed its revenue from $600,000 to $850,000 last year and expects to cross the $1 million mark in 2011. Helping this along is the ability of Mills and his team to sell their product. Mills has undertaken sales training and plans to launch a digital marketing campaign this year with a number of new tools, such as a fresh website. He expects these efforts to double the company's income by the end of next year.Source: John Mills, president & CEO of SimuQuestWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."-Mark TwainAnn Arbor is home to the first (and second biggest) weather website in the country – Weather Underground. The brainchild of weather guru Jeff Masters, it's the culmination of a life-long love affair with that most temperamental of subjects.
A number of student-led start-ups at the University of Michigan have recently received thousands of dollars in seed-capital grants from the Michigan Business Challenge competition and Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream Grants.A total of 20 start-ups landed $106,000. Michigan Business Challenge awarded $54,300 in prize money while the Dare to Dream gave grants worth $1,500 to $10,000 to 15 start-ups."Some of them are pretty raw ideas," says Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan. "Others are working on the feasibility study. Others are preparing for market."Among those winners is Regenerate, which markets onsite anaerobic digesters for food service operators. It was the runner-up for Best Business in the Michigan Business Challenge ($10,000), winner of the Erb Award for Sustainability ($7,500), a Dare to Dream grant ($10,000), and an Ann Arbor SPARK Bootcamp scholarship. Regenerate also recently took the top place in the Michigan Clean Energy Prize competition ($25,000) earlier this year."Regenerate has come a long ways," Faley says. "They're in the right space at the right time. They could pull this off."He adds that this year's student-led start-ups now offer a wider variety of ideas and technologies. For instance, Faley points out that five years ago almost all the contestants were software- or medical device-centric start-ups. This year features start-ups specializing in logistics, clean-tech, websites, foreign languages, and market research, on top of the normal software and medical device companies."We're seeing a whole lot of social entrepreneurship," Faley says.Source: Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of MichiganWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb is an unabashed entrepreneur, a true believer that business is the ultimate engine for change. He also believes that corporations must have a deeper purpose than just profit. Concentrate chats with Robb about the way those seemingly disconnected impulses come together and why the next generation of business leaders should embrace them.
Blood, sweat and tears have gone into the development of Wello, an Ann Arbor-based start-up led by University of Michigan students. Well, at least a good bit of sweat.Cynthia Koenig, an MBA student and founder of Wello, has lived in Central America and Southeast Asia and found one common characteristic in all those third world countries -- she had to carry her own water long distances on a daily basis. It didn't take long for inspiration to hit Koenig."It's not easy, it's time consuming (2-4 hours a day) and I'm not very good at it," Koenig says. "It's such a huge burden, especially on girls."Which leads us to the WaterWheel, a 20-gallon drum that easily transports four to five times the amount possible using traditional methods of water collection. The three-person team behind Wello developed the WaterWheel and plans to sell 5,000 of them in India starting this summer, which should help bring water to 40,000 people. "There is a lot of opportunity for social entrepreneurship in India," Koenig says. She points out that even though India is a developing country it still has the infrastructure and entrepreneurial freedom to make Wello successful.Wello also received a $10,000 global health prize and People's Choice Award in the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business to help further this project. Koenig expects to expand the team to 12 people by this summer as they ramp up production and begin distribution.Source: Cynthia Koenig, founder of WelloWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Our Partners
We want to know what's on your mind.
