"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.
From an engineering job with Ford to a serial entrepreneur in the process of launching his fourth company, Bhushan Kulkarni epitomizes the immigrant success story. A passionate booster for his community, family, and the state's economic future, Kulkarni chats with Concentrate about the challenges of start-up culture and the need for more mentorship.
What's the view at the bottom of Michigan's entrepreneurial food chain? More diversity, less money. Case in point, Ypsilanti-based Denovo Sciences. Its young partners are full of passion, creativity and a desire to "make change in human lives". What they could use is some seed capital for their life science innovations.
With downtowns desiring to fill vacancies with active businesses that attract a steady stream of patrons, rather than, say, banks and offices that go dark in the evening, downtown Dexter's sole coffee shop is one of those "third places" where community apart from work and home life happens in this village of about 3,300 residents.Rachel Shelley, who opened Joe and Rosie Coffee and Tea last November at 8074 Main Street, at the corner of Main and Broad, aims to bring a bit of the community together. In time for spring, she plans to stay open later in the evening, bring in live music and host poetry slams, and add outdoor seating. Shelley, who hails from England, also plans on starting traditional English cream tea service soon. Also on the menu and not easily found elsewhere are flapjacks – crunchy bars of oats, brown sugar, butter, and golden syrup.Joe and Rosie's is popular with cyclists, who rack their bikes outside, she says. And the shop will probably keep the lights on for 24 hours during the Cancer Relay For Life, the village's 24-hour walkathon taking place on May 14-15.Since moving in Shelley hasn't made any significant alterations, preferring to keep the shop's Victorian-period architecture intact. "It's what people like. It's why they keep coming back," she says. "I want to keep it old-looking, in keeping, I think, with Dexter." No new downtown development projects are in the pipeline, says Allison Bishop, Dexter's manager of community development, but Main Street is keeping an even keel. Of the approximately 22 businesses located downtown, two restaurants recently closed but two new businesses, Modern Vintage and an antique shop called Joyce's Acquisitions, opened the first week in March. Sources: Rachel Shelley, owner of Joe and Rosie Coffee and Tea; Allison Bishop, manager of community development for the village of Dexter; 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimateWriter: Tanya Muzumdar
In a palpable sign of the public's growing appetite for tortilla chips and burritos made with fresh corn tortillas, the Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory has just moved into a new space at the Oxford Commerce Park that, at 8,000 square feet, is double the size of its former headquarters.Guadalupe Quetglas, who co-owns the company with her sister Andrea, says the new facility will allow for production increases of up to three or four times what the company could produce in its old quarters. The sisters launched the company in 2007 because they couldn't get fresh tortillas, Quetglas explains. The chips and tortillas are chemical and preservative-free and made with 100% corn. Also on offer is salsa (seasonally), and a new gluten-free corn breading in April. "At this point most of the places that make tortillas, they use corn flour. Everything [we do] is with corn," Quetglas says. "We use a traditional method of the tortilla and the flavor is quite different. Good for your bones!" The larger space will allow for the purchase of a second industrial-sized kettle to aid in the time consuming preparation process. The non-GMO corn has to be cooked and steeped for 12-14 hours, Quetglas says. Tortillas are distributed the day they are made. At the end of 2011, the company will apply for a $250,000 Small Business Administration loan for the purchase of a new fryer. Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory foods are available in outlets including all of Michigan's Whole Foods and Plum Market stores, Arbor Farms, Zingerman's, and Ann Arbor Kroger locations. The new capacity will allow its goods to be sold in Whole Foods markets in Chicago and Indiana, plus more Krogers and specialty food stores. One New York City store, the Bklyn Larder, carries the chips, and Quetglas hopes to find a New York-area distributor to reach that market as well. Source: Guadalupe Quetglas, co-owner of Ann Arbor Tortilla FactoryWriter: Tanya Muzumdar
This is the story of two guys (and one dog) from Chelsea ...and a whole lot of vodka. After only one year their Ugly Dog Vodka has 'made the cut', producing high quality spirits that are being welcomed into restaurants, liquor stores, and Meijers around the state. As if that weren't enough, they've just added bacon to the mix. And as everyone knows, bacon makes everything better.
The Toyota Prius has become a badge of sustainability for environmentally conscious progressives, but how do you translate that point of public pride to home and energy water bills? TerraPerks believes it has an answer.The Ann Arbor-based start-up is creating a green PR/marketing tool for everyday people called EnergyFlair.com. The company would leverage competitions, virtual rewards and social media to turn sustainable-home practices into a Prius-like badge of honor that would in turn encourage others to do the same."It really serves as a word-of-mouth marketing tool," says Rajesh Nerlikar, co-founder & CEO of TerraPerks. "We want to create more conversations around home energy efficiency."TerraPerks' version of home-based sustainability includes a range of environmentally conscious practices, such as lowering electricity bills. The 1-year-old company's staff of two people and a handful of independent contractors would work with local utilities (it hopes to partner with its first one this year) to help EnergyFlair.com gain traction in encouraging environmentally responsible behavior."It could be water conservation or encouraging people to take public transportation," Nerlikar says. "Right now we are focusing on energy efficiency."Source: Rajesh Nerlikar, co-founder & CEO of TerraPerksWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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