They made it with their own two hands! Karim and Nawal Motawi turned their handmade tile into a handmade business that employs nearly 30 local artisans. Mixing old world craft skills with modern manufacturing techniques, this Ann Arbor-based company brings in $2.5 million in annual revenues and has developed a devoted client base.
Arbor Photonics is making the most of its $3 million infusion, laying out plans to create 136 new jobs within the next few years. The Ann Arbor-based firm recently received $1.5 million from Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund. That money will complement another $1.5 million from private investors. The 136 new jobs will be quite the jump in employment for the University of Michigan spin-off. As of today only two people work at the start-up. U-M Prof. Almantas Galvanuaskas invented a new way to dramatically improve fiber lasers. Arbor Photonics was created last year to commercialize this technology. The technology is an optical fiber structure called Chirally-Coupled Core Fiber or 3C fiber. The 3C fiber significantly improves the performance of fiber lasers in industrial manufacturing, a $2 billion market that grows about 14 percent annually on average. About $400,000 in venture capital was invested in the Arbor Photonics last fall. That money allowed the company to hire a CEO and director of business development and recruit other key personnel. The plan is to hit $50 million in sales within the next six years. The company hopes to expand its employee base to 136 by 2014. But for now Arbor Photonics plans to invest the $3 million it just received into further product development over the next year. Source: Michigan Economic Development Corporation Writer: Jon Zemke
Some Ann Arbor residents are following their dream, no matter how deep underwater it takes them. Excerpt: For many years Dave and Rachael Kasper split time between jobs in the corporate world and their passion for scuba diving. After moving back to Ann Arbor in 1996, the couple opened Huron Scuba out of their home, but continued to work: Dave as a lawyer and Rachael as an engineer at General Motors. But by 1999, the Kaspers had a watershed moment. "We started with three students lined up on our living room couch with an old-fashioned overhead projector," Rachael Kasper said. "It got to the point where our students asked us, 'Why are you taking us to other dive shops to buy equipment? Why don't you guys have a dive shop?'" Read the rest of the story here.
Ann Arbor isn't just attracting innovative new businesses, but the entrepreneurs who create them.Excerpt:Kris Aalto had years of biomedical and management experience under her belt when she took a job at a local venture capital firm last October.The Tecumseh resident's new position: executive-in-residence at Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures. For about a year, her main focus was to find the right startup company for the venture firm to invest in.Her focus also was finding the right fit for herself."You have to be scrappy to find your fit, but there are so many interesting projects in Ann Arbor, which really drew me to the area," Aalto said.Read the rest of the story here.
The Detroit Free Press' chronicling of Ann Arbor start-up Boomdash continues. Excerpt: When Cesar Nerys launched his Ann Arbor start-up company Boomdash LLC this spring, he didn't factor hurricanes into the list of potential pitfalls. But last month, the veteran entrepreneur remained glued to the TV screen as first Hurricane Gustav and later Ike churned toward the gulf coast. The first market for the search engine marketing firm just happens to be New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La. Gustav and an outer band of storms caused by Ike wound up delaying by almost four weeks a Boomdash sales training course for 15 employees at Sunshine Pages, a telephone directory publisher that's selling Boomdash's product. Read the rest of the story here.
The Sungrace name a family name. Sorta. Actually, it's a name Makarand Nalgirkar knows almost as intimately as his own.His father started the first Sungrace company (an engineering firm) in India several years ago. Nalgirkar and his brother started another Sungrace firm in India in 1997. Three years ago Nalgirkar started Sungrace Software in Ann Arbor.Today the company has grown its employee base to four people. It expects to add another six people within the next six months as capitalizes on some impressive quarterly growth statistics."The first quarter of this year was the best quarter we ever had," Nalgirkar says.That’s after the firm's revenue grew 200 percent in its first year and 60 percent the following year. It averages about 25 percent growth each quarter.Sungrace Software has been able to accomplish this by focusing on the quality of its product. It develops engineering software for everything but plans, trains and automobiles -- some of the most competitive areas for engineering firms. Sungrace’s software focuses on areas like architecture and the energy industry. Nalgirkar expects his firm to firm up its gains within the next year and build on them. In his eyes the company’s focus will be on continuing what it does best.Source: Makarand Nalgirkar, president and CEO of Sungrace SoftwareWriter: Jon Zemke
Torrey Path, the 1-year-old start-up, is off to a good start in Ann Arbor. The firm employs five full-time staffers, four people part-time and the occasional intern. It also just opened an office in California.Peter Dresslar started the firm after doing a stint as a consultant at a local pharmaceutical company. He discovered processes and designed software that can aggregate bio data easily and efficiently for research managers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields.The process has turned the firm to into an almost overnight success. Torrey Path counts three of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies as clients and hopes to expand its customer base to the low teens by 2010. But before that, Dresslar expects to break the $1 million revenue mark next year."We're at a point where our solutions are at a Beta stage, which makes it much easier to sell," Dresslar says.Which, of course, means more expansion for Torrey Path. The company plans to create a data center within the next year. It's currently looking at locations in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.Which will mean will mean another 5-15 jobs for the selected spot. Go Blue!Source: Peter Dresslar, founder and CEO of Torrey PathWriter: Jon Zemke
It seems like there isn't a pie that Google doesn't have its finger in. Count Eastern Michigan University among them now that Internet search giant is working with students at the school.
The old Ennis & Sons storefront in downtown Ann Arbor is about to undergo a dramatic transformation now that the Pacific Rim By Kana plans to take over the space.Ennis & Sons spent nearly a century selling work boots and clothes at 116 W. Liberty St. before closing up two years ago. University of Michigan architects Tom Buresh and Danelle Guthrie bought the late 19th Century structure shortly after and turned the upper floors into a home.The ground floor storefront stayed empty until Duc Tang (pronounced Duke Tan) recently agreed to expand his pan-Asian restaurant into the space. The change promises to be striking, turning the home of blue-collar uniform essentials, such as Red Wing boots and Carhartt jackets into the modern, Far East-inspired decor that of Pacific Rim.The 1,500-square-foot restaurant will nearly double its space, adding more dinning space, a bar and a private dining room in the 1,400 square foot Ennis & Sons storefront. "I always felt the restaurant was incomplete without those elements," Tang says. "We've gotten a lot of requests for a private dining area."The 7-year-old restaurant has enjoyed a good bit of success recently in the face of a tough economy. Pacific Rim recently logged its best two weekends of business, and Tang expect that to continue once the restaurant is enlarged.He plans to start construction later this month and have it finished by early next year.Source: Duc Tang, chef and owner of Pacific Rim By KanaWriter: Jon Zemke
Flexibility is something will all strive for, but it's Ann Arbor-based FlexSys' bread and butter.University of Michigan Engineering Professor Sridhar Kota started the form in 2001 after being inspired by nature. He noticed how many man-made objects are strong and rigid, but how most things in nature are strong and flexible.His company, now seven employees and three independent contractors strong, is taking that natural approach to heart. It designs products that are strong, have few parts and are incredibly flexibility."We can design things to have a minimal number of parts that can still perform a number of sophisticated functions," Kota says.The products range from blades for windshield wipers to helicopters. It is also worked to make the wings for airplanes more flexible (an idea the feds have been unsuccessfully trying to develop for years), thus reducing drag and making them more efficient.The company went from starting with a $100,000 grant to $5 million budget. It’s now trying create flexible blades for the blades of wind turbines. Kota expects that such flexibility could make them 15 percent more efficient, a huge step forward in developing that sector of sustainable energy.Flexsys expects to build and test a full-scale wind turbine employing their technology by the end of next year. If it pans out, it will mean at least 10 more research positions in the company and many more manufacturing jobs."We would add a significant number of people," says Sridhar Kota, president and CEO of FlexSysSource: Sridhar Kota, president and CEO of FlexSysWriter: Jon Zemke
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