Success in business means venturing outside Michigan, even U.S., borders. More and more companies here are learning to do business there. At our next Speaker Series event Ted Dacko, former president and CEO of Healthmedia, will talk about going global but staying local. It's on June 17th. Join us by signing up!
Meet the Kobo, the latest electronic book reader, the new flagship product from Borders and, if the chatter is to be believed, a Kindle Killer. Those aren't our words or from public relations personnel at the Ann Arbor-based book seller. That's how "Wired" magazine described the new gizmo because of its features and low price."Kobo is so far the best and most comprehensive service we have used to buy and read books, especially for non-U.S. residents," the "Wired" review states. "It is still flawed, and it is a royal pain that Kindle won't support EPUB books. But with its platform-agnostic approach, huge catalog and new heavyweight partners, we expect to see Kobo grow fast."The Kindle is seen as the benchmark for the emerging electronic publishing market, but that might change because of the Kobo. The eReading device offers a stylized, easy-to-use, eInk based reader. It also comes preloaded with 100 classic books.It sells books through the upcoming Borders eBook store, which will feature over a million titles. It will also come with free Borders smart phone applications available for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android, as well as the iPad and all PCs. This across the board flexibility is seen as one of Kobo's biggest attributes in a market where a dominant leader has been far from defined, unlike what Apple has done to music with the iPod."We wanted to make sure we emerged with a technology agnostic eReader with a rich amount of content," says Mary Davis, spokeswoman for Borders. She adds that Borders will offer the Kobo and 4-10 other eReaders at many of its retail locations.This latest initiative comes at a critical time for Borders, which has been fighting to stay relevant in an industry that is being upended by the Internet and other technological advances. Becoming a leader in the eBook market would allow Borders to reassert itself as one the primary leaders in the literary sales world.Source: Mary Davis, spokeswoman for BordersWriter: Jon Zemke
Every entrepreneur wants their start-up to become the next big thing. PitchCorner.com wants to become the place where the next big thing, and a lot of smaller ones, are found.The Ann Arbor-based website provides a space for entrepreneurs to post a video of their elevator pitch, a short speech meant to capture the interest of an investor or customer. The idea is to help them fine tune their pitches and give investors a clearing house to see what is out there."You learn so much by seeing somebody or hearing their conviction," says Rick Galdi, co-founder of PitchMedia, which owns Pitchcorner.com. "You get much more from it than what you would learn by reading a piece of paper."Galdi would know. He is one of Michigan's most prominent angel investors and president of the Great Lakes Angels. He and Mike Brennan decided to make a go of it with PitchCorner.com last year. It has since debuted at the 10th Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship in Ann Arbor in January."Being able to pitch the company is something any entrepreneur should be able to do," Galdi says. "If you're not ready to do it in person or on camera then you're probably not ready."The four-person start-up lets anyone surf the site. Those who want to post their pitches can do so for a $9.95 month fee. That will also allow them to post their logo and an executive summary of their business or product. The idea is to offer a cost-effective resource for start-ups where every dollar not only counts but needs to be stretched."It's gaining momentum slowly," Galdi says. "I didn't expect it to explode overnight because it's such a new idea. I had to temper my expectations a bit."Source: Rick Galdi, co-founder of PitchCorner.comWriter: Jon Zemke
Sometimes bigger isn't better. In Ann Arbor the "small giant" movement is catching on. Their philosophy? Profit is good but the bottom line should not be the be-all, end-all of your company's existence.
Ann Arbor residents Aubrey and Jeremy Lopatin wanted to start a business to go with their day jobs a little more than six years ago. Today they have a sustainable, web-based start-up that revolves around tea called Arbor Teas."We initially wanted to open a café but we didn't have the capital for that," says Aubrey Lopatin. "So we looked at what other options were out there. We both love tea and food. It was a natural match."The Ann Arbor-based firm sells different sorts of exotic teas from its website around the world. Today about 85-90 percent of the company's customers are from outside of Michigan. It has allowed Aubrey Lopatin to make this her full-time profession (Jeremy is still an analyst with Pure Visibility) and now have a staff of four people and an intern. It hopes to hire again in the near future.One of its latest innovations is coming out with a sustainable packing that is compostable. That means users can take the tea bags, leaves and packing and put it in their compost pile in their own backyard. That goes with its ethos of delivering organic, free-trade teas in the most sustainable way possible."That's our niche and our way to move forward," Lopatin says.Source: Aubrey Lopatin, co-owner of Arbor TeasWriter: Jon Zemke
Just because the Google Fiber application is in doesn't mean the A2Fiber team can go home. The combination of officials from the city of Ann Arbor and University of Michigan are still working on both the public stage and behind the scenes to make it to the next round of selection process."We'd like to have an ongoing public conversation," says Tom Crawford, CFO for the city of Ann Arbor and the project manager for A2Fiber. "We're still very excited about this."The latest part of that public conversation is the recent announcement of the A2Fiber's YouTube contest winner. Jeff Hayner won a 32 Gig Apple iPad for producing a 1:42 short film staring Lego characters extolling the virtues of what Google's Fiber community project could do for Ann Arbor and what Ann Arbor can do for it. Watch the video here.Google plans to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of communities across the country. These lines will stream data at 1 gigabit per second, about 100 times faster than most Americans get through their current cable and DSL providers.A number of communities across Metro Detroit followed Ann Arbor's lead and made an application, including Royal Oak, Birmingham, Rochester and Detroit, among others. Ann Arbor's application included a large public rally, a Facebook fan page and the YouTube contest. Local officials are still brainstorming ways to keep its momentum going this spring, summer and until Google makes an announcement about the contest.Local officials are also working behind the scenes to streamline the city's bureaucracy to fit the Google Fiber project. That includes everything from reforming the city's permit process, right-of-way and other city policies that could potentially impact the project."It's just the inner workings of government and the permit process we're going through," Crawford says.Source: Tom Crawford, CFO for the city of Ann Arbor and the project manager for A2FiberWriter: Jon Zemke
The nimbleness of your website is now a significant part in determining its Google search rankings. That's the latest decree from Andrew B King, an expert on websites based out of Ann Arbor.Excerpt:The Ann Arbor Web page performance optimization consultant Andrew B. King said this week that it's now official -- Web page speed is now part of search rankings.King says Google has added a page speed signal to its search rankings algorithm, officially linking performance with search engine marketing.In an article on his Web site, King says the loading speed of a Web page affects user psychology in a number of ways, and now it can effect its rankings as well.Read the rest of the story here.
SRT Solutions is continuing its slow-yet-steady march toward growth in downtown Ann Arbor.The software firm has recently added a couple more engineers, allowing it to keep its staff at 18 people. That number includes an intern and independent contractor, and is the same size as it was when we last checked in late in 2008. It hopes to hire another person or two later this year."We're continuing with a slower growth," says Bill Wagner, co-founder of SRT Solutions. "We're buying into new technologies and services we think our customers will need in the next few years."The 10-year-old company helps businesses get software projects done on time and right the first time. Its products range from custom technology analysis, proof of concept development and software development. It's also moving into things like cloud computing and facilitating more natural use interfaces for software.Source: Bill Wagner, co-founder of SRT SolutionsWriter: Jon Zemke
Meet VC Web Design, the first graduate of Ann Arbor SPARK's East Incubator in downtown Ypsilanti.The web design firm was one of the first tenants in the business incubator when it opened last spring. Then it was a two-person start-up looking for a little direction. Today it employs seven people and intern and is moving into its own commercial space a few doors down from the incubator in downtown Ypsilanti on Washington Street."We wanted to be around people in a downtown area," says Vince Chmielewski, president of VC Wed Design. "We couldn't fit at SPARK anymore because we kept adding people. Plus, we wanted our own storefront for higher visibility."Chmielewski caught the entrepreneurial bug when he was attending the University of Michigan in the mid 1990s. The computer science major always ended up as a go-to resource among friend interested in creating websites, which turned into a nice stream of cash on the side. "People would ask me questions and I would sell websites to them," Chmielewski says. It has remained a nice side income for him ever since. He still maintains his full-time job at U-M but is also now putting 40 hours a week into VC Web Design. How long he can keep that up is a little in question. VC Web Design is set to more than double its revenue this year and Chmielewski expects to add another person or two this year.Good thing he has the SPARK East incubator degree and some new space to accommodate all of that growth.Source: Vince Chmielewski, president of VC Wed DesignWriter: Jon Zemke
he DoGood iPhone application is doing more than a little bit of good for the University of Michigan students who designed it last year.The catchy app has been acquired by Silicon Valley-based Tonic, creating a profitable exit for the handful of studentpreneurs that created it at a university's new Web App Class last summer. Those students created the app under the Mobil33t start-up banner last year, but have since move onto new projects since then."DoGood got really, really popular," says Jason Bornhorst, one of the co-founders of Mobil33t who is now a part-owner with Ann Arbor-based start-up Mobiata. "It became a full-time job for us over the last summer."About 70,000 people use DoGood today to get their daily dose of virtuous deed suggestions. The free app's suggestion include things like don't criticize today or give someone a second chance today. They are formulated by a community of university students who call their group Do Random Acts of Kindness. Tonic plans to keep the same group to provide the suggestions. The student creators are also working with Tonic on the future development of the app, expanding into other smartphone platforms and perhaps even growing into its own website. The students also have their own entrepreneurial ventures cooking they expect to put forward later this year."Stay tuned," Bornhorst says. "We have some really interesting stuff in the pipeline. I can't talk about it right now."Source: Jason Bornhorst, co-founder of Mobil33t and co-creator of DoGoodWriter: Jon Zemke
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