Internet

Ann Arbor’s Speedraft moves tool and die industry to internet

By Newsroom

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April 15, 2009

It takes a lot of creativity to turn something as Rust Beltesque as tool & die manufacturing into a Silicon Valley-style Internet start-up. The type of creativity that comes from the people at Speedraft.The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up streamlines the traditionally arduous task of manufacturers ordering manufacturing dies. It accomplishes this by putting the whole process on an Internet interface, allowing customers to lock down orders in a fraction of the time and money it used to take."Nobody has ever done what we do," says Tim Stephens, the founder and CEO of Speedraft. "We're the first."Stephens has 23 years of experience in the custom tool & die industry and started Speedraft seven years ago as ToolPax. Today it employs seven people and two interns through Ann Arbor SPARK. Most of that growth came in the last year or two as the start-up started to gain traction in the industry.The company is in the process of trying to raise more capital for expansion. If it can accomplish that it will go on a bit of a hiring spree, bringing on up to a dozen people later this year. Most of those jobs will be in software development."If I can get what's in the pipeline done now, we'll explode," Stephens says.Source: Tim Stephens, founder and CEO of SpeedraftWriter: Jon Zemke

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MASTERMIND: Todd Osborn

By Jennifer Eberbach

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Arts & Culture

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April 8, 2009

Who would trade New York or London for Ypsilanti? DJ and music producer Todd Osborn would. From owning a local record store once upon a time to filling the virtual vinyl bins of Ghostly International's ever-growing music scene, Osborn has carved out a successful career from his native soil. Oh, and he once built a hovercraft.

Ypsilanti’s LookInTheAttic named 1 of Michigan’s 50 companies to watch

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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April 8, 2009

It's not hard to find LookInTheAttic these days, especially now that downtown Ypsilanti-based firm has been named one of the Edward Lowe Foundation's Michigan 50 Companies to Watch. It's easy to see why when you look at the company's year-to-year growth. Steady success has allowed the eight-person firm to add one more person to its staff and open yet another position. It hopes to create yet another job later this year, as the company continues on its growth track."We're consistently seeing 20-30 percent growth every year, even in this recession," says John Coleman, president of LookInTheAttic.The store specializes in selling antique reproduction hardware and housewares both at its storefront and online. Although the store is based out of a historic storefront in downtown, most of its sales (about 85 percent) are from online purchases. That percentage of business inspired the owners to start Silver & Gold, an online jewelry store.Coleman didn't decided to open up in downtown Ypsilanti because of what it could be but because of what it is today."The building prices are right," Coleman says. "It gives us a billboard on Michigan Avenue and a nice place to work."Source: John Coleman, president of LookInTheAtticWriter: Jon Zemke

Schoolpictures.com goes for LEED status with new Ypsilanti HQ

By Newsroom

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Development News

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April 8, 2009

Schoolpictures.com was already going green with its new headquarters in Ypsilanti by reusing the old Ave Maria University campus in the center of a city. But now the web-based firm is going the extra mile, aiming for silver LEED status.Schoolpictures.com is trying to do this with a combination of recycling and alternative energy. For instance, construction workers removed 70 tons of debris and trash in the initial phase of construction. About 80 percent of that was recycled. It's also working with Eastern Michigan University to install a wind turbine."We very much want to put renewable energy on site," says Skip Cerier, president of SchoolPictures.com.The site is on Forest Avenue between the campus of EMU and Frog Island Park. Schoolpictures.com is renovating the buildings on the small campus, 21,000 square feet in all, making them more environmentally friendly. The firm is also installing green roofs on the two main buildings and renovating a 1864 Victorian home into a place for meetings and to entertain potential clients.Schoolpictures.com is moving from Pittsfield Township because its growth has been so rapid its old headquarters just couldn't accommodate all the new employees. It has been working on its new home for nearly a year and is almost done."We're looking at a July move in," Cerier says.Source: Skip Cerier, president of SchoolPictures.comWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s iSold It on eBay breaks into upper echelon of sellers

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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April 1, 2009

It might strike some people as strange that something like iSold It on eBay Ann Arbor is flourishing in a town that prides itself on its geeky knowledge of all things technoloical. But that's what happening with the 4-year-old firm.The three-person company recently reached the 10,000 feedback in eBay sales milestone, moving it to the "shooting star" level as one of the top sellers on the eBay market. So far iSold It on eBay has sold more than 20,000 items, ranging from musical instruments to electronics.It's been able to service the Ann Arbor area's senior population, which often has concerns about identity safety on the Internet or just isn’t familiar enough with web markets. Then there is also the 'I don’t have enough time' crowd."Doing an eBay sale requires a lot of work," says Carol Kamm, owner of iSold It on eBay Ann Arbor. "A lot of homework needs to be done beforehand to make an item sell. We answer the questions during the sale. We wrap it and ship it."And apparently it's doing it well, hitting 99.7 percent positive feedback from its customers. That in turn makes Kamm a happy person. It's not exactly the career move she envisioned making when graduating from the University of Michigan's School of Engineering in 1982. She worked several IT and software development jobs before seeing an ad for iSold It on eBay franchises. Suddenly such a move made sense for her with her family history in antique selling."I saw that, showed it to my husband and said I can do that," Kamm says.Source: Carol Kamm, owner of iSold It on eBay Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

Wireless Ypsi moves into Riverside, Frog Island parks

By Newsroom

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Development News

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April 1, 2009

Parks wouldn't seem like an obvious choice for a wireless hook-up, but it makes perfect sense to the people at Wireless Ypsi. The free-Internet collective has spread into Ypsilanti's Riverside Park and is looking to do the same in Frog Island Park later this month."If you're working downtown and want to take a break, it's a great place to go and work," says Steve Pierce, a co-founder of Wireless Ypsi. "It's like being in college and asking the professor, 'Can we go outside today?'"Pierce adds that a temporary wireless hook-up in the parks last year allowed vendors at the Elvisfest to track a storm and smartly postpone the festival instead of canceling it outright.Wireless Ypsi is free community-based Internet access system has spread well beyond its original boundaries of downtown Ypsilanti. It now covers points all over Washtenaw and Wayne counties and continues to spread. About 600-800 people a day are logging onto the system.The initiative was founded by Pierce and Brian Robb, who run it more like a non-profit than a business. They use Meraki technology to supply the free Wi-Fi. The Google-funded start up uses off-white transmitters that look like a child's walkie talkie to connect Internet hot spots at local businesses, institutions and homes. The transmitters use the extra bandwidth from the hot spots to create a mesh-like net of Wi-Fi coverage.Similar systems are spreading in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and San Diego. More than 250,000 different people have logged onto San Francisco’s Meraki network, which covers large sections of the city and has the goal of reaching every neighborhood.Source: Steve Pierce, co-founder of Wireless YpsiWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti pushes envelope with news consumption

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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March 25, 2009

A media revolution is taking place in Washtenaw County and the first casualty appears to be The Ann Arbor News, a venerable 174-year-old local institution.Replacing it will be a news website, AnnArbor.com, and a newspaper that publishes every Thursday and Sunday. The Ann Arbor News as we know it will cease to be in July. Booth Newspapers, which owns the paper, plans to continue providing news coverage in the Ann Arbor area.The purpose of reporting on local news will be the same, but the website's staff will be significantly smaller than the newspapers. How that reporting is done, what it looks like and how its presented are still details that are being worked out."This is not the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor," says Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor News and who will serve as the executive vice president of AnnArbor.com. "This is just a changing in how it's served."But what happens next for local journalism is not as clear. A number of independent, web-based news organizations have popped up in recent years, including this publication, YpsiNews.com, The Ann Arbor Chronicle and the Ypsilanti Citizen. Local blogish websites, Mark Maynard and Arbor Update, have also surfaced as information alternatives.Much of the initial conversation in the aftermath of The Ann Arbor News' announcement has centered on how the business model for newspapers is irreparably broken, leaving a huge void when it comes to a community voice and watchdog. Some are not so certain."The model of current journalism is broken," says Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com. "It's not unusual that the people who broke that model are running around saying the sky is falling."Almost in the same breath, Pierce says the recent developments with The Ann Arbor News are a "huge concern for me." Pierce started his website in 2006 after he thought local news coverage in his community was lacking and decided to step up. He isn't a journalist by trade, but his sometimes muckraking site has served as a watchdog of local government and events. But he concedes the community needs more than just him. He credits the Ann Arbor News for having the wherewithal and deep pockets to go after the hard investigative stories."There is no way my little media outlet can afford to do that," Pierce says. "The Ann Arbor News has been willing to spend the money on important fights like the President's house and the EMU murders. Even if The Ann Arbor Chronicle, Ypsilanti Citizen and Ypsi News combined resources there is no way we could take the EMU lawyers to task."He is currently looking at other avenues to help deepen local pockets, like Spot.us, and keep local media watchdogs barking. Not that there aren't working watchdogs today. It's just that they are more in the puppy stage of life. But they have been able to bark loud enough recently to make local government meetings more accessible and open to the public."There is this notion that real journalists are doing investigative reporting, routing out corruption, asking tough questions," says Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. "There is the idea of the Fourth Estate. We aspire to some extent to fill that."Source: Steve Pierce, owner and managing editor of YpsiNews.com, Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle and Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor NewsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Tweet

By Terry Parris Jr.

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Economic Development

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March 18, 2009

Are you a follower or do you have a following? Who's tweeting who? Social Media is this year's buzz word and Twitter is its newest doo-dad. Our story would end here (if we stuck to the 140 character limit) but Twitter has only just begun in the Ann Arbor area.

Logic Solutions scores double-digit growth, new jobs in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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March 18, 2009

Last year is the year most companies wish they could forget. This year isn't shaping up to be much better. Not so with Ann Arbor's Logic Solutions.The software-development company hit double digit revenue growth in 2008, while adding 27 new clients and a number of new employees. It expects to repeat that feat this year, too. This isn't a new thing for Logic Solutions either. The firm, which splits its staff between the U.S. and China, grew its revenues 20 percent in 2007 while creating 25 new jobs, five of which were local. Much of its growth comes from taking advantage of the Chinese markets. It helps manage software development and IT for quite a few companies out there, but remains headquartered in Ann Arbor.Source: Logic SolutionsWriter: Jon Zemke

Toyland 2.0

By Julianne Mattera

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Economic Development

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March 4, 2009

Hans and Tricia Masing take their toys seriously. But that wasn't always the case. Once upon a time they made their living in engineering and IT. Then their son took an interest in Thomas the Tank Engine and everything changed. Combining tech savvy with a love for toys, the couple has built a small Internet empire that still understands the value of community connection.