Internet

Ann Arbor’s Stout Systems nearly doubles staff

By Newsroom

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December 3, 2008

Ann Arbor's Stout Systems is feeling its oats these days. Not only has the software firm almost doubled its staff since 2006, growing from 15 employees to 25 people and five independent contractors., it also recently opened an office in Detroit and expects to grow its staff by as many as six people by the end of the year. Oh, and it's also looking into starting an internship program. "There doesn't seem to be any lack of demand for software development services," says John W Stout, president and founder of Stout Systems. Stout Systems started 15 years ago with just Stout. The firm specializes in software development and helping firms with technical staffing such as computer programmers or project managers. Most of the company's recent growth comes from website customization and an expansion of its expert-level software development services."The only thing that limits us is if we decided we didn't want to get much bigger," Stout says. "Source: John W Stout, president and founder of Stout SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke

Latest in Internet

LimeWire talks to Ghostly International

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Arts & Culture

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November 5, 2008

LimeWire interviews Jeff Owens, the label manager for Ann Arbors favorite electronic music label Ghostly International.Excerpt:It's the season of scary, and we recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Owens, the label manager for Ghostly International and Spectral Sound. Founded by Sam Valenti IV in 1999 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ghostly is one of America's most innovative and influential independent record labels. Continue reading to find out why...Read the entire article here.

Ann Arbor Google office ranks tops for employees

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 29, 2008

The Freep conducts a survey on 191 employers throughout southeast Michigan and found that employees (or the 23,372 who participated) want more than just decent salary and benefits. A2's Google Ad Words captured the top slot for medium-sized companies in the region.Excerpt:For employees at the companies and organizations surveyed, what mattered most was believing that their employer was going in the right direction, followed closely by working for an employer that operates by strong values and ethics, and having confidence in the organization's leader."The thing that sticks with me about Google is that the people we hire come from a lot of different backgrounds and are encouraged to challenge ideas," said Grady Burnett, who heads the Internet search engine's Ann Arbor office. "We debate things and come to better decisions and ... it's a fun environment."Conversely, the factors that made the least difference in determining the top workplaces were how employees' benefits packages compared with others in their respective industries, and whether they are getting paid fairly and have the flexibility to balance their work and personal lives."Once you pay people a certain amount, you can't pay them more to make them feel better about their workplace," Claffey said. "If you aspire to be a truly great workplace, you need to take it to that inspirational level."Read the entire story here.

Google wants well-rounded staff for Ann Arbor office

By Newsroom

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In The News

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October 22, 2008

It might not seem like anyone is doing well in this economy, but Google is still hiring for its AdWords headquarters in Ann Arbor. Excerpt: It's no surprise that employees at the Internet search giant Google -- whose wacky cubicles are known for their Mr. Potato Head, superhero and Elmo doll adornments -- was ranked as southeast Michigan's top workplace in the medium-sized company category (151-500 workers). "Our culture is something that we take a lot of pride in," said Jake Parrillo, spokesman for Google, which has offices in Ann Arbor and Birmingham. "Everything that we do, we do to make a better work environment for employees." Employees enjoy a vast menu of in-house perks that include massages, free gourmet lunches and gyms. Dogs can come in for visits. The Ann Arbor facility is the headquarters for Google's AdWords operations. Read the rest of the story here and an Ann Arbor Business Review story about keeping young talent local here.

EMU students work with Google to increase Web site traffic for non-profits

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Economic Development

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October 20, 2008

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.

Video Ann Arbor’s 24-Hour Downtown

By Tom Hendrickson

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Community Development

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October 8, 2008

an Ann Arbor become Michigan's frontline in the battle to end its brain drain? With its downtown slowly evolving into a dynamic place to live, work and play, people like XX-year old Googler Brian Tschoepe are finding more and more reasons to stay.

Internet2 creates 85 jobs in Ann Arbor, looks to add a few more

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Education

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October 8, 2008

The laws of supply and demand at their most basic are working in favor of Internet2.The Ann Arbor-based non-profit started with four people a dozen years ago with the simple premise of providing high-performance networks for higher education and research labs. Today it has grown to 85 people and a handful of interns, picking up the slack that traditional companies couldn't provide."It turned out they weren't able to do that because the growth of the Internet was so rapid," says Douglas Van Houweling, CEO of Internet2.The non-profit's revenue has grown 30 percent and it expects to continue to grow at least another 5 percent each year in the near future. It also expects to add a few more employees in that time, too, to help keep up with demand.Van Houweling sees that demand steadily increasing as more and more research labs for the likes of the U.S. Department of Energy (one of its newest clients) and universities jump on its bandwagon. Just another simple case of an Ann Arbor firm taking advantage of supply and demand.Source: Douglas Van Houweling, CEO of Internet2Writer: Jon Zemke

Design Sense, Local Logic

By Kim Shine North

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Arts & Culture

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October 8, 2008

Build it and they will come. Proving that the Internet makes all things global, 32-year old entrepreneur Shana Victor has turned her passion for the funky and frivolous into a million dollar local business with a decidely personal touch.

SPARK start-up Ruby Skills looks to push web development envelope

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Entrepreneurship

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October 1, 2008

Lance Carlson doesn't just want to think outside of the box. He wants to stay completely away from the box. As a matter of fact, he doesn't want anything to do with the box.It is why he started Ruby Skills six months ago. The Ann Arbor SPARK-based business specializes in developing web applications that push the envelope, creating edgier web-based designs that Carlson felt he couldn't do within the confines of someone else's company."I enjoy starting businesses," Carlson says. "I don't enjoy following other people's dreams because often I don't agree with a particular approach. I want to try it my way."To him that means working with freedom-loving entrepreneurs and start-up companies. That's good because its where most web-development firms start at first. So far Ruby Skills is doing just that by creating the likes of eipon.com, which is now in its Beta version.Doing this sort of work has allowed Ruby Skills to grow to three full-time employees and another 3-4 contractors. These people are focused on consolidating gains from the company's first clients and building its reputation.While Ruby Skills wants and intends to add more people, it's No. 1 focus is on building its reputation right now. Carlson spends a lot of his time marketing and networking his start-up in order to land new and future clients."Once it's finished, sky is the limit after that," Carlson says.Source: Lance Carlson, president of Ruby SkillsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor-based AllSites hits the lottery with website ventures

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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September 17, 2008

Ann Arbor-based AllSites isn't out to be take on Google or Yahoo. Founders Fred Weiss and Stan Gregg are happy to stake out their little corner of the web and assist the customers who need them. Which is pretty much what their 10-year-old firm has done. "Our thing is to make it easy for people to get information from a site and do it cheaply," Weiss says.The pair met at the University of Michigan in the 1980s and started building websites together in the late 1990s. Their websites specialized in aggregating as much information as cost-effectively as possible on a specific subject for people and/or businesses. Think of them as bargain basement researchers, servicing content for virtual destinations like AllMath.com and LotteryUSA.com. The latter is where the four-person firm gets its real bread and butter.AllSites gathers lottery results from all of the state lotteries across the country and makes them available on its website or sells that info to other sites. It's also looking into expanding into international lotteries and doing more business-to-business work.Doing this will mean expanding its payroll. Weiss expects the company to begin looking for a technical hand or two in January or early next year. The best candidates would be someone fresh out of college or a college student looking for an internship. Source: Fred Weiss, chairman of AllSitesWriter: Jon Zemke