PR/Marketing

Orange Egg Advertising focuses on quality growth

By Newsroom

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October 6, 2010

Amy Grambeau's business, Orange Egg Advertising, is virtual yet real, without a home but run from Ann Arbor. The advertising solutions company keeps about half a dozen people working; most are independent contractors. Six-year-old Orange Egg is run from home computers, which means clients are often greeted by Grambeau's rottweilers when they visit her "office.""That's why people hire us in this day and age," Grambeau says. "We're lean and mean and virtual. Our customers don't have to pay for a lot of overhead."Orange Egg Advertising handles efforts ranging from website design to billboards to whole marketing packages. Grambeau was a sales media manager at WDIV in Detroit for 14 years before striking out on her own with a boutique firm. She plans to keep it small for the foreseeable future, maybe adding another 1099 contractor or two in the next year so she can keep tabs on her quality."I firmly believe the growth has to be quality and cautious," Grambeau says. "Our growth has to be managed."Source: Amy Grambeau, director of Orange Egg AdvertisingWriter: Jon Zemke

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Dataspace to grow its 1099 workforce

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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September 22, 2010

Local companies aren't just growing from hiring employees. Some are making moves by adding independent contractors (commonly called 1099 for their IRS code), such as Ann Arbor's Dataspace.The downtown-based tech firm, founded in 1994, still has a staff of about 10 people. However, it has augmented its headcount by bringing on a couple of 1099 contractors over the last year. The firm expects to add another 2-5 independent contractors within the next year to help maintain its flexibility for new projects and revenue growth."I don't think 20 percent growth this year is out of the question," says Ben Taub, CEO of Dataspace.Dataspace focuses on tabulating and interpretation of sales numbers and coming up with ways to take advantage of them. It's also working on business intelligence consulting, which is sees as a growing sector in tight economic times.Source: Ben Taub, CEO of DataspaceWriter: Jon Zemke

Ingenex Digital Marketing grows nationally, plans 50% staff increase

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Arts & Culture

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September 8, 2010

Ingenex Digital Marketing is keeping people busy these days, and it's harnessing Google to help make that happen.The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm had been more of an Internet advertising and web development pure play in its first few years. In the last year or so, the 5-year-old firm has been basing its growth on search engine optimization and Google Adwords."We have been working closely with Google Ann Arbor," says Derek Mehraban, CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing. "We're looking to grow as a national digital marketing firm."Ingenex Digital Marketing employs six, plus three interns and three independent contractors. It has hired three people over the last year and expects to add another five more over the next 12 months. It is basing that growth on its increasingly national client roster.Source: Derek Mehraban, CEO of Ingenex Digital MarketingWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s MetaSpring plans to add interns, contractors

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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September 1, 2010

Safety is in numbers, but the people at MetaSpring are seeing profits in numbers, too.The Ann Arbor-based web-development and marketing firm is partnering with more local companies for its marketing, design, search engine optimization, and social media work. "We have all sort of come to the conclusion that we have all gone through ups and downs so we are sharing more work," says Julie Cameron, marketing director for MetaSpring. The 6-year-old company employs five people, a couple of independent contractors, and the occasional intern. The firm expects to bring on a marketing intern or two this fall, along with a couple of independent contractors to take on the extra work created through more partnerships.Source: Julie Cameron, marketing director for MetaSpringWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Buycentives enters auto incentive market

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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August 11, 2010

Conventional wisdom dictates that a company whose business model is based on automotive sales would not have done well over the last year or two. Buycentives is not that kind of firm."Even in the downturn we have gotten a lot of interest because our product allows them to spend their marketing dollars more effectively," says David Goldschmidt, co-founder of Buycentives.The 1-year-old start-up housed in Ann Arbor SPARK's downtown incubator specializes in making sense of this big, bloated morass of incentives for both sellers and buyers. Its software lets automakers target small groups or even individual consumers with the right incentives, helping auto manufacturers eliminate inefficiencies in the buyer incentive pool.Buycentives has spent the last year introducing its principal product to the market and is readying it for other types of Internet sales leads. The 3-person firm expects to hire a few sales people to facilitate its growth over the next year."We have made significant progress," Goldschmidt says. "We're gaining some traction with local car companies and dealership groups."Source: David Goldschmidt, co-founder of BuycentivesWriter: Jon Zemke

Pure Entrepreneurship: A Q&A with Catherine Juon and Linda Girard

By Jon Zemke

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Economic Development

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August 11, 2010

How do you get to the top of Google's first page? Catherine Juon and Linda Girard have a few ideas. It's why they started the successful website optimization firm Pure Visibility. Jon Zemke sits down with these Ann Arbor entrepreneurs to talk about sharing leadership, running a company in downtown A2, and teaching school kids more about business (among other topics).

ICON Creative Technologies Group plans for 20% growth

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 28, 2010

ICON Creative Technologies Group is literally growing into its new home on the outskirts of downtown Ann Arbor, hiring four new people over the last year.The interactive marketing agency moved to the former second home of the Ann Arbor Art Center last year. It now has a staff of 25 people and a handful of independent contractors focusing on Internet marketing for firms in the bio-tech, automotive, and service industries."We're doing well," says Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies Group. "The year is going pretty much as planned."The 15-year-old company is focusing on a hybrid of 20 percent organic growth and mergers/acquisitions to expand its business over the next year. "Our top priority is people in the business development field," Cleveland says.Source: Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies GroupWriter: Jon Zemke

ForeSee Results hires 40, plans to add 30-50 more

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Economic Development

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June 23, 2010

It's pretty easy to see that ForeSee Results is growing if you look in the right places, such as its increasing client list, expanding staff directory, and strategic plan for expansion.The Ann Arbor-based company has added about 40 people over the last year, expanding its staff to 185 employees and a couple of interns. It expects to add another 30-50 employees within the next year."We're doing very well," says Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results. "We've been adding customers and employees. We're just growing."ForeSee Results captures "voice of customer" feedback and uses it to measure customer satisfaction for the likes of Kohler, Citibank, and Ameriprise. It uses the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index to gauge the satisfaction of website visitors and pinpoint opportunities to improve the site.Its client base has not only grown but diversified as the company has expanded its capabilities and product lines. Among those it serves are Eddie Bauer, OnStar, Research In Motion, and Meijer."Good product leads to good, satisfied customers who tell other people about you," Freed says. "Word of mouth helps."That word of mouth is starting to really travel. The company plans to expand into the European market this year with a foothold in the United Kingdom. It will expand eastward from there, picking up new clients along the way.Source: Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results

Ann Arbor’s MyBandStock lands first client, raises seed funding

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Arts & Culture

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June 16, 2010

A little more than a year into its life, and MyBandStock is getting its footing in the music scene, landing its first customer and some seed capital.The Ann Arbor-based start-up that focuses on connecting bands to their fans now counts the After Midnight Project, which is signed to Universal Motown, as a client. MyBandStock will let fans buy "shares of stock" in the band through purchasing tickets and merchandise. Those shares can be used to gain insider access to the band."Anyone who buys a t-shirt or a record gets a tag for 100 shares of stock to the band," says Drew Leahy, founder of MyBandStock. "They can take that stock and use it to view exclusive video."The top 10 shareholders will be eligible to do a video chat with the band at the end of the Warped Tour this summer, in which the After Midnight Project is taking part. It's part of the firm's new business model of connecting underground artists and fans via digital access. User demand dictates which bands will be featured.MyBandStock has raised seed capital from angel investors, which is enough to hire six employees through the rest of the year. It hopes to sign another 5-10 artists by the end of 2010.Source: Drew Leahy, founder of MyBandStockWriter: Jon Zemke

USA Today profiles ultra-green Ann Arbor home

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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June 16, 2010

Matt and Kelly Grocoff have gone from gathering local publicity to national publicity for their work to turn their house into the greenest in Michigan.Excerpt:Matt Grocoff has an ambitious goal. He aims to make his 110-year-old Victorian in Ann Arbor, Mich., produce more energy than it uses.That's no easy task, considering how leaky the 3-bedroom house was when he and his wife, Kelly, bought it in the fall of 2006 and began restoration. "You could stick a spatula through the window," he recalls. There was also asbestos siding, lead paint, zero insulation and a half-century old furnace.Yet Grocoff is game. As a contributing writer to Old House Web and host of greenovation.TV, he's been studying green building for years.Read the rest of the story here.