Social Media

Ann Arbor’s Glyph Mobile Personal Theater nears $1.5M on Kickstarter

Apparently a lot of people want to chuck their widescreen TVs away and get a head[hones and goggle theater that provides a virtual and personal experience. Excerpt: Glyph Mobile Personal Theater plus Audio closed their crowdfunding round on Kickstarter this past week having raised $1,509,506 from 3,331 backers. The hardware from Ann Arbor, Michigan based Avegant now stands as one of the most successful rewards based crowdfunding campaigns of 2014.  Glyph set a goal of raising $250,000 – an amount that was easily topped in under 48 hours.  Read the rest here. 

U-M students create new mobile startup, Tag Contacts

What do you do when you want to launch a new economy startup? Find a new economy pain in the butt and begin working on a solution. It also helps if you can have a tech titan give you a shout out to get things started. That's what's going on with Tag Contacts. The startup is the brainchild of two University of Michigan undergrads who want to build a better contacts apps for smartphones. The startup also managed to get a bump in interest when Twitter CEO Dick Costolo took notice of Tag Contacts and told the world. "We're trying to go back to basics," says Chris O'Neil, co-founder of Tag Contacts. "Tag is for play tag on the playground. We’re trying to make it as simple as possible." O'Neil, who is also president of MPowered, and Billy Irwin are juniors at U-M studying computer science. They became frustrated with a million and one annoyances with traditional contact lists on their smartphones, so they started reinventing the technology. That meant launching Tag Contacts, which is now composed of a team of five people, last October. Tag Contacts technology, which is in private Beta, aims to make using the contacts list on a smartphone simpler and more intuitive. For instance, it allows users to sort contacts by which ones were recently entered. It also differentiates between contacts found on social media and in real life. "The people you call and text aren’t necessarily the people you interact with on social media," O'Neil says. "We want to get you through to the people you want to call." Tag Contacts caught Costolo's eye last week. The Twitter CEO, also a U-M alum, began following Tag Contacts and tweeted the startup, which brought about a world of attention. The startup is now pulling allnighters to get its technology into Apple's App Store by March. Source: Chris O'Neil, co-founder of Tag Contacts Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Pure Visibility finds inspiration in new, innovative clients

Pure Visibility doesn't just hold up its work with pride, but its clients, too. The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm services a wide variety of businesses looking for more visibility on the Internet and social media. Among the newest is Novelis, which is developing new, innovative and more sustainable ways to use aluminum, such as in beverage cans. "It's inspiring to work with them," says Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility. The 8-year-old company is also finding inspiration in its new office mates. Pure Visibility took over the old Menlo Innovations space in Kerrytown last year. Today it shares that space with software firms Blue Newt and Kontextual. "They fit into our ecosystem quite nicely," Girard says. "It's just a great vibe." Pure Visibility has hired three people over the last year, including professionals in search engine optimization, marketing and business development. It now has a staff of a dozen employees and one intern-turned-independent contractor. Girard hopes to add more people in 2014 as her firm looks to create more original, compelling content. That could mean work for both writers and videographers. "There is a big growth in content generation," Girard says. "Mobile is also a piece of the puzzle. I need the right people to pull off these social media-marketing strategies." Source: Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Human Element expands office space (twice) to grow

Ben Lorenz and his partners started Human Element a decade ago with the idea of working for themselves and doing less work overall. Their tech company didn't exactly provide for a leisurely work week but the co-founders are more than happy with the bottom line. "We started this company so we didn’t have to work 80 hours a week," says Ben Lorenz, managing partner with Human Element. "It started off as a lifestyle-change decision. People really liked our company so we ended up working even more." The downtown Ann Arbor-based company specializes in tech services and e-commerce platforms, specifically the Magento e-commerce platform. It has grown its sales 50 percent each year over the last few years and Lorenz is optimistic his firm will surpass that mark again. "We will eclipse that by the end of this year," Lorenz says. That growth has allowed Human Element to make three hires, including software engineers and project managers. It is also looking to hire a software engineer. The company currently employs a dozen employees and six independent contractors. Human Element has had to expand its office space twice in the last two years to accommodate its employee growth. Source: Ben Lorenz, managing partner with Human Element Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Amplifinity grows staff by 8, preps to raise a Series B round

Amplifinity is starting to hit its growth streak stride this year as it preps to land more seed capital in 2014. The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up specializes in generating Internet referrals through social media. Its Advocacy Management Platform software allows people to advocate for brands by referring new prospects, endorsing products, and amplifying marketing messages. The 5-year-old company currently has a staff of 25 employees and an intern. It has hired eight people over the last year and is looking to hire one more person now. The firm expects to continue adding new people at that rate well into 2014. The start-up expects to double in size this year and triple in size the next year. It has experience significant growth on both the business-to-business and business-to-customer markets. "We have grown quite a bit over the last year and we anticipate growing more this year," says Dick Beedon, CEO of Amplifinity. Amplifinity raised a $3.5 million Series A round of funding last year, which has allowed it to grow at this rate. Beedon says his firm is preparing to begin raising a Series B round of seed capital in 2014 worth somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. Source: Dick Beedon, CEO of Amplifinity Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Larky grows business in software for discount-seekers

Anna Bagozzi: A Tribe Of Her Own

Anna Bagozzi wants to do more than just sell fashion, she wants to create a fashion-minded community. If her early successes with leveraging Facebook and other social media for Tribehaus, her online store, are any indication, she may be onto something big.

App firm started by U-M students reinvents note-taking

The article claims that Fetchnotes is based in Cambridge but it was founded in Ann Arbor by U-M students. It went out to Boston to participate in a business accelerator program.  Excerpt: "...what if there was a way to improve on this simple idea by integrating one of our favorite social media platforms, Twitter? Meet Fetchnotes. Fetchnotes is more than just a place to store ideas. Users generate their own organization method through hashtags and followers." Read the rest here.

CrowdJuice aims to release public Beta this winter

CrowdJuice, an event-based tech firm, has recently secured a five-figure microloan and plans to release the public Beta of its mobile app later this winter. The Tech Brewery-based start-up is developing software that makes it easy for event participants to find the people they want to connect with and background information on them. The idea is to help maximize networking time. This web-based and mobile attendee matchmaking software and mobile conference will in essence serve as a guide for professional events. It premiered at last year's Michigan Growth Capital Symposium. "All of this is about connecting at events," says Ed Farrell, CEO & founder of CrowdJuice. "We take the traditional print guide and put it in your smartphone or tablet and add a bunch of valuable features to it." CrowdJuice, a two-person start-up, plans to use its new financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program to help further its product development, marketing and sales efforts. The Michigan Microloan Fund Program, launched in 2009, has provided microloans worth between $10,000 and $50,000 to 76 companies.   Source: Ed Farrell, CEO & founder of CrowdJuice Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.