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Research / Tech Transfer : Featured Stories

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Seeding the Ground for Next-Gen Entrepreneurs

Jon Zemke / Concentrate Friday, March 29, 2013
The risks to startup culture are a two-way street. Not only must you convince investors to make a calculated leap of faith, you also need talent that's willing to commit sweat equity to an uncertain future. The Adams Entrepreneur Fellowship Program is looking to make the second half of that equation a little easier while applying a slow-food strategy toward fostering local entrepreneurship.

Five Really Cool Technologies Being Developed Here

Dennis Archambault / Concentrate Friday, December 21, 2012
It's no surprise that folks in the Ann Arbor area are an inventive bunch. Having one of the top universities in the country in your backyard helps. So, what's in the works? How about a telescope that listens to outer space? Or cars that learn how to avoid crashes? Or, best of all, head phones that won't tangle in your pocket?

Finding A Hydrogen Future

Patrick Dunn / Metromode Friday, December 21, 2012
For more than 20 years Dr. Robert Buxbaum's Ferndale-based company has been designing technologies that filter hydrogen. That may not sound particularly exciting to the everyday Joe but when you consider that he has contracts with the U.S. and U.K. Navies and believes his product could have prevented the Fukushima meltdown you understand how focusing on something very small can have a very large impact.

How place impacts entrepreneurship

Jon Zemke / Model D Friday, July 13, 2012
Entrepreneurship isn't what it used to be. The scene today is explicitly about social engagement and collaborative leadership. This special report finds examples in three key Michigan places where new models for growth are being created and nurtured.

Our Post-Pfizer Economy

Natalie Burg / Concentrate Friday, February 24, 2012
When Pfizer left Ann Arbor it was hard not to view the glass as half empty. Five years and 16 start-ups later, that perspective has started to reverse. And in many ways, the transition from one large company to many more entrepreneurial efforts is exactly what our community and state needs to establish a healthier long term economy.

MI vs SF: The Art Of The Business Plan Competition

Jon Zemke / Concentrate Friday, December 02, 2011
One excels at style. The other, substance. But when it comes to nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem, both matter. Jon Zemke attends Silicon Valley's quarterly Founder Showcase and our own annual business plan competition, Accelerate Michigan, and finds a clash of both cultures and community.

Model D TV: TechTown revisited

Tom Hendrickson / Model D Friday, September 16, 2011
We have spent a lot of time in TechTown over the last few years, documenting the evolution of one of Detroit's key redevelopment catalysts. Dial in to this episode of Model D TV to see what's happening now -- and what's next.

Incubating Metro Detroit's Health Care Economy

Kim North Shine / Metromode Friday, June 24, 2011
Business incubators and accelerators are all the rage. Communities see them as a vital new tool in economic development. Southfield, in its attempt to capitalize on the region's growing reputation for medical excellence, is hoping to launch its first health care incubator.

Garbage In, Energy Out: A Q&A with the Founders of ReGenerate

Jon Zemke / Concentrate Friday, May 13, 2011
Paul Davis, Bobby Levine, Hunt Briggs, and Nolan Orfield are your everyday overachieving U-M grad students. And then some. They've founded ReGenerate, a company that is developing technology to convert food waste into energy. Sound pie-in-the-sky? Not to the half dozen business competitions they've won.

The Power Of Disruptive Thinking

Dennis Archambault / Concentrate Friday, May 06, 2011
"Game changing technologies". "Thinking outside the box". "Bucking the status quo". Business is big on innovative jargon, but what does it really take to remake the economic landscape? Whether it was the automobile a hundred years ago or last year's iPad, disruptive thinking is more than just risk-taking entrepreneurship, it's the business of course-altering creation. And the financial impacts are staggering.

The Re-Investors

Constance Crump / Concentrate Friday, April 22, 2011
With the successful exits of Esperion and Accuri, CEO's Roger Newton and Jen Baird could have taken the money and run. Instead, they're establishing new local ventures, reinvesting in Michigan's future, and helping to grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Ann Arbor: Targeted For Acquisition

Jon Zemke / Concentrate Friday, March 18, 2011
As Ann Arbor evolves its stable of start-ups, acquisition will be the inevitable fate for more than a few. Last month Accuri Cytometers joined the list of successful exits. But how did it happen and what does it mean for the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem? Concentrate's Jon Zemke surveys the landscape.

Venture Partners: A Q&A with Michael Godwin and Jason Townsend

Jon Zemke / Concentrate Friday, February 25, 2011
The small scale of Michigan's venture capital community means many ground-floor opportunities for investment. Bay Area boomerangs Michael Godwin and Jason Townsend of Resonant Venture Partners wax on the need for a new generation of VC investors and peek into the realm of "dirty tech".

Natural Intelligence

Dennis Archambault / Concentrate Friday, February 11, 2011
It's not quite artificial intelligence but it sure comes close. Named one of the ten "World Changing Ideas" of 2010 by Scientific American, swarm intelligence is a biology-inspired computer algorithm that's starting to see commercial application. And most of that development occurred here, in Ann Arbor area research labs.

From Scratch: Denovo Sciences

Dennis Archambault / Metromode Friday, January 21, 2011
What's the view at the bottom of Metro Detroit's entrepreneurial food chain? More diversity, less money. Case in point, Denovo Sciences. Its young partners are full of vim, vigor and a desire to "make change in human lives". What they could use is a little seed capital for their life science innovations.
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