News

Ann Arbor SPARK has landed $1 million in funding from the Michigan Strategic Fund that will help the economic accelerator expand its reach across Washtenaw County.

"This broadens the geography and the number of companies that we can serve," says Paul Krutko, president & CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK.

The money will go toward creating the Washtenaw County Incubator Collaborative, which will help bring Ann Arbor SPARK's business incubator activities across the county. The idea is to help further the growth of tech-based start-ups and jobs across the county.

Ann Arbor SPARK will partner with the MC3 Business Accelerator and the Michigan Research Institute to leverage the $1 million in state funding (and $722,500 in matching funds from the participating agencies) to create the the Washtenaw County Incubator Collaborative. The new partnership will focus on the medical device and defense industries as well as other high-growth industries in Washtenaw County.

"We need to deal with regional solutions," Krutko says.

Source: Paul Krutko, president & CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK
Writer: Jon Zemke

FarmLogs is bringing software and technology to a sector of the economy not know for early adoption - agriculture.

The Ann Arbor-based start-up is creating online-based, farm-management software with an eye toward helping farmers make better business decisions. The idea was born in Silicon Valley, the brainchild of two Michigan ex-patriots, and first incubated at the famed Y Combinator a little more than a year ago. It found well-known investors on the West Coast and was poised to become the next posterchild for Silicon Valley start-ups when it did something unconventional. It moved back to Michigan.

"We decided the right move for us was to move back to Michigan, right here in Ann Arbor," says Jesse Vollmar, CEO & co-founder of FarmLogs.

Vollmar and Brad Koch grew up in a rural area in Michigan's thumb and received computer information degrees from Saginaw Valley State University in early 2012. They saw firsthand how farmers were keeping their records by hand and making important business decisions off gut feelings. There were few, if any, computers and even less analytical data.

"They don't have the software tools to plan the business and manage their results," Vollmar says. "That's what we provide."

Those tools organize the farmer's data, helps them create financial models, figure out how best to plant fields, and when to bring their crops to market and which market presents the best value. The bottom line is to help them maximize production, efficiency and profits.

"We want to be thought of as the company that is leading innovation in agriculture," Vollmar says.

That idea has help propel FarmLogs to raising a $1 million angel round. It now employs four people and is in the process of hiring two more now. It expects to bring on even more as it starts to accelerate its growth with Ann Arbor as its base. And the reason for relocating Ann Arbor were pretty self-evident for Vollmar and Koch.

"Ann Arbor has a better start-up culture and vibe that we thought would be better for attracting talent," Vollmar says.

Source: Jesse Vollmar, CEO & co-founder of FarmLogs
Writer: Jon Zemke

Paul Johnston and Kris Wenzel don't always measure the success of their start-up, ParseNIP, by its bottom line. Sometimes success can be defined in how people use the New Hudson-based company's name.

"If our customers start using our products as a verb then I know we have that snowball rolling down the hill," Johnston says, adding he wants his customers to say "just ParseNIP it" when it comes to data migration and management.

ParseNIP has created software that can easily convert data from one format to another, effectively removing the language barrier between some operating systems so databases can be combined and easily accessed.

Johnston and Wenzel have spent years developing the technology and recently launched a public Beta. They are getting ready to transfer the software to a 10-day trial period and focus on creating the best possible user experience for their customers, which they want to expand to a broad range of users outside of the traditional software crowd.

"We want to target this to the accountant or the human resources representative," Wenzel says.

ParseNIP is currently a two-person operation but Johnston and Wenzel hope to grow their team this year as their technology becomes more widely adopted.

Source: Paul Johnston and Kris Wenzel, co-founders of ParseNIP
Writer: Jon Zemke

After seven successful years in Detroit's Midtown, Canine to Five has expanded to Ferndale, bringing its day care, cageless overnight boarding and play place to another part of metro Detroit.

Canine to Five Ferndale opens Jan. 28 at 2141 Hilton Road with 4,000 square feet of indoor play and sleep area for as many as 60 dogs coming for day care, or space for 40 dogs in overnight, cage-free boarding. Another 1,400 square feet of outdoor space is connected to the indoor area.

More than a business, Canine to Five is a community connection that brings together dog lovers who want to give their dogs a place to socialize.

“Canine to Five has grown to be more than just a daycare facility. We are a community center for dogs that holds play dates, educational seminars and other events. We want to make sure our new Ferndale location is a similar resource for our customers and community,” founder and owner Liz Blondy says.

Canine to Five is planning several special, grand opening events, including an open $5 per dog play date on Valentine's Day. The center will also offer special dog care courses such as animal first aid and other events.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Liz Blondy, owner, Canine to Five Detroit and Ferndale

RetailCapital, a relatively new finance firm, is reinventing the financing options for small businesses in Metro Detroit.

Lending options for small businesses largely dried up in the wake of the Great Recession, leaving mom-and-pop companies with few, if any, options to replace broken equipment or fund expansions. RetailCapital is filling that gap by offering financing options (with an average advance of about $20,000) where the principal is paid back through a portion of that business' credit card receipts.

"We are essentially factoring future receivables for mom-and-pop businesses," says Erik Stamell, managing director of RetailCapital.

The 2-year-old business has grown to 60 employees and an intern after hiring 40 new people over the last year. The firm closed 140 deals in the last month from not only Metro Detroit but also across the U.S. It expects to continue hiring as its business revenues climb.

"Our business has grown tremendously," Stamell says. "The industry has grown exponentially as well."

Source: Erik Stamell, managing director of RetailCapital
Writer: Jon Zemke

Relume Technologies is in the midst of what its leaders are calling a "steady, continual growth," which should allow the LED manufacturer to continue adding jobs.

These last two years, the Oxford-based company has hired close to 20 people, including 10 last year. It now employs 65 people and expects to add to that number this year.

"We're on a significant growth curve that will takes us to 250 jobs within the next two years," says Curt McIntosh, product development manager for Relume Technologies.

Relume Technologies develops and manufactures LED technology and smart-grid systems. LEDs and smart-grid technology are seen as the leaders in energy conservation for lighting technologies. Communities and businesses across the country are adopting strategies such as putting LED streetlights in downtown Ann Arbor.

"There is a severe need on the energy conservation side of the industry," McIntosh says.

Relume Technologies recently received a venture capital investment worth $7 million with Farmington Hills-based VC Beringea leading the round.

Source: Curt McIntosh, product development manager for Relume Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

Blue Filament Intellectual Property got its start a year ago when Mary Margaret O'Donnell struck out on her own and launched her firm in downtown Birmingham. Today the intellectual property law firm has grown to five people - adding staff in its first year.

O'Donnell spent a decade working in large law firms and boutique intellectual property law practices. Today O'Donnell and her team have prosecuted and managed thousands of trademarks throughout the world.

"For me it was about building something from the ground up," O'Donnell says.

Establishing Blue Filament Intellectual Property proved to be the biggest challenge in the firm's first year, O'Donnell says. However, she adds that she was able to start with a large portfolio of clients from around the world that helped ease that transition. That was far from easy, but it was not something O'Donnell would advise other entrepreneurial attorneys from doing.

"I would tell them to have a strong heart and a strong mind to work very hard," O'Donnell says.

Source: Mary Margaret O'Donnell, owner of Blue Filament Intellectual Property
Writer: Jon Zemke

Southfield-based jacAPPS can claim something a lot of local software companies can't: being an early adopter of the app economy.

The company launched in early 2008, spinning out of a media consulting and consumer research firm. Its first app was creating a radio app for local rock n' roll station WRIF. It now has created 775 apps (mostly custom ones for clients) and is doing work with Ford today.

"In 2008 we saw pretty clearly how disruptive smart phones and apps were going to be," says Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS.

Jacobs aspires to make jacAPPS one of the biggest players in the mobile field. It has hired one person to expand its staff to five people and it's looking to add interns. Now that jacAPPS has, as Jacobs describes it, the house app developer for Ford's SYNC system, it is poised for a rapid ascent in 2013.

"We are interviewing more people," Jacobs says. "We're growing. We're also talking to investors. I want to be the largest mobile developer in the U.S. I think we are on our way to doing that."

Source: Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS
Writer: Jon Zemke

Last year David Fuehrer and Stephen Goldner didn't know where to go to find new or experimental treatments for illness so they decided to do something about it. The started a business in Bloomfield Hills last summer called cureLauncher.

The Internet start-up now serves as a one-stop source for all new treatments and developments. It launched last fall and is now working to become the Wikipedia of clinical trials for new drugs and treatments.

"We have every enrolling breast cancer trial in the U.S.," says David Fuehrer, vice president & co-founder of cureLauncher. "It's 400 trials at 7,500 locations. Users can stroll through that list and see what is right for them."

The company is also working to help tackle the clinical trial enrollment problem. It cites that there are 50,000 clinical trials in the U.S. every year, and each one is delayed by 4.6 months due to enrollment issues. The firm hopes to help close that gap by connecting sick people with envelope-pushing treatments that could help them.

Fuehrer and Goldner's start-up recently made the finals of this winter's ACE business plan competition. The self-funded firm and its team of eight people is now applying for some seed-funding sources, such as financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund.

Source: David Fuehrer, vice president & co-founder of cureLauncher
Writer: Jon Zemke

Nutriinfo, a healthy-living technology start-up, has moved from Novi to Ann Arbor to help further the company's growth.

"We thought it was the best place to be to have access to more resources," says Mia Jang, CEO of Nutriinfo. "We thought it was a great place to find people when you need to hire."

Jang, who has a PhD in nutrition, started Nutriinfo in 2007 to provide a better way for people to become more healthy. She leverages online resources and other IT technology to create simple paths for the employees of companies and customers of health insurers to lose weight and lead healthier lives.

Nutriinfo now employs five people and expects to to hire a few more people before the end of winter. The move to Ann Arbor in July was made to help make this sort of staff expansion easier because of the close proximity to the University of Michigan.

The firm plans to launching a weight-loss challenge for corporations and communities in Michigan in March. The idea is to raise awareness about obesity and align with the current health and wellness initiatives underway with the state of Michigan. For information, click here.

Source: Mia Jang, CEO of Nutriinfo
Writer: Jon Zemke

Esperion Therapeutics is bringing on some familiar faces to its staff, including a new CEO that has an extensive history with the pharmaceutical firm.

Tim Mayleben replaces Esperion Therapeutics' founder, Roger Newton, as president and CEO while Newton becomes the firm's executive chairman and chief scientific officer. Mayleben previously served as president and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Aastrom Biosciences before stepping down last summer.

Mayleben also once served as Esperion Therapeutics' COO and CFO a decade ago, helping it raise more than $200 million in seed capital and negotiating its sale to Pfizer in 2004 for $1.3 billion. Newton bought back the company four years ago and relaunched it.

"I am a business person by training. Roger is a scientist and a company builder," Mayleben says. "We complement each other really well."

Esperion Therapeutic's most advanced product candidate, ETC-1002, is in Phase 2 clinical trials for patients with hypercholesterolemia and other cardiometabolic risk factors. ETC-1002 is a small-molecule metabolic regulator of imbalances in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and inflammation. It is being developed to address the underlying causes of metabolic diseases and reduce multiple risk factors associated with them. In preclinical and clinical studies to date, treatment with ETC-1002 has been shown to be safe and well-tolerated while producing statin-like reductions in LDL-C and inflammatory markers.

Esperion Therapeutics plans to wrap up it's Phase 2 clinical trials later this year and begin Phase 2 D clinical trials in 2014. Phase 2 D clinical trials are one of the final steps before FDA approval and often take two years or more to complete. The company has historically called Ann Arbor home before moving to the Michigal Life Sciences Innovation Center, managed by Ann Arbor SPARK, in Plymouth. The company now employs 11 people after hiring three recently.

Source: Tim Mayleben, president & CEO of Esperion Therapeutics and Roger Newton, founder of Esperion Therapeutics
Writer: Jon Zemke

Birdhouse is wrapping up its first year of providing a mobile/web solution for parents and caregivers of autistic children.

The West Bloomfield-based start-up is creating software that tracks the behavior of autistic children and helps the loved ones of autistic children manage the disorder. It is also looking to find news ways to leverage the data it's collecting to help further the fight against autism.

"We'd like to be working with organizations from around the country to use the data Birdhouse is collecting to better understand autism, and to give us more answers and better understanding of the disorder," says Ben Chutz, founder of Birdhouse.

Chutz was inspired to start the company las year because his girlfriend has a daughter with autism, exposing him to the trials and tribulations that come with it. Chutz is now hoping the data gathered from his technology, still in private Beta until this summer, will be able to help shed some light on whether nature (barometric pressure or tides) factors into the impact of autism.

"We're looking to crowd source the idea of collecting info on kids with autism," Chutz says.

Birdhouse currently has a team of three people and is looking to add two software developers to help bring its technology to market.

Source: Ben Chutz, founder of Birdhouse
Writer: Jon Zemke

A new start-up based in Ann Arbor, stkr.it, is helping people move memories trapped in old mobile technology to a format where they can be preserved for posterity.

For instance, if a series of text messages about getting a new job have sentimental value, stkr.it allows them to be moved from the original phone and preserved when the old cell phone is replaced.

"I found that young people were were saving their old cell phones that had old text message conversations," says Mike Newman, president of stkr.it. "They were meaningful and valuable. They didn't want to loose them."

Mike Newman and his father, Chuck Newman, were previously executives with ReCellular, a Dexter-based cell phone recycler. ReCellular has been the largest recycler of cell phones for many years and often worked to find ways to get people to recycle old cell phones. Sentimental attachment to the information inside cell phones was one of the larger barriers to overcome.

Mike Newman moved to New York City two years ago with his wife who took a job in finance. He started stkr.it not long after. Chuck Newman was one of the first investors and convinced Mike Newman (who splits time between New York and Ann Arbor) to move it back to Ann Arbor.

"We had a strong desire to make this a Michigan company," Mike Newman says.

Today, stkr.it is a little more than 1-year-old, employs five people (mostly in Ann Arbor) and is looking to add interns. It is expanding its product offerings to letting users move videos created on smart phones to greeting cards to create a personal touch.

"With our technology you can add a video or a voice message," Mike Newman says. "That way it's much more personal and meaningful."

Source: Mike Newman, president of stkr.it
Writer: Jon Zemke