The Ann Arbor-based LED sign manufacturer recently received a $250,000 investment from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. So far it has raised $600,000 in this seed capital round, and hopes to close out the round when it gets to $750,000 by the end of the month. The investment is coming on the heels of some rapid growth in the nine-year-old firm's revenues and staff.

"Our revenues have tripled," says Philip Ochtman, president of Estrakon. "The number of staff has gone up substantially. Last year we had eight people full-time and today we have 15. We expect to have 30-35 next year."

The company has a handful of interns today and is looking to bring on another 1-2 interns this summer, he says. The company is also looking to add independent sales people to its team.

Estrakon develops, manufactures and sells LED edge-lit signs for businesses from its base on the south side of Ann Arbor. That energy-efficient technology uses 80-percent less energy than traditional light sources and contains no hazardous materials. It's also a technology that ages well.

"The LED space is growing very quickly," Ochtman says. "People seem to love the products we're putting out."

Source: Philip Ochtman, president of Estrakon
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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Excerpt:

"Super Bowl advertising can be viewed as a sort of bellwether, Nordhielm says. "The rise in automotive advertising is a signal that the auto industry is back, and quite possibly that the economy is turning around."

Watch the video here.
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"We see a big potential for growth," says Frank Pelosi, vice president & CMO of Avicenna Medical Solutions. "This VA contract is a big step forward for us. We see it as a big opportunity."

AviTracks helps veterans manage treatment for chronic diseases from their home. This usually includes patients who take blood thinners or need to monitor cardiac rhythms. It is designed to lessen the information burden on health-care IT systems, allowing medical professionals to maximize time with patients and employ best practices for treatment. AviTracks is being used in seven different divisions in the University of Michigan Health System.

Avicenna Medical Solutions was spun out of the University of Michigan in 2006. It has a team of four people, and hopes to add a couple more this year including software engineers and a business development manager.

Source: Frank Pelosi, vice president & CMO of Avicenna Medical Solutions
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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"It's the last stage of a very long process before you get to human trials," says Nader Najafi, president & CEO of Integrated Sensing Systems.

The Ypsilanti-based firm, commonly known as ISSYS, designs and develops microelectromechanical systems for medical and scientific sensing applications. Its latest piece of technology is an implant for the heart that allows medical professionals to wirelessly monitor the heart.

"So you can monitor the heart on demand even with home monitoring," Najafi says.

ISSYS, founded in 1995, has been working on this technology for 12 years. It has a staff of 30 and plans to add another 2-3 jobs this year. It will continue clinical trials of the technology for the next two years. After that, Najafi hopes to begin work on human trials, while also receiving FDA approval so it can begin sales.

Source: Nader Najafi, president & CEO of Integrated Sensing Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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This marks a continuation of a program in place since 2010 that's been funded by the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the Eastern Leaders Group. Applications will be available likely this spring, with funds to be awarded to commercial property owners after June 30, says Ypsilanti DDA Director Tim Colbeck.

While the previous two rounds were earmarked for businesses on W. Cross Street, the funding will now be opened up to the entire downtown district of Ypsilanti, says Colbeck. The funds available in this go-around have increased to $45,000, up from the last two $30,000 tranches.

"The county was pleased enough that they actually doubled the amount that they gave the DDA… it was a one-to-one grant for the DDA, now it's a two-to-one grant," Colbeck notes. The Eastern Leaders Group's contribution is now $30,000, with the DDA continuing to match $15,000.

Past improvements utilizing those grant funds include a refurbished interior and exterior for the Crossroads Bar & Grill at 517 W. Cross Street and a renovation of the former Ted's Campus Drugs at 729-735 W. Cross Street into three storefronts with residential apartments above. The Ypsilanti T-Shirt Company has opened there, and a lease has been signed with a Subway outlet. Renovation of that property is about 80% complete, Colbeck estimates.

In addition, the $1 million Cross Street streetscape project that has brought new stamped concrete crosswalks and asphalt, rain gardens, and traffic bump-outs to Depot Town is nearly completed. The city's first LED lights are in and trees have been planted, leaving just a few punch-list items for spring, Colbeck says.

Source: Ypsilanti DDA Director Tim Colbeck
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

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The most significant finding, says Nancy Shore, executive director of getDowntown, was "Seventy percent, the overwhelming majority of employers … said it was very or somewhat important to have a variety of transportation options, not just parking, to attract high-quality workers and customers."

Additionally, about a quarter of businesses with 20 or more employees indicated that the availability of the go!pass, a downtown employer-funded unlimited-use transit pass for employees, was a factor in their choice of a downtown office location. go!pass usage in 2011 was 28% higher than in 2009, with 11% of respondents commuting regularly by bus and another 29% occasionally using buses, according to getDowntown.

Cycling also saw a significant bump from 2009, with 6% of those surveyed reporting regular bike commutes, up from 2% in 2009. While seemingly small, that's pretty large compared to most communities nationwide, Shore says. "And if you go off the 2000 census numbers that say there's about 10,000 employees downtown, 6% of 10,000 employees is a lot of bike commuters."

The winter bike commuting workshops held earlier in the season were also a success, according to Shore, with well-attended workshops and that portion of getDowntown's website attracting over 1,000 hits in a few months.

getDowntown will use the survey findings to help the AATA tailor its transit master plan and will also continue to advocate for more bike lanes, Shore says.

The survey also reinforced "the value of downtown living," Shore notes. Of employees within a half-mile to two-mile radius from work, 52% are walking, 18% are biking, and only 22% are driving. At two to four miles, 32% are driving and 33% are busing it.

Within four to 10 miles, though, 74% are still driving solo. getDowntown will be focusing on this group in particular, she says. "That's potentially a distance where using the bus actually might be not so hard."

Source: Nancy Shore, executive director of getDowntown
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
News from Concentrate

Excerpt:

"The vacancy rate for apartments in Ann Arbor was 3.6 percent at the end of the third quarter, according to information from Washington, D.C.-based REIS Inc.; compared with 5.4 percent for the region.

That trend follows other sectors of real estate in metro Detroit. Ann Arbor enjoys a vacancy rate that is much lower than in other parts of the region. "

Read the rest here
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U-M is launching the Mayleben Family Venture Shaping Program through the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. The new program is being funded by a gift from Aastrom Biosciences president & CEO Tim Mayleben (a U-M graduate) and his wife, Dawn Mayleben. The grant program will teach student teams from across the University how to transform identified opportunities into businesses.

"It takes an idea and transforms it into a business structure," says Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "We see a lot of ideas."

The U-M Venture Shaping Program will provide teams of student entrepreneurs with guidance from faculty while going through a three-part process. That process includes directed discovery, value system synthesis, and profiting from capabilities framework evaluation. The idea is to prove that the startup meets a validated market need and will provide a cash prize so they can take the business to the next level.

Breaking through that key wall of building a business (taking it from an idea to a reality) is the major constraint that has been identified by U-M officials. The Venture Shaping Program hopes to help 25 student-led business each year.

"We see it as the big bottleneck in the process," Faley says. "We're happy to have a program to handle that program."

Source: Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
News from Concentrate

Excerpt:

"Despite all this fame, you’ve had tussles with the city about expanding the deli.

[Laughs] The town is very engaged, with highly educated and opinionated people. They’re good to sell specialty foods to, and it also means they have opinions about the way things should work. That’s the way it is.

We’ve tried a number of times, and this last time [partners Paul Saginaw and Grace Singleton] had enough fortitude for four years of getting permission. The truth is, I’d say most businesses would have taken the money from Saline (a nearby town) or a mall or a developer and gone there and said, ‘forget it.’

I like the community and I don’t like the idea of not being able to know the people I work with and sell to."

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Excerpt:

"“There’s this gap between ‘I have this cool idea,’ which is not a business, but it’s a cool idea, it’s a kernel of a business, but how do you transfer into the framework of a business which you could then go do a feasibility study on to see if it’s worth doing?” said Tim Faley, managing director of the Zell Lurie Institute."

Read the rest here.
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