"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.
News from Concentrate

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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Compliant Healthcare Technologies, LLC was founded in 2006 with a desire to take medical piped gas systems evaluations, maintenance and compliance to a new level.  CHT partners with healthcare facilities to help them achieve Joint Commission and Environment of Care compliance with world-class service.  Through the use of a unique and comprehensive patent-pending software and service (CHxProgram), healthcare facilities have the ability to evaluate the current status of their medical piped gas system(s) from source equipment to patient terminal, at any time.  As a “Partner in Compliance”, CHT offers:

• Medical piped gas systems evaluations, inspections, and verifications
• Medical piped gas systems deficiency corrections and maintenance
• Environmental monitoring services and passive dosimeter badges
• Parts and equipment sales (i.e. pumps, compressors, regulators, alarms, valves)
• Design, diagrams, plan reviews and documentation services for medical piped gas systems
• Construction and project management services for medical piped gas systems
• ASSE instructor led or online training courses (6005, 6010, 6020/30, 6040)

CHT’s mission is to deliver quality medical services, cultivating partnerships through the use of innovative technological solutions, skilled service professionals and enriching educational programs that differentiate CHT as the national leader in the healthcare industry.  CHT services healthcare facilities nationwide at over 600 locations.  It is headquartered in Raleigh, NC, and has regional offices in Cleveland, OH, Chicago, IL, Louisville, KY, Richmond, VA, and now Ann Arbor, MI.

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."

Read the rest here.
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
News from Concentrate

Possibilities for Change has received funding and support from Ann Arbor SPARK. After being introduced to SPARK through the U of M Office of Tech Transfer, they have received several Phase III business engagements from SPARK. This type of engagement typically offers consulting, connections to executive and technical talent, marketing and business development services, as well as entrepreneurial educational programs, to name a few. 

Last year, Possibilities for Change participated in one such education program, SPARK’s Entrepreneur Boot Camp. During this program they made a key connection with Ted Dacko, an Ann Arbor entrepreneur best known for rescuing a small, near-death company called Health Media and growing it into an enterprise so successful it was bought by Johnson & Johnson. Ted continues to work with them today.

The company is led by Dr. Jennifer Salerno, a nurse practitioner who directs the University of Michigan Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools’ School-Based Health Center Program. Her work with adolescents spans 15+ years and led to the creation of the survey, called Rapid Assessment for Adolescent Preventive Services (RAAPS). For more information about the assessment and Possibilities for Change, please see the announcement on their webpage.

Kurek points out that the recent reauthorization of the federal Small Business Innovation Research grants brought stability back to the bio-tech space. Add to that the state of Michigan recently reauthorizing spending up to $500,000 annually over three years for bio-tech business consulting, and the woman behind the Ann Arbor-based consultancy is feeling optimistic.

"All of my clients breathed a sigh of relief," Kurek says. "It allows us to really ramp up what we were doing. This is a really good time after a lot of upheaval."

Biotechnology Business Consultants specializes in helping bio-tech start-ups develop their technologies and grow their business, a process that often takes several years of work and millions of dollars in investment. The company recently added an independent contractor to its staff of five employees. Kurek plans to create two more full-time jobs in the next year as her 22-year-old firm works to build up its new clients.

"My goal is not to be a high-growth business but to be a high-impact business," Kurek says. "I want to focus on our new clients we just landed."

Source: Lisa Kurek, managing partner of Biotechnology Business Consultants
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The New York-headquartered firm will be consolidating from two other downtown Ann Arbor offices totaling 5,000 square feet. A $9.5 million venture capital infusion from Massachusetts-based Bain Capital Ventures last September is facilitating the firm's move into the 11,000-square-foot building.

Besides the downtown location, other interior features the company found attractive were brick walls and dozens of windows and skylights. After some remodeling, the property should be ready for an April move-in, says Gary Evans, general manager of HookLogic. Renovations include adding shared offices, glassed-in conference rooms, and a break room, though the floor plan will primarily be open.

"We tend to not use a lot of cubes and we don't even use a lot of offices," Evans says. "We like to create open working areas where you can share a lot of information and ideas pretty easily and you can get a lot of energy going in the space, so this is really well suited for that as well."

The firm, which had about 30 employees as of September, is currently hiring and plans to add another 35 positions over the course of the year, according to Evans. He figures the new space can hold up to 100 people.

"Our headquarters is in Manhattan but a lot of our growth is scheduled to be in Ann Arbor, and there's lots of reasons for that. Not least because of access to outstanding talent here," Evans points out, adding, "But we've also got a much bigger space here as well, which really makes it logical for us to build out teams here whenever we can. I think the majority of our growth moving forward is going to be in this office."

Source: Gary Evans, general manager, HookLogic
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
News from Concentrate

Excerpt:

"This is the president's 10th visit to Michigan since taking office. He was in Michigan in October to visit GM's Orion Assembly plant with the South Korean president and spoke in Detroit on Labor Day.

It will be his second visit to speak at the University of Michigan. In May 2010, he delivered the commencement address at Michigan Stadium, where he urged students to participate in democracy and get all points of view."

Read the rest of the story here.
News from Concentrate