Crain’s identifies SPARK as “scratching the entrepreneurial itch”
From Crain’s cover’s Washtenaw/Livingston …Goldschmidt is one of the nearly 70 new startups that have begun working with Ann Arbor Spark this year, a roughly 25 percent increase from the same period in 2008, according to Skip Simms, director of business acceleration services at Spark. Much of the spike is driven by an increased awareness of the resources available to Ann Arbor’s entrepreneurial community and an increase in... [Read More...]
Open Source Economic Development and Statewide Cooperation
At Ann Arbor SPARK, our immediate goal is to promote economic development in the Ann Arbor region. But our larger focus is ensuring long-term growth and viability for the entire state of Michigan — something that can best be achieved through a process we call Open Source Economic Development. We don’t view any place in the state of Michigan as competition to us. We view the rest of the state as partners. If there are things that we can do... [Read More...]
MI Pre-seed Capital Fund changes announced
The state of Michigan, through the 21st Century Jobs Fund, has re-capitalized the Michigan Pre-seed Capital Fund. The award of $6.8 million was approved by the SEIC board in March. There are two significant changes affecting distribution of this new money. One is the match for an investment is lowered to one-half to one. In other words to ask for a $200,000 investment from the fund a company only needs $100,000 of matching investment from... [Read More...]
