News

Ann Arbor SPARK Boot Camp Kicks-Off September 16

Date Posted: 13 August 2014

Ann Arbor SPARK’s “Boot Camp” provides an intensive 9-week program for up-and-coming entrepreneurs looking to prove themselves in the business world. Participants are subjected to rigorous training and coaching by seasoned entrepreneurs.

The program is designed to help early stage companies discover the feasibility of their business concept. It also provides the resources to build upon their business idea and create a workable business model. “Drill Instructors” act as mentor and coach to the participants, providing them with guidance in developing their business concept over the course of the program. These mentors also prepare them for investor pitches and provide access to potential customers.

The program begins with a half-day “Kick Off” where the various participants will be paired with their mentors and briefed on the weeks to come. Each week, the Drill Instructor checks in with each of the businesses in order to provide guidance and instruction. At the end of the nine-week session, businesses participate in intensive 2-day on-site presentations and working groups, where they present to a panel of qualified professionals who provide invaluable feedback. Following “graduation”, SPARK continues to help these companies grow through post-camp coaching.

With more than 300 graduates of Boot Camp since its inception in 2002, Ann Arbor and the surrounding areas have seen significant successes from many of the companies that have gone through the program. Leading software firm Menlo Innovations boasts of their Boot Camp experience back in 2002, where they were able to “set a tone for the rest of their progress,” which includes continued growth and profitability. Two years ago, they were able to triple their working space and they plan to increase their staff in the coming years.

A more recent graduate, Showtown LLC was impressed with the networking opportunities and quality of relationships they formed during Boot Camp. Showtown is an exclusive talent-based website aimed at providing a competitive online atmosphere where performers can compete against one another and connect with local venues to book gigs. Founder and CEO Marc Marras credits SPARK with helping them to “get out of the building and talk to potential customers and competitors and understand what is important to them.” Following their Boot Camp experience, they were able to implement and adapt their site, which is set to launch in Beta in the fall.

The 25th Annual Boot Camp begins on September 16th, local companies are gearing up to take on the challenge of Boot Camp and reap the benefits so many companies before them have experienced. 

NEF board member joins TechTown Detroit as Executive in Residence

Date Posted: 1 August 2014

Gerry Roston, NEF board member and recent past president, has joined TechTown Detroit as an executive in residence (EIR). As an EIR, Roston’s role is to identify technologies at regional universities, hospitals, and corporations that are ready to be spun off into new entities; provide business assistance to TechTown’s tech startups; and at the end of the one year assignment, take on the CEO role for one of the startups with which he worked. Roston is excited about this new role, “With the rebuilding of Detroit in full swing, I have to believe that there are numerous, viable technologies just waiting to be accelerated. These types of businesses will attract more talent to Detroit, which will further help the rebuilding process.

Paul Riser, managing director, technology-based entrepreneurship at TechTown, is pleased that Roston has accepted this role. “The Detroit Technology Exchange (DTX) [the programmatic partnership that supports the EIR position] is focused on recruiting and grooming talent for tech entrepreneurship opportunities and on converting innovative technologies into Detroit-based startups. Given Gerry’s expertise and extensive network of connections throughout the state, we are certain that he will have a positive impact on the Detroit tech entrepreneurship community.”

Roston’s recent interactions with TechTown were as an instructor for the Labs Venture Accelerator and the DTX Launch Detroit. In both cases, he represented NEF and provided instruction on effective investor presentations. According to Roston, “The quality of the teams in both sessions was amazing – and that was a key factor in my deciding to become more involved with TechTown.”

Detroit Technology Exchange (DTX), a partnership between TechTown Detroit, Bizdom, Invest Detroit, and the Detroit Creative Corridor Center. It is supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.’s Michigan Strategic Fund and the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan.

Stefan Sysko Elected to NEF Board of Directors

Date Posted: 31 July 2014

The New Enterprise Forum is happy to announce the election of Stefan Sysko to its Board of Directors. Mr. Sysko is an entrepreneur with a diverse background with 20+ years of experience, much of which has been spent advising small business owners on developing strategy and on executing at a high level. His career includes broad experience in strategic marketing planning, market development, new product and business development, and training.

Sysko has been a consultant, advisor and mentor to dozens of start-ups and hundreds of small businesses. He advises startups, emerging, and turnaround companies with launch, growth, and rebuilding strategies. He helps founders discover and effectively tell their story, develop their value proposition and identify potential roadblocks resulting in focused, viable business plans. Through a strategic partnership with metro Detroit-based Poco Labs, Sysko helps companies with concept development, consumer research and product design.

He is a mentor at Detroit Creative Corridor Center, and helped develop and currently runs the highly successful Retail Boot Camp for TechTown Detroit. He serves on the Marketing & Development Committee for Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit.

Sysko holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wayne State University and an MBA from Eastern Michigan University.

 

Regaingo July Pitch Pit Winner

Date Posted: 27 July 2014

The latest edition of New Enterprise Forum’s Pitch Pit took place Thursday night, July 24, 2014. Three entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to present their business ideas to an enthusiastic audience as well as a panel of esteemed judges. Tony Menyhart, founder of Easy Artisan Bread spoke about his “kneadless” bread mixes. Scott Phillips, CEO of The Search Lite, related the advantages of his technology in helping universities match market needs with technology benefits of students’ business ideas. Jason Beal of Regaingo shared the benefits of his interactive search engine that matches homeowners with contractors through a virtual lawn sign website.

All three presented to a panel of judges – Lauren Bigelow, Growth Capital Network, Adrian Ohmer, Invest Detroit and Jack Ahrens, Venture Capitalist – fielding detailed questions related to their business models. The panel question and answer period was particularly involved during this session. The judges provided insightful feedback and offered tips to the entrepreneurs on how to proceed with their efforts. After intense debate the judges awarded first prize, $216, to Jason Beal and Regaingo.

Pitch Pit provides early stage entrepreneurs an informal environment to present their ideas while getting invaluable feedback from members of the start-up support community of southern Michigan. The New Enterprise Forum presents Pitch Pit quarterly during their monthly Forum meeting. Meetings are open to the public and are free of charge. Entrepreneurs interested in becoming presenters are encouraged to visit the NEF website, www.newenterpriseforum.org, and submit their business idea. The next Pitch Pit event will take place on Thursday night October 16, 2014 at Ann Arbor SPARK, 330 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Effective Technology Transfer

Date Posted: 17 July 2014

Effective Technology Transfer by Ian Charles

Many great business ideas begin as research projects in Universities. Unfortunately, the Universities are not so great at spinning these ideas out of academia and into the business world.

Often the inventor wants to control the project but is unwilling to forgo the not inconsiderable benefits of a tenured academic position, so the project stagnates. Also, the professor typically has little or no business experience and finds it difficult to deal with investors, customers and vendors.

A further problem is that the University’s Technology Transfer Office will often spend considerable time and resources protecting intellectual property for which there are few or no commercial applications.

One University that is trying to overcome these issues is Michigan State with the formation of Spartan Innovations a couple of years ago.

Spartan Innovations is an L3C owned by the MSU Foundation that is staffed by experienced start-up executives referred to as “CEOs in Residence”. This team has early access to all of the University’s invention disclosures and has right of first refusal on any of them. It’s only after the Spartan Innovations team has passed on a deal that the University’s Technology Transfer Office will seek another potential licensee.

While the model still has room for improvement, the first companies have been launched. Courseweaver under its CEO, Rob Fulk, launched in April and has already signed up its first customers and is in the process of closing a $4MM equity round. Several other start-ups have been formed including LifeBlood, an innovative blood storage technology and DataShark, an autonomous underwater vehicle. Both of these won awards at April’s Greenlight business plan competition and expect to launch before the end of 2014.

Michigan Angel Fund Becomes NEF Stakeholder Sponsor

Date Posted: 12 July 2014

The New Enterprise Forum is pleased to announce the addition of a new Stakeholder Sponsor, The Michigan Angel Fund (http://www.miangelfund.com/ ).  NEF's Stakeholders are the life-blood of the organization. By supporting NEF, these businesses/organizations have declared their unwavering support for the regional entrepreneurial community.

Skip Simms, Managing Director of the Michigan Angel Fund, “Smart entrepreneurs will take advantage of the valuable service provided by the NEF all volunteer mentors and coaches.  One of the critical success factors in raising money is making a solid presentation to investors who may be seeing the business for the first time.  A bad presentation equals no return call. 

“The Michigan Angel Fund requires companies presenting to our group to meet at least once with an NEF coaching team.  This has improved the quality of presentations to our members significantly.  Thank you NEF for performing this critical role in our entrepreneur eco-system.”

 

Local Start-Up MuninRent Awarded $25K Grant

Date Posted: 10 July 2014

Ann Arbor based MuniRent was one of five companies chosen to receive a Code for America Accelerator grant. Code for America is a non-profit organization providing resources to start-ups that work to solve community problems through implementation of technology.

MuniRent is online clearinghouse allowing municipalities to rent large pieces of equipment to other municipalities thereby increasing utilization of otherwise idle machinery and generating income while providing substantial savings to the renter. MuniRent participated in the Fall 2013 session of Ann Arbor SPARK's Entrepreneurial Boot Camp. There, CEO Alan Mond worked with a teaching team including Viktor Brandtneris, Lee Gorman, Mark Ritz and Gerry Roston - all members of the New Enterprise Forum.

Congratulations and best wishes to Alan Mond and the MuniRent team.

TechTown Celebrates Spring 2014 Venture Accelerator Teams

Date Posted: 26 June 2014

On June 25th, TechTown Detroit conducted a celebration event for the seven entrepreneurial teams graduating from its Spring 2014 Venture Accelerator. The Venture Accelerator is based on the Lean Startup Approach developed by Steve Blank and relies heavily on customer feedback to accurately produce a completed Business Model Canvas. The canvas then becomes the basis for the teams business model and planning going forward. The teams began the process with a customer discovery presentation on April 5th and over the subsequent 12 weeks conducted numerous customer interviews.

On Wednesday evening, six teams updated their progress to fellow members of the TechTown community. Four teams (PhoneBar, MitoStem, Adapta-Wall, and Prombis) presented 90 second summaries of their companies to the assembled audience. Additionally, two teams, TransCuro a hospital discharge software designed to reduced re-admissions, and NeuroTheranostics a blood test to quickly diagnose concussions, were given the opportunity to present for 10-minutes to a panel of judges. The panel consisted of Paula Sorrell, Vice-President of Entrepreneurship for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and Charlie Moret, President of Invest Michigan. The panel provided feedback to the presenters as well as directed advice on next steps.

The teams received on-going support from business mentors Marianne Fey and Bill Thomson. NEF Board member Viktor Brandtneris acted as the program's Master Facilitator, coordinating the bi-weekly classroom sessions. Additionally, NEF members Gerry Roston, Ian Charles and Stefan Sysko provided pro bono presentation coaching assistance to the teams in the weeks leading up to the celebration. Congratulations to all the teams who participated and completed the program.

GLEQ/MiQuest Announces Business Plan Winners

Date Posted: 23 June 2014

GLEQ/MiQuest has announced that several NEF-coached start-ups won top honors at the Great Lakes Enterprise Quest-sponsored Business Plan Competition.  The winning NEF-coached companies are:

  • Movellus Circuits:  $25,000 Emerging Company Award (1st Place); Muhammad Faisal – Top 20 Presenter.
  • SurClean:  $15,000 Emerging Company Award (2nd Place); $12,500 Automation Alley Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Award; Susan Sprentall – Top 20 Presenter.
  • Genomenon:  $5,000 New Business Idea (1st Place); Mark Kiel – Top 20 Presenter.

Other ‘Top 20 Presenters’ coached by NEF were:

  • ArborWind:  Dilip Nigam
  • LogiCoul Solutions:  David Stout
  • DataSpeaks Health Solutions:  Dennis Nash
  • PHASIQ:  Sachin Shah

Our congratulations to all the winners!

Michigan Growth Capital Symposium Draws To A Close

Date Posted: 19 June 2014

June 17 and 18 saw the 33rd Michigan Growth Capital Symposium take place at the Marriott Eagle Crest Resort in Ypsilanti. The annual event brings together investors, early stage companies and service providers from the local, regional and national entrepreneurial eco-system. Discussion panels touched on a variety of subjects including Venture Capital Trends to Big Data questions facing industry. Additionally, 32 early stage companies present their businesses ideas in a series of forums.

The New Enterprise Forum provides a team of coaches to assist the start-up presenters with their PowerPoints. This year 12 NEF Board members provided extensive feedback to the presenting entrepreneurs.

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