New VC firm Fontinalis to focus on transportation
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Metro Detroit's old money is starting to
dabble in a few new economy ventures, now that a group of local
financial heavyweights have launched Fontinalis Partners.
Bill
Ford (yep, that Bill Ford who chairs Ford Motor Co.) is teaming up with
Ralph Booth (CEO and chairman of Booth American Company) and Mark
Schulz (former president of International Operations at Ford) to launch
the Michigan-based venture capital firm. Fontinalis will focus on
investing in transportation tech companies around the world.
Fontinalis' first investment is in Atlanta-based Parkmobile USA.
The nearly two-year-old firm specializes in mobile parking payment
systems and integrated transportation technology solutions. Its
European counterpart was founded in 1999.
Parkmobile's
cashless parking system allows motorists to pay for parking through an
application on their mobile phone or by making a short call. The idea
is to eliminate meter feeding with pocket change and guessing a length
of stay. Parkmobile also makes Electronic Parking Permits.
Fontinalis
has offices in Detroit and Boston. Its mission is to leverage the
firm's background in transportation to scale up companies providing the
transportation technology solutions of tomorrow.
"We take our
mission very seriously to invest in and assist firms currently
providing transformational ideas and products devoted to solving the
world's most pressing environmental and mobility-oriented problems,"
Bill Ford said in a press release.
Source: Fontinalis Partners
Writer: Jon Zemke
Plex Systems adds 10 jobs in Auburn Hills
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Mark Symonds thinks manufacturing in
Metro Detroit gets a bum rap. To him there is more to it than a dying
industry laying off under-educated workers. It's why his firm, Plex
Systems, is bucking that trend by hiring and sponsoring some
cutting-edge education.
The Auburn Hills-based firm creates the
software that helps maximize manufacturing efficiency. It's a business
plan that has allowed the firm to grow 14 percent and hire 10 people
into its growing staff of 140 employees and a handful of co-op
students. The company is aiming for 30 percent growth next year and
even more staff expansion.
Plex Systems streamlined its software
product so it is delivered through the Internet on a subscription
basis. The idea is to make it cost-effective for its customers to adopt
to Plex Systems' latest offerings.
"You don't have to lay out a bunch of cash up front to have a world-class system," says Symonds, the CEO of Plex Systems.
Plex
Systems also took the step of sponsoring the Rochester Adams/Stoney
Creek High School Robotics Team's participation in the 2010 season FIRST Robotics competitions.
Symonds says the sponsorship is about supporting the pipeline of talent
that supplies Plex Systems with so many of its employees.
"Many
of our employees are engineers and geeks," Symonds says. "Now their
children are in these programs. We want to encourage that."
Source: Mark Symonds, the CEO of Plex Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke
Casting Motor City opens film training school
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Michigan's generous tax incentives for the film industry equal almost unlimited economic opportunity for Kathy McKee.
The
owner of three film production businesses in Metro Detroit is making
the most of the situation, finding a number of ways to cash in on the
film work that is coming here because of the tax breaks. She already
has two casting companies, Kathy McKee Casting and Casting Motor City, that have provided extras for TV and movie shoots for years.
Her latest venture is the Casting Motor City Film & TV Training Studio.
The Lathrup Village-based business focuses on training people for
careers in the film industry for everything from acting and
screenwriting to handling movie-making equipment. Class size never
exceeds 20 students.
"We're going to teach these people exactly what it means to be in show business," McKee says. "There is a protocol."
Right
now the school, which opened in October, employs McKee and a handful of
vendors who help teach the classes. She hopes to bring on some
full-time employees by the end of the year when classes begin to fill
out.
Source: Kathy McKee, co-owner and director of the Casting Motor City Film & TV Training Studio
Writer: Jon Zemke
Urbane Apts turns rental biz into new media start-up
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Managing apartment buildings isn't just
about helping people move and fixing the occasional leaky pipe. It's
also about finding people to put into those units, a job that spurred a
whole new revenue source for Urbane Apts.
Digital Sherpa, the downtown Royal Oak-based firm's marketing arm, and
The Urbane Way, its blog, focus on attracting tenants through viral and social media methods at minimal costs. Eric Brown, co-owner of Urbane Apts, calls it moving the Google needle for apartment complexes hungry for tenants.
The
circa-2003 firm now employs its regular management team of six people
and is in the market for hiring another person to help satisfy the
demand for the company's new marketing services. Brown's expertise has
become so in demand that he regularly serves as a speaker on the
subject at conventions across the country.
"A lot of folks are
following what we are doing," Brown says. "We have scrapped the
traditional marketing methods in place of social marketing."
Urbane
Apts has taken on four clients who have apartment buildings all over
the U.S., including Denver, San Francisco and Chicago, among others.
Brown's team helps these complex websites move up toward the top of
Google searches and establish a presence in places like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to attract more tenants.
"These
are the tools," Brown says. "Bottom line is, the direction of marketing
has changed so you can't just buy block ads these days. You need a more
personalized touch."
Source: Eric Brown, co-owner of Urbane Apts
Writer: Jon Zemke
Farmington Hills' St. Claire plans growth in safety sector
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
St. Claire doesn't have one product. It
offers a diversity of services for a variety of clients, a business
plan that is allowing it to survive today so it can grow tomorrow.
The
Farmington Hills-based firm got its start in 1941 doing military
documentation during World War II. It transferred that business to the
private sector post war and has since morphed into helping firms comply
with OSHA, create safety signs, and develop software.
"We have quite a gamut of professionals working here," says Tony Tonchev, vice president of St. Claire.
The
16-person firm with the occasional intern has streamlined its working
process in the last year. The thought behind the action is to find ways
to save its customers money and thus strengthen their business
relationships.
"Complacency has no place here," Tonchev says. "You can't sit back and wait for the phone to ring. You have to be aggressive."
The
company will focus its growth plans on its safety sector business.
Tonchev hopes to hire a few more people this year to correspond with
the new business his firm expects to nail down in 2010.
Source: Tony Tonchev, vice president of St. Claire
Writer: Jon Zemke
Novi's Nutriinfo.com leverages tech for wellness
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Mia Jang doesn't believe that weight loss
and living an overall healthy lifestyle has to be as hard as it's made
out to be. It's why she started Nutriinfo.com.
The Novi-based
firm specializes in putting people onto the road to wellness with
minimal sidetracks. Jang, who has a PhD in nutrition, was inspired to
keep it simple after trying to navigate the websites of some of the
famous weight-loss programs.
"They weren't very user friendly," says Jang, the CEO and founder of Nutriinfo.com. "It was too much information so you get lost as you go through the program."
The
start-up was one of 20 promising companies (selected from a pool of
200) selected by the University of Michigan-Dearborn's School of
Management. The IT health solution firm has developed its product and
is planning to sign up a number new clients in 2010. She hopes to
transform the work from those clients into a few new hires for a
company with four independent contractors and the occasional intern.
"We have a lot of potential," Jang says.
Source: Mia Jang, the CEO and founder of Nutriinfo.com
Writer: Jon Zemke
Wayne State collects millions in new research grants
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
Wayne State University continues to rake in the research dollars, taking in even more federal and stimulus funds.
Among
the recent wins are $775,000 to study PCBs and their relation to
cancer, $60,000 for Schizophrenia research and $2.7 million to
investigate attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. This
caps what looks to be a big year for research at the Detroit-based
university, which has counted $175 million in federal research grants
so far for 2009, including $31 million in federal stimulus funds.
The biggest recent research victory is the $2.7 million from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Wayne State researchers will track the development of attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder in the brains of children and teens in the hope
of developing more effective therapies. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common childhood illnesses.
The federal stimulus is funding two grants totaling about $775,000 to study the potential role of polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) in the progression of breast cancer. Wayne State researchers
will also delineate the role of a liver enzyme in the development of
metabolic diseases such as heart disease, abnormal cholesterol
metabolism, and insulin resistant type II diabetes.
The Wayne State University School of Medicine received a $60,000 Young Investigator research grant from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia & Depression.
The money will be used to develop a better understanding of the
neurochemical and functional bases of schizophrenia, one of the most
debilitating mental illnesses in the world. Research suggests the
illness is related to disordered brain neurochemistry and function.
Source: Julie O'Connor, spokeswoman for Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke
DTE kicks off first operational wind farm
Source: metromode, 2/4/2010
The first of DTE Energy's wind farms is
operational now that it has turned on seven wind turbines in northern
Michigan near Cadillac.
The 2,000-acre wind farm is the fruit of a partnership between the downtown Detroit-based utility and Traverse City-based Heritage Sustainable Energy.
The wind turbines can produce about 14 megawatts of renewable energy
and measure 403 feet tall. The project created 100 construction jobs
and four full-time jobs at the site.
It is the first operational wind farm in Michigan and will be used to meet the state's new renewable portfolio standard.
The RPS requires that 10 percent of the utility's power generation come
from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2015. DTE Energy has
struck deals with the likes of Heritage Sustainable Energy to meet that
deadline.
DTE Energy
has acquired easements on 75,000 acres of land in Huron County in
Michigan's Thumb region for development of large-scale wind farms. The
company also has two solar energy pilot projects that could produce
about 20 megawatts of power.
"We want to get these things going as soon as possible to meet the RPS," says Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy.
Source: Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke