Hans Hegge was into texting before anyone knew the meaning of "LOL." It's hard to believe but six years ago text message technology was an open frontier. And Hegge's Text Ripple was an early pioneer. Today the Auburn Hills-based text marketing company has clients in 38 states and big plans for the next tech innovation.
Vectorform is recovering nicely from the worst of the economic downturn, expanding its staff and experimenting with new technologies. The Royal Oak-based tech firm has hired 20 people over the last year, expanding its employee count to 100. Those hires were made possible by 20-percent revenue growth in the last year and similar gains since 2009. It now services 20 Fortune 500 companies, among its growing clientele. "We have doubled our staff since 2009," says Trevor Anulewicz, director of creative & content strategy for Vectorform. Vectorform also has a half dozen interns. The company has made a habit of turning its interns into employees. An average of 80 percent of its interns are promoted to full-time employees. "That's a great opportunity," Anulewicz says. "We try to have these folks come in and make an impact and stay." The 14-year-old company's leaders attribute the company's current growth trend to staying ahead of the tech curve. It has carved out a nice niche creating mobile apps and mastering new software platforms, such as Windows 8. It is also one of the early tech firms to get its hands on Google Glass. "We will be procuring the device in the coming weeks and we have six great ideas we will be employing with it," says Kevin Foreman, director of product vision for Vectorform. Source: Trevor Anulewicz, director of creative & content strategy for Vectorform and Kevin Foreman, director of product vision for Vectorform Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
The Great Recession hit IPS Technology Services hard, winnowing its revenues to frightening levels in 2009. But that sort of challenge only set up the Troy-based IT firm for a comeback bigger than the company's leadership could ever imagine. The 10-year-old firm tripled its revenues within two years. Then it quadrupled that number, putting it solidly into seven-figure territory. The company also hired eight people over the last year, expanding its business to 25 employees. "We got a couple of huge contracts and some big clients we won over," says Pradip Sengupta, president & CEO of IPS Technology Services. The company also expanded into staffing, sending new employees to other companies in the IT and engineering fields. It is also growing its work in the mobile sector and handling more clients in healthcare. "We are poised for growth because mobile is one of the biggest things out there," Sengupta says. Source: Pradip Sengupta, president & CEO of IPS Technology Services Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Paul Jacobs, CEO of Southfield-based mobile apps firm jacApps, thinks that talent rather than experience is critical to building success in today's ever-evolving mobile technology industry. Jon Zemke chats with Jacobs about the challenges of and strategies for attracting the best and brightest to his growing company.
GSTV, the downtown Birmingham-based company that brought us TVs on gas pumps, is expanding into the mobile space with its new spinoff, Dmedia. Dmedia will serve as a sister company of GSTV (formerly Gas Station TV), providing a built-in marketing partner to reach consumers and drive app interaction. The spin-off got started last fall with a handful of GSTV employees eager to take on the mobile space, leveraging their media experiences, technology and previous client relations. "GSTV is the support system," says Carly Gordon, director of business operations for Dmedia. "It's the spark that helped us get started in the mobile space." Dmedia currently has a staff of five people and expects to grow this year. It currently has four job openings: for director of business development, communications professionals, and web developers. It is currently working on making three custom apps for businesses. The apps under construction include,:BigNoiz (a local music and concert discovery app), Chitney (a customizable offer delivery platform) and gogo (a location-aware point of interaction app). "Right now the long-term plan is to do these three apps really well and take that to the next level," Gordon says. "We want to grow with them." Source: Carly Gordon, director of business operations for Dmedia Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Future Help Designs is gearing up to take a big step into the education realm, partnering with a large mobile training company, Mobile Comply, to roll out a mobile development education course in mid-March. "Their expertise is in training mobility, and ours is in mobile technology," says Glen Konopaskie, president of Future Help Designs. "We're partnering with them equally. They will help us rebuild our developer training course." Future Help Designs was an early adopter to the mobile world, launching its business creating apps four years ago. It has expanded into software development education in recent years, a move that has provided significant returns for the firm. It's planning on launching a new educational platform on a national scale later this year. "That will launch an aggressive push into education for our agency," Konopaskie says. Future Help Designs moved to downtown Pontiac a little more than a year ago, taking an active part in the city's rebirth. Its staff has been in flux over that time as demand for mobile developers has skyrocketed and more and more programmers are launching their own start-ups. Future Help Designs has hired four people (mostly replacement positions) since moving to downtown Pontiac and is bringing on a new intern this spring. "That intern will hopefully turn into No. 5," Konopaskie says. "He has some high potential." Source: Glen Konopaskie, president of Future Help Designs Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
ReapSo launched its customer loyalty app last week. The start-up is initially focusing on Apple users in the downtown Royal Oak market. The Farmington Hills-based company and its team of three people have created a mobile app that helps local businesses increase sales using things like traditional customer loyalty rewards programs, newer technology like QR codes and gamification techniques to keep customers engaged. The app also takes care to protect customer's privacy and makes it easy for merchants to use by making sign-ups free and easy. "We get paid from our merchants when a user comes in and pays for a product," says Steve Valentine, co-founder of ReapSo. "There is no risk. There is no long-term contract for them to sign." ReapSo has signed up 30 merchants in Royal Oak, mostly restaurants and bars in downtown. The start-up's market research shows that about 60 percent of people who frequent downtown Royal Oak use Apple products. The focus on eateries aims to leverage the frequency of spending money on food and drink in the city's center. "I might not buy a shirt everyday, but I am eating everyday," Valentine says. Source: Steve Valentine, co-founder of ReapSo Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Crowded downtown parking is both a curse and a blessing. What is a blessing for businesses busy with customers can be a curse to those customers circling, searching for coins or winding up with expired meter tickets. Parking can be also be a deterrent at times for businesses working to keep good employees. The city of Ferndale and the Ferndale Downtown Development Authority are trying to make the whole process of parking easier with the new Ferndale Park + system. The new system will include multi-space pay stations, rather than individual meters, and will take cash, coins, credit cards or ParkMobile, a pay by phone or online parking service. The pay stations, called Luke II's, will be solar-powered and cover about 900 spaces in 13 parking lots. The parking design has changed too, into a concentric layout that makes the most convenient spaces available to consumers. The system is expected to go into service by mid-February, after signage and such is complete. Improvements such as increasing the number of available spaces will be ongoing. Some individual meters will remain. The concentric system will prioritize parking spaces and set rates according to the users. More affordable parking spaces on the edges of parking lots will cost less (ideal for employees), and closer-in spots will go at new, higher rates. Employees can also buy parking passes. "Instituting all of the components of Ferndale Park+ is a very big step to improving the parking experience in downtown Ferndale," says Ferndale City Manager April Lynch. "Park+ allows us, as managers of the system, to get more use out of every space we have, while planning for future upgrades and the addition of more spaces." Source: Chris Hughes, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority
Southfield-based jacAPPS can claim something a lot of local software companies can't: being an early adopter of the app economy. The company launched in early 2008, spinning out of a media consulting and consumer research firm. Its first app was creating a radio app for local rock n' roll station WRIF. It now has created 775 apps (mostly custom ones for clients) and is doing work with Ford today. "In 2008 we saw pretty clearly how disruptive smart phones and apps were going to be," says Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS. Jacobs aspires to make jacAPPS one of the biggest players in the mobile field. It has hired one person to expand its staff to five people and it's looking to add interns. Now that jacAPPS has, as Jacobs describes it, the house app developer for Ford's SYNC system, it is poised for a rapid ascent in 2013. "We are interviewing more people," Jacobs says. "We're growing. We're also talking to investors. I want to be the largest mobile developer in the U.S. I think we are on our way to doing that." Source: Paul Jacobs, president of jacAPPS Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize has acquired Mozes, a Silicon Valley-based start-up that specializes in mobile technology. The acquisition is the third in 18 months for ePrize, and more are on the horizon for the digital engagement software firm. "We have a number of acquisitions targeted," says Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize. Mozes' technology engages live audiences at concerts, sporting events and in television broadcast through social and location-based experiences, making it an attractive target for ePrize's efforts to expand its mobile capabilities. The 14-year-old firm (ePrize) plans to retain Mozes' staff and offices in Palo Alto and Nashville but will absorb the Mozes brand into its own operations. Catterton Partners, a private-equity firm, acquired ePrize last year. That allowed the tech company to hire 60 people in the last year, expanding its staff to more than 400 employes and about 20 interns. "It's been a great success story and we look forward to continuing that in the future," Wise says. Source: Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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