Venture Capital

Livio Radio expands Internet radio into auto, federal government markets

By Newsroom

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July 14, 2011

Livio Radio is growing its business by taking Internet radio to new places, namely your car.The Ferndale-based company got its start when Jake Sigal turned his electronic tinkering into a hot-selling Internet radio in 2008. That attracted a venture capital investment and an expansion into the automotive realm."We've been focusing on car/Internet radio," says Nicole Yelland, brand manager for Livio Radio. "We'll be launching the Kit later this month, which allows you to manipulate the Livio car radio applications."Livio Radio has leveraged the revenues and outside investment into a significant growth spurt. The business has recently hired two new engineers, bringing its staff to 15 em[;oyees and four interns. It plans to continue hiring as it expands.Livio Radio has also been reaching out into activities indirectly tied to Internet radio. It recently host Social Media Day Detroit at Motor City Casino. It also has been able to place its products into the FCC's Open Technology Center for Employees in Washington, D.C."It allows them (federal FCC employees) to really interface with these products," Yelland says. "It's a museum for employees so they can tinker."Source: Nicole Yelland, brand manager for Livio RadioWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

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$100M Stage 2 Innovations fund launches out of Automation Alley

By Newsroom

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Arts and Culture

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May 26, 2011

A new $100 million fund has launched out of Automation Alley, promising to help fund the growth of second-stage businesses in Metro Detroit and Michigan.Stage 2 Innovations will target growing firms in need of significant amounts of capital to fund commercialization of products or large-scale expansion of existing product lines. The fund will look for an equity stake in its investments."There is an opportunity for the private sector to step up to the plate and play a role," says Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley. "Stage 2 Innovations is doing just that."Stage 2 Innovations is being funded by an anonymous wealthy individual and is led by former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda. Simon Boag will serve as CEO and will oversee a team of roughly a dozen people working out of Troy.The fund is not bound to invest only in Metro Detroit or Michigan-based companies, nor does it have a goal for a number of local companies it wants to make an investment in. However, LaSorda and Rogers were confident a lot of the deals would turn out to be local because of Stage 2 Innovations' partnership with Automation Alley and its plans to utilize the business accelerator's connections."The bottom line is we want to help companies in Michigan," LaSorda says. "We want to help commercialize ideas here."Source: Ken Rogers, executive director of Automation Alley and Tom LaSorda, co-founder of Stage 2 InnovationsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Future Midwest aims to create Midwestern SXSW

By Newsroom

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Arts and Culture

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April 7, 2011

Organizers of FutureMidwest have aspirations of creating a SXSW-type (South by Southwest) tech conference in the Midwest that will draw Metro Detroit's tech community closer and offer $100,000 in prize money to a local start-up."There is so much start-up potential here," says Adrian Pittman, who co-founded FutureMidwest in 2009 with Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson in 2009 to cater to tech and digital media enthusiasts. "There are so many start-ups here, and many of them are better than we realize."This year's conference, to be held in Detroit's Eastern Market on April 28 and 29, will be geared toward entrepreneurs, marketers, communication professionals, techies, and students from across the Midwest. It will also feature the Funded by Night business plan contest with a winner-take-all $100,000 in prize money. Funded by Night will feature 25 start-ups pitching their products and visions to potential investors. At stake is a $100,000 convertible note from two local venture capital firms, downtown Detroit-based Detroit Venture Partners and Southfield-based Ludlow Ventures. The organizers hope the conference and competition will help create more synergies with start-ups in both Metro Detroit and the Midwest."No city is an island and no region is an island," Pittman says. "We share an ecosystem in several states and industries. We need to be thinking globally."Tickets for both events are $250. Tickets for Funded by Night and the FutureMidwest evening networking event on April 28 are $25 for professionals and $10 for students. For information on FutureMidwest, click here. For information on Funded by Night, click here.Source: Adrian Pittman, co-founder of FutureMidwestWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

ePrize CEO Josh Linkner’s creativity book hits top of Amazon, Barnes & Noble sales

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Arts and Culture

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February 24, 2011

Say the word creative around Josh Linkner and you'll probably repeat what he just said. The chairman of ePrize and CEO of Detroit Venture Partners has had creativity in the workplace on the mind for a while and now has it on paper with his new book, Disciplined Dreaming.The self-proclaimed "proven system for driving breakthrough creativity" focuses on helping entrepreneurs and their companies become more imaginative and thus more effective in the 21st Century workplace. The book was released on Sunday and climbed to the top of the sales charts for both Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites Monday and Tuesday. "Creativity is the most important skill that individuals and companies should be nurturing," Linkner says. "It's the one thing that can't be outsourced."One of Linkner's favorite mantras is that entrepreneurs should be trying to invent the next Groupon instead of copying the idea. He points out that pioneers in certain new economy segments are often outdone by late-coming rivals (Friendster by Facebook and AltaVista by Google) and Linkner will counter that continued innovation is what made the latecomers first."They were able to outcreate their competitors even though they were late out the gate," Linkner says.He offers local start-up hireMYway as an example of a building force in Metro Detroit's emerging new economy. The website for hiredMYway features technology that uses a dating-service model on the Web to help people find jobs. It basically pairs employers and job seekers with matching needs and skills in the same way a dating service would."They used creativity to fundamentally displace the complacent incumbents," Linkner says.Source: Josh Linkner, chairman of ePrize, CEO of Detroit Venture Partners and author of Disciplined DreamingWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Seed for thought: Is the Midwest the new Silicon Valley?

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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February 17, 2011

Yes, the Midwest is much bigger than Silicon Valley. Yes, the Bay Area has a huge head start when it comes to a new economy-based entrepreneurial ecosystem. But that doesn't mean the Midwest, and Michigan in particular, isn't making strides. TechTown, the Ann Arbor SPARK business accelerators and the new angel investor tax credits are real-world proof of where Metro Detroit's economy is heading in the 21st Century.Excerpt:While all this activity is still eclipsed by the activity in Silicon Valley, it's the start -- actually, more than the start -- of a transformation occurring across the Midwest. And it's probably why the CEOs of venture-backed companies were most bullish on company growth in the Midwest compared to any other region in the U.S.Read the rest of the story here, and a story about Michigan's new angel investor tax credits here, and a story about how the future of the Great Lakes State's economy lies with start-ups here.

BELLE Capital targets women-led biz for VC investment, plans $25M fund

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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February 17, 2011

Venture capital is hard enough to come by these days, but it's even harder for women-led start-ups trying to get off the ground.Enter BELLE Capital, a new venture capital firm that aims to invest in women-led companies or firms that plan to add those without Y chromosomes to their leadership team. Lauren Flanagan, co-founder and managing director of BELLE Capital, states this sort of targeting is necessary in today's entrepreneurial ecosystem, where women-led companies are being formed at a faster rate than anything else."We're bringing a solution to the problem," Flanagan says.The VC firm plans to take advantage of the lack of seed capital in the Midwest by establishing offices near Holland and in Metro Detroit. Right now it is located in Grosse Pointe Farms but is looking at office space in downtown Detroit.BELLE Capital plans to raise a $25 million fund primarily from Midwestern-based investors. It plans to make 3-5 investments this year and an average of 2-3 annually. It's focusing on finding firms that specialize in technology-enabled services in the IT, life science, clean tech, and advanced manufacturing sectors.Source: Lauren Flanagan, co-founder and managing director of BELLE CapitalWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Beringea records profitable exit with acquisition of Saffron Digital

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Arts and Culture

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February 10, 2011

Beringea recorded its first exit of the year with the acquisition of Saffron Digital, capping a flurry of exit activity in Metro Detroit over the last week.University of Michigan spin-off Cielo MedSolutions was acquired last Friday, and fellow U-M-bred start-up Accuri Cytometers went on Monday, creating even more happy entrepreneurs and investors in Ann Arbor. Two days later, Farmington Hills-based Beringea, Michigan's largest venture capital firm, announced one of its portfolio firms has been acquired in a multi-million dollar deal."It's clearly a sign that market conditions have improved," says Charlie Rothstein, co-founder and senior managing director of Beringea.Beringea invested $1.8 million in Saffron Digital, a developer of video delivery platforms. Its acquisition by HTC valued the company at $48 million, generating a 65 percent internal rate of return. Rothstein says the recent string of exits in southeast Michigan is helping local venture capitalists prove their business models and generate more investment. He believes it's a promising sign for the local economy."There is really a lot of life that has been pumped into the region, and a lot of that has to do with the capital that has been invested in it," Rothstein says.Source: Charlie Rothstein, co-founder and senior managing director of BeringeaWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Venture capital gains traction in Metro Detroit

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Arts and Culture

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February 3, 2011

Venture capital is starting to gain some momentum in Metro Detroit. A couple of stories, both local and national, are talking about how local VC funds are gaining more and more investors. Could the VC ground hog finally overcome the fear of its shadow and help thaw the financial markets for local start-ups? Some prominent people are starting to think so.Excerpt:"Leading the cleantech revolution," or "Leveraging the intellectual property of our major research universities" -- such hopeful and visionary statements are just a sampling of various mantras that have echoed the chambers of Midwestern capitals and filled the pages of local newspapers for the past several years. In the face of the recent economic despair that has besieged the regional economy, numerous Midwestern politicians, economic developers and regional venture capitalists have been, somewhat counter-intuitively, touting the notion that Midwest states like Michigan actually present excellent, yet overlooked, venture capital investment opportunities (including yours truly, as I did in "America's Midwest: Cashless Chasm or The Valley of Opportunity?").Skeptics (which predominantly include frustrated Midwesterners, some business journalists and dismissive coastal venture capitalists) have generally disregarded such optimistic economic proclamations as desperate political hand-waving and hopeful, yet hollow hype to win votes, mollify the economically depressed and justify their own existence. I can understand why one would be doubtful -- it is easy to be negative these days. But today, I write to tell you that the skeptics and defeatists look to be wrong, and we have some early evidence to prove it. Read the rest of the story here and a Crain's Detroit Business story about how investing in local venture capital firms is trending upward here.

Venture Michigan Fund II has $120M potential for Metro Detroit VC firms

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Arts and Culture

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January 20, 2011

A second Venture Michigan Fund, Venture Michigan Fund II, is being deployed this year, and the $120 million that comes with it has big implications for Metro Detroit.The first Venture Michigan Fund, formed in 2006, made $96 million worth of commitments to 11 venture capital firms. All but one of those is either based in or has an office in southeast Michigan. Nine of those firms have Ann Arbor ties. About one third of that money has been invested in 15 Michigan-based start-ups, the vast majority of which are located in Ann Arbor.The Venture Michigan Fund was created to help grow Michigan's fledgling venture capital industry. A Thomson Reuters study shows that there were 26 VC investments in Michigan in 2006, representing $117.3 million. Those numbers went up to 44 deals worth $231.1 million in 2010, the year the U.S. officially emerged from a recession. Bob Payne, who manages the Venture Michigan Funds on behalf of Credit Suisse, credits Michigan's emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem for that growth."One thing that Michigan has is a wealth of ideas and a number of companies being formed around those ideas," Payne says.State vouchers are providing the capital for the Venture Michigan Funds. That money supported the creation of 200 new jobs and has leveraged $186 million from other investors.Source: Bob Payne, manager of Venture Michigan FundWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Accelerating SE Michigan’s Business Ecosystem

By Jeff Meyers

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Arts and Culture

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December 16, 2010

In the shadow of this past weekend's Big Chill hockey extravaganza, The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition --an American Idol-style contest for start-ups-- was held in Ann Arbor. More important than the $1 million in cash and support handed out was the collaboration exhibited by regional business leaders. Is there a new age of cooperation dawning in SE Michigan?