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Pure As Pond Ice likes to advertise itself as a nonprofit that is "creating a healthier Detroit for youth by using hockey as a tool for life success."

It's a motto that has made the Midtown-based organization $1,000 richer now that it has won the Tweet Award from this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. Pure As Pond Ice, plans to use that money to help launch its first after-school hockey program for youth in Detroit this fall/winter.

"We would like to create thriving communities that revolve around hockey," says Timothy Hooker, co-founder of Pure As Pond Ice. "We would like to create a hockey travel league in the city."

Pure As Pond Ice was co-founded by local college students and hockey enthusiasts at the Blackstone LaunchPad program at Wayne State University. It first started as a way to create a scholarship fund and then help collect hockey equipment for underprivileged youth in the Motor City. Today it's raising $18,000 to create an after-school hockey program. It's working with Think Detroit PAL to make the three-day program a reality.

"We are a social entrepreneurs using hockey as a vehicle for life success through building youth hockey communities," Hooker says.

Source: Timothy Hooker, co-founder of Pure As Pond Ice
Writer: Jon Zemke

When the new Buffalo Wild Wings opens in a few weeks in downtown Detroit it will create 100 jobs with the potential of bringing even more to Detroit.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings, which owns the Buffalo Wild Wings and Bagger Dave's franchises, began renovating the Odd Fellows building at the edge of Greektown early this year. The first two stories of the 4-story building at Monroe and Randolph streets will house a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and bar. That space will be able to seat 380 people. The whole operation will employ 100 people. The Buffalo Wild Wings is set to open on Dec. 8 and hiring staff has already begun in earnest.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings is renovating the upper two stories of the building into office space. The Southfield-based company is seriously considering moving its headquarters to the 7,500 square feet of space, a move that could bring another 18 jobs to downtown.

"That is still to be determined," says Michael Ansley, president & CEO of Diversified Restaurant Holdings. "We're still thinking about it."

A decision is expected to be made by the new year. He adds that even if his company doesn't make the move the upper floors will be gutted and ready to be leased to someone else.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings has 11 Bagger Dave's, a hamburger restaurant franchise, across the Midwest. It also has 31 Buffalo Wild Wings franchises across the U.S. The downtown Detroit restaurant will be No. 32. Two more are expected to open elsewhere in the U.S. later this year.

Source: Michael Ansley, president & CEO of Diversified Restaurant Holdings
Writer: Jon Zemke

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is making a big investment into Detroit's creative class, a move the nonprofit hopes will help enrich both the local economy and help raise the quality of life in the Motor City.

The Knight Foundation is pledging $19.25 million to its Knight Arts Challenge. Of that money, $10.25 million will go toward seven of Detroit's premiere institutions to make both museum pieces and performance art more accessible, along with providing training for the next generation of artists. The remaining $9 million will be going toward a community-wide contest to fund the best ideas for the arts through grants.

"The arts play a very special role in binding people together," says Rishi Jaitly, Detroit program director for the Knight Foundation. He adds, "it cultivates what we call attachment in the community."

To help push that attachment along, major local arts organizations will find ways to make some of their signature pieces or performances appear in the community. The pop-up art will be similar to the Detroit Institute of Arts' Inside|Out program, which currently has 80 reproductions of masterpieces from its collection strategically placed on the streets and parks of Metro Detroit. Some of the Detroit-based organizations that will be participating in this sort of activity include the DIA, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit School of Arts, Michigan Opera Theatre and the Sphinx Organization.

Joining that effort is the Knight Arts Challenge, which will give seed capital grants to innovative ideas based around the arts. The ideas must be about the arts, take place or benefit Detroit and the recipients must find matching funds. The program, expected to take place over at least the next three years, aims to support Detroit's growing creative class.

"We're responding to the current momentum in the city," Jaitly says. "We have been sharpening our focus to help young creatives."

Source: Rishi Jaitly, Detroit program director for the Knight Foundation
Writer: Jon Zemke

A small group of artists are staking their claim in North Corktown, attracted by the community's growing community and ample opportunity for making an impact.

The six artists had studios at the Russell Industrial Center when they decided they wanted to graduate to their own space. They met their future landlord through Hostel Detroit and began improving a small commercial building on 2707 14th St. into the current home of Corktown Studios.
 
"When we biked into the neighborhood we both noticed how nice it was," says Alisyn Malek, co-owner of Corktown Studios. "It's like a beautiful island. The community and the energy in the area is what sealed the deal for us."

Corktown Studios is comprised of six artists who specialize in creating everything from furniture to music to art to printing to mixed media to fiber. Artists have their own space and they share a 500-square-foot performance space for gallery showings and other events.

Source: Alisyn Malek, co-owner of Corktown Studios
Writer: Jon Zemke

The second Wayne County Tax Foreclosure auction came and went last week, leaving lots of people with new properties to take care of and a lot of statistics.

Model D tapped Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of Whydontweownthis, which has been following the auctions closely, for some statistics from this year's auction.

Approximately 22,500 properties in Wayne County went into foreclosure this year for not paying taxes. A vast majority of those properties are inside the city of Detroit. About 2,000 of those were withdrawn from the auction by the county. Normally, properties are withdrawn because the county has worked out a payment plan with the owners or the owners have repaid the overdue taxes.

Of the 20,000-plus properties that went to auction, nearly 12,000 sold. Another 8,686 properties were not bid on during the county's two foreclosure auctions. Bidding in the first auction in September starts at the amount of back taxes and bidding during the second auction in October for properties left over from the first auction starts at $500. Last year, Wayne County re-offered similar leftover properties in a third auction. What happens to those leftover properties that no one wants is unclear.

"It's so confusing, so confusing," Paffendorf says.

The Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction netted $49,975,566 in bids this fall. The total sum of overdue taxes in this year's auction stands at $275,521,615. That leaves a tax collection gap of $225,546,049 in unpaid property taxes. The lion's share of those taxes are for properties in Detroit.

Source: Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of WhyDontWeOwnThis.com
Writer: Jon Zemke

The people behind Asq.us don't believe we have to wait for election results to find out what the people really want. The downtown Ann Arbor-based start-up thinks it can enable local politicos to find that out through software and polling, helping save local officials time in moving communities forward.

Brad Chick was inspired to start the company because he had become frustrated with the political system and the impact money has on politics. So last May he started Asq.us, a free polling platform for politicians to reach out and ask the public about issues. He thinks had this technology been available in recent years, local leaders might have made different decisions about installing artwork by an out-of-town artist in front of the new city hall.

"There were town hall meetings but those are largely a relic of the past," Chick says. He adds that "traditional polling companies are missing a lot of people who aren't on the grid" because things like cell phone usage compared to landline usage. Many polling companies depend on interviews with people on landlines to conduct their surveys.

Asq.us's software will allow people to voluntarily sign up to be polled and utilize other methods to get a better picture of what the public thinks. He and his team of six employees and three interns plan to launch the technology early next year.

Source: Brad Chick, founder of Asq.us
Writer: Jon Zemke

SkySpecs recently graduated from the University of Michigan's student small business incubator, TechArb, and is looking to begin commercializing its technology next year.

The 8-month-old start-up is developing a small aerial device equipped with video and other detection equipment that can be used to inspect hard-to-reach infrastructure, such as bridges. The company got its start when Danny Elis founded the Michigan Autonomous Vehicles Team at U-M in 2009 and used the technology as his senior-year thesis.

"We have been working on this for a while," Ellis says. "For a while we played around with the idea of turning it into a company."

That became a reality last March. It currently has a prototype but it's close to finishing a second prototype thanks to some angel investment and the potential of landing a $250,000 grant from the state of Michigan in the next few weeks.

SkySpecs plans to take its fully developed prototype and begin selling its services within the next few months. It then hopes to leverage that business into producing enough of its aerial vehicles to sell.

Source: Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs
Writer: Jon Zemke

What was once Biotechnology Business Consultants is now BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting, a new name for a longtime staple of Ann Arbor's tech scene.

The 22-year-old consulting company specializes in helping bio-tech start-ups develop their technologies and nurture their business. Stability and growth often take several years of work and millions of dollars in investment to bring new bio-tech innovations to the market. BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting has been there for a lot of that evolution.

And its growing. BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting has increased its staff from five employees and an independent contractor last January to seven employees today. Lisa Kurek, BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting's managing partner, credits the federal government's  recent reauthorization of the federal research funding, like Small Business Innovation Research grants, as the driving force of growth in the bio-tech space.

"Once we had that long-term commitment we picked up some steam because we have a solid national reputation," Kurek says.

BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting recently received a FAST grant from the federal and state governments that clocks in at the low six figures. She sees more more like that in the marketplace as the reason why her sector will continue to grow and why she is looking at adding more staff in the not-too-distant future.

"I would love to add someone else," Kurek says.

Source: Lisa Kurek, managing partner with BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting
Writer: Jon Zemke

Downtown Ann Arbor-based re:group is setting some personal bests this year as the Internet marketing and branding firm continues to grow.

The 9-year-old company has hired five people over the last year, including a copy writer, a digital strategist and some creatives. The firm now employs 25 people and an intern and it sees its business growing more in the near term.

"This has been our best year ever," says Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group. "We added DTE Energy and Citizens Bank as agencies of record. It's been a big, big year."

Over its first decade, re:group has traditionally handled clients in finance, bio-tech, retail and franchising. The addition of an energy utility and banking institution is helping the company grow its customer base and set the stage for more growth in 2013, a strategy that has worked well so far.

"Every year we built onto the prior year," Jernigan says. "The economy is improving so our clients have more money to spend."

Source: Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group
Writer: Jon Zemke

A group of five University of Michigan students are turning PhD work into a new back brace and a business called EXO Dynamics.

EXO Dynamics is developing an electro-mechanical back brace for medical professionals that prevents injury and lessens pain without reducing mobility. It has developed a couple of prototypes and plans to begin testing the technology in hospitals over the next year.

"This means users pain and suffering in their back is reduced," says Jorge Sanz-Guerrero, CEO & co-founder of EXO Dynamics. "It also means the need for surgery is also reduced."

The group of innovators have been developing the back brace this year at TechArb, a small-business incubator geared toward student-led start-ups run by the University of Michigan. EXO Dynamics plans to transition to the Venture Accelerator in the university's North Campus Research Complex later this year.

The start-up plans to continue testing its product over the next year and hopes to launch its product next year. The firm is looking to nail down some seed funding before the end of this year.

"This year we are raising $250,000 through microloans, pre-seed funds and local investors," Sanz-Guerrero says.

Source: Jorge Sanz-Guerrero, CEO & co-founder of EXO Dynamics
Writer: Jon Zemke

The people behind Mission Throttle, a social entrepreneurship company based in Southfield, are leading a team to launch a new Metro Detroit-based investment fund that would help business looking to improve both their communities and bottom lines.

Details are still be worked out about the new fund, which does not even have a name, but organizers are optimistic that it will be able to start providing seed capital to social entrepreneurs in the region sometime next year.

"We want to create a third option where there are organization that deliver a social impact and a return but it might not be an investment-grade opportunity," says Jamie Shea, director of strategy development for Mission Throttle.

The fund could be as big as $5 million to $10 million and will be open to social entrepreneurs of all shapes, sizes and markets. The fund's organizers are also hoping that the fund will serve as a way to connect people of means with the people who need those resources to build their businesses.

"We want it to be a very collaborative process," Shea says. "We want to act as the facilitator bringing opportunities to investors."

Source: Jamie Shea, director of strategy development for Mission Throttle
Writer: Jon Zemke

ImageSoft expects to have a good year for growth in 2013... or a great year.

"It's either going to be a double our revenue type of year or our revenue goes up 20 percent type of year," says Scott Bade, president of ImageSoft.

The Southfield-based company makes software platforms that help judicial and health-care systems digitize records. It has landed a number of new clients such as Arlington County's judicial system, expanded work with some existing ones and expects to ink new deals with other government units, such as Macomb County. Its revenue has jumped 15 percent over the last year thanks to that business.

"I think that has helped drive a lot of our business," Bade says.

That has helped ImageSoft expand its staff to 54 employees and a handful of interns after hiring 14 people over the last year. Of those hires, eight were new jobs. About half of those hires were for tech positions with the rest coming in finance, administrative and sales.

Source: Scott Bade, president of ImageSoft
Writer: Jon Zemke

One of the things Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition excels at is bringing together a broad variety of entrepreneurial players with ties to the Great Lakes State. This makes for some invaluable business connections.

The third annual business plan competition kicked off in the Guardian Building lobby Tuesday evening. The lobby, provided by Bank of America, which has a branch in the ornate hall, provided the right space for investors, entrepreneurs and local shot callers to mix freely. Small enough to be intimate for a crowd of about a 100 people but it's soaring ceiling giving an air of roominess.

This reporter never felt crowded but couldn't stop long enough to send a text message to his wife or an email to his editor without someone tugging at his elbow to say, 'Hello.' In that time, I ran into some of the most successful angel investors in the state as well as aspiring entrepreneurs, like one who is currently trying to launch a start-up while attending medical school at Wayne State University. All of these people mingled both casually and comfortably.

There weren't hard pitches or tables with literature. Those come later during the official part of the competition on Wednesday and today at the Westin-Book Cadillac Hotel. But for the first night, many of the people who are actively building Michigan's new economy came out of the silos of their sectors and made connections with others interested in helping them build a company.

Accelerate Michigan got its start in Ann Arbor as a way to showcase the cream of the crop of Michigan's entrepreneurial ecosystem and connect them with both local and out-of-state resources and investors. This year it moved to downtown Detroit to show off the Motor City's emerging tech hub and vibrant downtown. That shined through Tuesday evening where attendees walked past office buildings lit up with young people working for the likes of Quicken Loans, GalaxE.Solutions, Compuware and Strategic Staffing Solutions.

Accelerate Michigan offers $1 million in prizes to start-ups based in or looking to move to Michigan. This year the top three finishers will take home $500,000, $100,000 and $50,000. For information, click here.

Source: Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition
Writer: Jon Zemke