Ann Arbor becoming a tech hub
(sorry, Mlive article)
http://www.mlive.com/business/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/04/new_study_shows_ann_arbor_maki.html
This is very good to see and if anything is going to really pick up the state's economy it would be this type of development.
According to the study, on a per capita basis, Ann Arbor ranked fifth nationally in 2012 in terms of venture capital and startup activity, and No. 11 nationally for venture capital investments per 100,000 people, with $24.1 million in investments.
April 14th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
to become a tech hub. However, I think the measuring stick is when established tech companies move to an area and set up shop as opposed to VC money (which is usually for 1-2 man operations).
In Austin, Facebook. Twitter... have recenly opended offices and I think AA needs to attract that type of business (again I hope, maybe I can move back!).
April 14th, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
Google is already major presence in downtown AA, so off to a good start in this respect
True, but it's a sales office. Not a software/tech office.
They're building an office in downtown ATX.
just saying, it's very hard to compare the two. A lot of times people think of Austin as a college town, but its population is literally over 7x the size of Ann Arbor's.
April 14th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
there is tech investing in ann arbor and detroit, which is growing rather rapidly but its not really a tech hub anymore than most major cities/major college campuses are. lots of smaller start ups springing up all the time trying to hit the home run
I also get extremely frustrated with the lack of support of Aerospace development in the Midwest. I understand it isn't exactly looked well upon to launch rockets over Canada or the US, so the launch sites won't be in the midwest, but you have Universities in the Midwest producing an extremely high number of graduates that end up on the coast or in Texas to work in the Aero field. Michigan, Illinois, Purdue (all top 10), Wisconsin, PSU, hell, look at engineering in general that have even aero focus and give me OSU, Case Western, MSU, Minny, Rose-Hulman, Dayton, Iowa, ND and explain to me why we don't have more Aero business in the Midwest.
We're investing a bunch of money into kids getting great engineering degrees, especially with a focus or at least a decent amount of research in the Aero field, yet there are so few options in the midwest to advance in a career. We have an engineering culture, we have the engineering infrastructure, it would be nice to get more Aero companies more heavily involved close to home. We're shipping these students every where but the midwest. Invest in that!
\end_rant
I've spent time trying to think of ways to address this myself, without much success. I've talked with several profs and university higher-ups at several places, but I'm not really sure what that does besides make it known that it's a problem. So any business looking to address it seems like a good idea to me.
With the exception of EATON, GE and a few smaller suppliers, there are no major aerospace manufacturing sites in the midwest. Closest major manufacturer is Boeing in St. Louis.
OTOH, a big issue for A&D is the start-up cost of new facilities. Design and fabrication for commerical products requires a lot of space, especially on new airliners. Defense is smaller scale, but budgets are extremely tight.
Other big issue is this type of precision work has a steep learning curve.
Well, if Henry Ford himself couldn't make it happen then I'm guessing it's unlikely to ever happen in Michigan:
April 14th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
As someone who works for the people who supply these folks with their power, I can say that there has been an uptick in demand in Ann Arbor in the last few years as well. Actually, of all the regions in our territory, it seems like Ann Arbor is the one that suffered the least during the recent downturn and it is because of things like this.
There's actually quite a few proposed developments along the I-94 corridor from Romulus basically all the way out to Ann Arbor.
I don't doubt that this is a factor, but the presence of the University of Michigan was probably the biggest reason why A2 stayed more or less afloat. Elite-level higher education is about as recession-proof an industry as you can have. U-M increased tuition, and enrollment, during the height of the recession.
I'd suggest that the the University of Michigan, including its hospital system and research dollars is the single biggest reason that Washtenaw County went relatively unscathed. The vast number of well paid university employees who provide the area with a huge financial boost kept on being paid.
Notwithstanding a bit of a hit on real eastate prices and some businesses closing their doors, the area hardly skipped a beat.
April 14th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
why the difference between "per capita" and "per 100,000 people?
If our
VC money / population
ratio is 5th highest, then isn't our
VC money / (population / 100,000)
(which would be capital per 100,000 people)
also the 5th highest?
Or was the distinction that one includes "startup activity" and the other doesn't?
One metric tracks # of VC deals per 100K and the other tracks VC $ per 100K
April 14th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^
There's a start-up called Wisely in Ann Arbor that is a super-interesting iphone/android app. The app uses payment data (credit/debit cards) to provide useful info about businesses to consumers. For example, the app tells you how popular the place is (how many transactions), how loyal the customers are (how many repeat transactions), how much most people spend, etc.
It's sorta like Yelp except a better source of truth because it's data driven with actual payment info, so not weighed down by random anecdotes or just made-up reviews.
Highly recommend.
seems like a combo of mint and yelp, I would think thats a bit of a large feature set to target. the average bill feature seems like the most useful part to me, most sites just use like the $ to $$$$ rating to estimate price having an actual number would be much easier to use to decide on a place. I'd be interested to know how they get the data, is it just people that use the app which is collected or do they have some deal to get more outside info. If its just internal calcualtions then it really needs to blow up to be useful (like a lot of sites do).
the loyalty and popularity seems like a strech because it could just be the closest place to a lot of people so gets repeat business or the best of available options. I eat some McD's occasionally because its close to the office but I wouldn't say im loyal to them or even like them, just wanted some chicken nuggets that day.
Hey guys - Tyler from Wisely here. Thanks, @jbeck224 for posting!
@HipsterCat, thanks for the thoughts. We source data exclusively from our own users. To make sense of that data, we're developing algorithms that help us recognize chains, and patterns similar to the scenarios you pointed out.
Long term, we believe the best experience comes from marrying data with what real customers have to say. That's a feature we'll be rolling out in the next few weeks: verified reviews from real customers!
Feel free to add more questions or thoughts, AMA let's go!
While it's great that Ann Arbor is punching above its weight for VC dollars, I personally don't believe that a region/city will be recognized as a "hub" until the absolute value is in the upper echelons of the country.
I'm not sure whether the authors used the Ann Arbor city population of ~115K or the metro area population of ~350K, but assuming the latter, that means the total VC investment into the Ann Arbor area was just under $90M. To put that into context, San Francisco and Silicon Valley generated $6.7B and $4.0B of VC investment, respectively. The #20 city on the list (Provo) received $160M of VC investment.
In my field, HL7 is based out of Ann Arbor. HL7 is currently a big deal, especially with Meaningful Use driving a lot of healthcare projects.
http://mashable.com/2014/03/06/blend-social-network/
This is an article about a social App that was created by a Michigan student last year. Not so much an indicator of tech hub in Ann Arbor, but I would love to see any Ann Arbor companies follow his example of exclusing Ohio students.
Most corps will choose Texas (esp. Austin) for their offices/operations HQ every time.
Michigan corporate tax rate: 6%
Texas imposes a Franchise Tax, otherwise known as margin tax, imposed on entities with more than $1,030,000 total revenues at rate of 1%, or 0.5% for entities primarily engaged in retail or wholesale trade, on lesser of 70% of total revenues or 100% of gross receipts after deductions for either compensation or cost of goods sold.
Basic economics, an academic discipline which my state govt, California, seems to be pervasively flunking.
April 14th, 2014 at 10:14 PM ^