In 2013, a group of University of Michigan students wanted to support each other’s startup ventures. Some were tech focused, others social impact-oriented startups that needed time and financial backing to give them a chance to grow. “We spent time taking tests, writing papers, but hadn’t tried our hand at solving problems,” says Jeff Pituch, Associate Director for Social Innovation at Optimize. “We started Optimize as a program for early-stage ventures.”
Tom Meloche, a long-time agile programming advocate recalls: “We taught the first class with ‘agile’ in the title in the tri-state area, maybe in the country,” he says. “We tested the word agile in advertising instead of extreme programming, and it worked better. Now the word is overused, but that’s what people are searching on.”
In the two months since Cronicle Press’s soft launch, one question we have repeatedly been asked by newer startup founders is this: “How do I get media coverage for my new business? Where should I pitch? How should I pitch local versus industry media?” Many people in tech are already experts in interviewing and media…
He’s known as one of the nicest people in Ann Arbor tech, a thoughtful person who built a quality product the right way and is deeply concerned with community. He is also the most successful. Duo Security founder Dug Song spoke recently at Ann Arbor’s tech week conference Intermitten 2019 about what tech companies can…
What does tech need more of? What we hear on an almost daily basis is: inclusion. But there’s more to it than hiring people of another gender or race or cultural group. No one wants to be a token hire. What new group Tech-Inclusive is doing, according to co-founder Ronda Bergman, is lowering the barriers…
If you’ve been around Ann Arbor tech for a while, you’ve probably heard of or met Dave Koziol, founder of Michigan’s premier mobile development group Arbormoon Software. Koziol is a frequent speaker at conferences, the leader of the iOS dev Meetup group CocoaHeads, co-founder of Mobile Mondays with Rob Baxtresser, and many more. Arbormoon has…
Legend has it that if you sit still long enough in the ITHAKA/JSTOR kitchen attending Orchestructure meetings, every person you ever wanted to meet will walk through the door. Okay, well, maybe almost every person. Jeff Sica is a senior database administrator at the University of Michigan through Advanced Research Computing Technology Services or ARC-TS…
It’s a monthly networking breakfast at Zingerman’s Roadhouse frequented by speakers including Michigan entrepreneurs, local business leaders, Governor Snyder, and more. Dr. Robert Pasick, PhD, known affectionately to many around the University of Michigan as “Dr. Rob,” has been running Leaders Connect events monthly for over two decades. Leaders Connect brings together Ann Arbor leaders…
Here’s the problem with reporting on Ann Arbor tech. Like a lot of folks, the people of Blue Newt are up to so many amazing new projects, they can’t tell you about most of them until next year. Isn’t that always the way it goes? But that’s a good thing, except for the interviewing on…
Mario Loria is still in his late twenties, but on his team at super hot Detroit-based startup StockX, the billion-dollar luxury goods stock exchange run by Josh Luber, he’s one of the older team members. Loria is the founder of Ann Arbor meetup Orchestructure (2017) for devops and related folks to geek out over latest tech and best practices, and his career started in Ann Arbor with a tech company that had a more traditional management style. He also founded his own company between these gigs, somewhere between helping organize DevOps Days Detroit and starting several other projects. Thus, he has some strongly held ideas about team structure and culture, and what he sees as a slow shift toward transparency in the workplace serving tech teams well–but kind of taking forever.
