TechArb \ˈtek-ˈärb\
-noun
: A place where friends, technology and ventures are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes.
In less than a month, the TechArb has seen many exciting developments. What started as an empty office complex has already grown into a vibrant community of developers, engineers, designers and business people – all working together as student entrepreneurs. Through guidance from RPM Ventures and the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship, the TechArb is now home to eight student ventures (and growing), each in different and exciting stages of development. Here’s a short recap of some of the things we’ve accomplished:
Mobil33t launched their newest product, DoGood, just prior to their attendance at WWDC. It’s growing at a rate 800 users a day so far, allowing more than 60 people each hour to add some good to the world.
MyBandStock.com just initiated their new intern program, giving 10 highly talented and motivated students a crash course into the music industry and startup world. Their kickoff party at local food and drink venue, BTB Cantina, was hugely successful – nearly 224 people in attendance!
CrowdClarity launched a much-improved version of their website and is currently gaining the interest of many new customers.
Carrier Mobile, Shepherd Intelligent Systems and Phonagle have each received $5,000 in funding from Ann Arbor SPARK, a local business development organization.
A few new ventures have joined our ranks. One such venture, Backyard Brains, is an exciting new startup developing innovative neuroscience kits to help schoolchildren and amateur scientists better understand the brain.
In addition to Tony Grover, Marc Weiser and Tim Street of RPM Ventures, we’ve gained many valuable mentors such as Doug Neil, serial entrepreneur and former CEO of BoomDash, and Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of the mobile software company Mobatech. We’ve also had opportunities to visit with and learn from many other local startups and business resources. For example, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Menlo Innovations, an Ann Arbor-based software development firm, to better understand their wildly successful development techniques.
The TechArb has been extremely active and is continually gaining momentum every day. Our space is allowing for a level of enthusiasm, knowledge-exchange and networking never before experienced at the University of Michigan – a notion that continually thrills, motivates and empowers all who are involved.