technology, which is used in preparing genomic samples for next-generation sequencing or other analysis, ensures easy work flow and can be done all in one test tube. “We’re seeing personalized medicine go more mainstream, and our technology is being used in both clinical trials and diagnostic applications,” Haakenson says. “New employees will focus on product pipeline and building our product offerings.”
—ArdentCause, the Ferndale-based startup that has developed software to help nonprofits manage resources and track the progress of grantees, is another local company in expansion mode. Co-founder Rosemary Bayer says she has learned a lot during the five years that the company has been in existence. CauseEffectz, ArdentCause’s flagship product, is data integration and dashboard software, but what the company found was that a lot of nonprofits didn’t have data ready to plug in to CauseEffectz.
“We started with the idea of helping nonprofits show their impact with an analytics tool that pulls data together to show outcomes,” Bayer explains. “We found out that a lot of nonprofits have data in the form of piles of paper. Nonprofits are often behind the times when it comes to IT, and we didn’t realize how severe the problem is.”
Because of this, ArdentCause built a new product called DataSnapz, which allows nonprofits to enter data and produce reports. It also helps companies track what they do and for whom. “The biggest lesson we learned in five years is that we built an amazing and cool product, but we didn’t spend the time understanding what was needed in the first place,” Bayer says.
While the company figured out how to adjust its product offerings, Bayer says the largely bootstrapped startup was able to survive thanks to sponsorship by the United Way, funding from the First Step Fund, and a Business Acceleration Fund grant. ArdentCause, which was one of the first LC3s in Michigan, also began offering subscription-based online data management.
ArdentCause’s future plans include selling its software outside of Michigan, expanding its custom database offerings, and formally raising capital. “We’re really happy that we finally feel like we aren’t tip-toeing close to the edge,” Bayer adds.
—Detroit is in the national news again, this time as the subject of a Time magazine article titled “Detroit: America’s Emerging Market.” Here at Xconomy, we’ve long championed the idea that Detroit can serve as a model of how to reinvent post-industrial American cities. We’re happy to see Time is now also on board with that idea.
