Human Element has grown in a number of ways over the last year. It has watched its revenue spike by double-digits, its staff is on the rise, and its office expand by a few thousand square feet. The downtown Ann Arbor-based e-commerce company (it specializes in the Magento e-commerce platform) has watched its revenue jump by 40 percent since 2011. That has allowed it to hire three people, a software engineer and project manager over the last year, and it's looking to add a software developer now to its team of 13 employees and six independent contractors. "Growing that quickly has its challenges," says Ben Lorenz, managing partner of Human Element. "We're targeting 30 percent growth right now. We feel that is a manageable way to grow the team." Which has prompted the 9-year-old company to expand its office. The company added 2,000 square feet earlier this year. Another addition of a few thousand square feet of office space seems like its in the card considering the company’s current growth curve. "If we can stay on track of our growth plan we will need more space next year," Lorenz says. He adds that a rebound in demand for e-commerce work, specifically the Magento platform, has driven the growth. Lorenz is quick to add that his company is controlling the growth because it takes a long timeline (typically closer to a year than just a few months) to get new hires up to speed with the rest of the team. Another factor is Ann Arbor SPARK giving a Phase 4 grant to Human Element last year. The $12,000 grant helped the company form some strategic planning for its growth so it can lessen the learning the curve to getting bigger. "SPARK has been helping us quite a bit," Lorenz says. Source: Ben Lorenz, managing partner of Human Element Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

A couple of tech entrepreneurs in Ann Arbor are working to bridge the gap between living a sustainable lifestyle and improving the public health with their new startup, Vivergy. Kevin Kononenko and Dom Parise's are releasing the digital platform this week. Vivergy enables individuals to score their impact on local health due to their energy consumption and air pollution. That way they can see if the tweak their everyday behavior they can see how it can have a real-world impact on lessening things, like childhood asthma. "Children in Ann Arbor inhale on average seven cigarettes each year," Kononenko says. "That is the equivalent of living with a smoker for three months." Kononenko and Parise were inspired by the frustrating conventional wisdom that comes with sustainability -ie. the problems seem too enormous, things are slow to change, and that the positive actions of one person are often negligible. "It always feels very negative, overwhelming, and sad," Kononenko says. "I wanted to do something about it that encourages people to think about it in a different way." Vivergy is launching this week and the two partners are planning to focus on generating local usership at first. However, the platform can be used anywhere in the world. Source: Kevin Kononenko and Dom Parise, co-founders of Vivergy Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Local boy - turned found letters, notes and memos guru - turned filmmaker Davy Rothbart can now add theater artist to his ever expanding resume of projects. Excerpt: “Found,” which opened on Tuesday night at the Atlantic Theater Company, derives its title and much of its text from the magazine of the same name, which publishes collections of such writings. (“You have to make up your mind Mr. Dickens, ’twas either the best of times or the worst of times; it could scarcely be both.”) Davy Rothbart, the founder of Found, the magazine, is basically the principal character, and the musical, with a book by Hunter Bell and Lee Overtree, and music and lyrics by Eli Bolin, tells the (semi-fictionalized) story of the “Eureka!” moment of the magazine’s birth and, eventually, its near-death by success. Read the rest of the mostly positive review here.

And because no hump day would be complete without some depressing news… U-M researcher and ecologist Anita Narwani warns and worries about the recent die-off of species around the globe. You might ask: "But why is this important?" Well, more than the issue at hand (our planet's potential demise) is shows the kind of important, far-reaching work that is being done at U-M. Excerpt: "It is too soon to declare that Earth is undergoing a sixth mass extinction, Narwani says. She defines a mass extinction as the loss of 75 percent of species over 2 million years or less. We haven’t lost that many — at least not yet. But if current rates of species losses continue, such a mass extinction could occur in just 300 years. “This is a very short time relative to the time frame for the previous mass events,” she points out. Such an event would leave a telltale absence of many species in the fossil record. From that point on, fossils of the vanished species would no longer appear in the pages of Earth’s rock-based diary." Read the rest here.

Children born out of wedlock, later marriages, more mixed-race children, older mothers - the profile of the 'American family' is going through some dramatic changes. But chill. It's all good. Things change. We don't marry off our 12 year old daughters for a couple of goats anymore either. Excerpt: "The new American family is not nearly as white as it used to be. In fact, white babies may already be in the minority. In addition, mixed-race couples have become far more common, and more gay couples have started families. Unmarried households headed by same-sex couples increased 80 percent in the 2010 Census from a decade earlier to almost 650,000, and an estimated 25 percent of those households are raising children." Read the rest here.

In January, Collier Financial will celebrate 25 years in business in Fort Wayne, but here in Ann Arbor, they'll be fresh off the heels of another celebration: establishing a new office. Though Caleb Collier has been living in Ann Arbor and serving clients of his family's business here for several years, the new, 1,200 square foot office on E. Eisenhower will give the growing financial services company a permanent presence in the area.  "The office space is beautiful. The back offices have floor-to-ceiling windows," Collier says. "I was going back and forth between downtown and Eisenhower, but I ended up here, because for those clients in Chelsea, Dexter or even in Novi, this would be easier access for them." The new Collier Financial office opened on Sept. 22. Collier has already hired one new support staff member and plans to hire another financial adviser and two more support staff employees.  "My goal is to become a recognizable name in the financial services industry here," says Collier. "What we do is unique to some of the national brokerage houses. We have a different approach, and for some folks, it's really what they're looking for." The Ann Arbor office comes at a time of growth in general for Collier Financial. The family business has recently purchased and extensively renovated a building in Fort Wayne and will soon be moving their headquarters into the much larger location.  Source: Caleb Collier, Collier Financial Writer: Natalie Burg

Startups launched and grown in Ann Arbor can sometimes end up in new homes after they are acquired. That’s not the case with Seelio. The 3-year-old startup is doubling down on Tree Town with a small spike in hiring. The downtown Ann Arbor-based higher education software startup has hired 14 people over the last year, expanding its staff to 22 employees and an intern. It is currently looking to hire four more people in software development, educational services, and a director of a university partnership development. Check out the openings here. "We have been hiring at a rapid pace," says Emily Keller-Logan, director of marketing & communications for Seelio. "We have brought on a lot of talented people." Seelio's platform enables college students to showcase their portfolio of work. The software documents how their college projects came to fruition and presents them for employers in job interviews. Check out a video about the platform here. "We're providing student lifecycle portfolios to institutions so that students can begin preparing for their careers from orientation to graduation," Keller-Logan says. Seelio raised a $1.5 million seed capital round in 2013. It was acquired by Kansas City-based PlattForm last summer. Source: Emily Keller-Logan, director of marketing & communications for Seelio Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.