Student seed capital takes root at A2 New Tech Meetup

A2 New Tech Meetup traditionally has been a staple for start-ups looking to generate buzz among their peers and the local investment community. Earlier this week, the emerging Ann Arbor institution for grass roots entrepreneurial activists expanded on that by helping spread some seed capital to studentpreneurs with raw start-ups with the Michigan Business Model Competition.

"There is lots of guerilla economic development work happening here by grass roots groups," Dug Song, one of the organizers of A2 New Tech Meetup, said during the event. He was speaking about both A2 New Tech Meetup and the new Michigan Business Model Competition but also things like Tech Brewery and TechArb incubators.

The Michigan Business Model Competition, developed and run by the University of Michigan School of Information's SI-Create organization, attracted 22 start-ups and studentpreneurs from the University of Michigan to participate in the event. Those participants were whittled down to four finalists that made presentations at the A2 New Tech Meetup before a crowd filled with many of Ann Arbor's biggest new economy movers and shakers. The judges included the likes of Menlo Innovations Rich Sheridan, Skip Simms of Ann Arbor SPARK and serial entrepreneur Kurt Skifstad.

"The quality (of start-ups) keeps going up and up," Sheridan said before announcing the winner.

The start-ups competed for $5,000 in cash prizes with the winner taking home $2,500. That might not seem like much for the average serial entrepreneur trying to score the next nine-figure biotech acquisition, but it left the winners, Emily Potter and Jessica Lai, truly elated. Their start-up, Yo Mama Packed It!, is a subscription lunch service for students who don't want to miss a meal because they're short on time.

This is the first Michigan Business Model Competition at A2 New Tech Meetup but organizers were pleased with its outcome and optimistic about doing something similar in the future that could further marry Ann Arbor's entrepreneurial community with the college town's ivory tower.

"We're having the bridging of town and gown, which doesn't happen often enough here," Song said during the event.

Source: Dug Song, organizer of A2 New Tech Meetup and Rich Sheridan, judge of Michigan Business Model Competition
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.