GLEQ Names Phase I Winners

The following companies won awards at the Great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest competition, announced at the recent Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship in Ann Arbor.

Spirit of Entrepreneurship

GLEQ announced an award to recognize an entrepreneur with “the right stuff” to launch and grow a business at ACE’09 on January 22. The Spirit of Entrepreneurship award was initiated by the GLEQ coaches and recognizes the entrepreneurial attitude, drive and personality important to the success of a new venture.

Winning the award was Steve Schwartz of RateMyStudentRental.com. His GLEQ coach and others working with Steve noted he “listened intensely” and “obviously thought through his business plan and strategy”. Steve is so committed to his venture “people seem to line up to follow him”. In addition to the recognition at the event, GLEQ has arranged an executive advisor to work with Steve for the next year.

Other Spirit of Entrepreneurship award nominees included Jonathan Baugh, Dermanaut; Angela Fisher, Third Wave Matrix; and Mary Lemmer, People Power.

Phase I Business Plan Competition awards

Emerging Company Winners

First Place ($5,000)

Hygieia (Ann Arbor). Receiving the award was co-founder Israel Hodish. Hygieia is developing a glucose meter for diabetics that works as an endocrinologist-to-go -- it’s capable of modifying a patient’s treatment plan on an as-needed basis to reduce the complications of diabetes. 

Second Place ($2,500)

Clean Emission Fluids (Detroit). Receiving the award was president and founder, Oliver Baer. This company offers a storage and pumping system for dispensing of multiplicity of biofuels and clean diesel fluids. Their test unit is located at NextEnergy and is being used by the Art Van fleet of delivery trucks. This team was coached by Rod Lowe.

Third Place ($1,000)

Virtual Products (Ann Arbor). Receiving the award was Geoffrey Henny, founder of Virtual Products. This company has a very low cost, patent-pending plastic “Exergaming” ramp that allows full body interaction with any digital environment such as video games, computer games and Second Life. This team was coached by Ty Myers.

New Business Idea Winners

First Place ($2,000)

LegalEase Solutions (Ann Arbor). Receiving this award was Sulaiman Afzal, co-founder of LegalEase. LegalEase is a Michigan-based provider of onshore/offshore legal services, including legal research, litigation support, document review and transactional work. This team was coached by Jon Shackelford of Dickinson Wright.

Second Place ($1,000)

GiftZip.com (East Lansing). Receiving this award was Sam Hoge, founder of GiftZip. This company offers consumers a fast, fun and free way to give gifts electronically. The company took off like a rocket over the holidays -- surprising even the founder with the tremendous market response to his new business idea. This team was coached by Jim Lynch from Lansing.

Third Place: ($1,000)

In the Groove (Saginaw). Receiving this award was Dr. Alice Brown, founder of In the Groove. Also a participant in the ACE’09 Elevator Pitch Competition, this company has developed a knee brace for medical lateral knee pain that gives immediate relief of pain, improved mobility and rehabilitates the knee just by wearing it. This team was coached by Neil Sheridan of Kettering University in Flint.

Presenting the Emerging Company awards was Michelle Crumm, treasurer of the GLEQ board of directors. Crumm is the Chief Business Officer and Co-founder of Adaptive Materials – the 2003 GLEQ Grand Prize winner.

Presenting the New Business Idea awards was Judy Johncox, secretary of the GLEQ board of directors. Johncox is the Senior Director of Commercialization Services at Wayne State University and the WSU Program Director at TechTown.

More at www.gleq.org.