Posted on 6/15/2008 1:28 PM

The GLEQ $25,000 Grand Prize in the Emerging Company category was awarded to OcuSciences Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

OcuSciences was co-founded by Drs. Victor Elner and Howard Petty from the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center and has developed a rapid and unique non-invasive imagining technique to detect retinal diseases earlier than current methods. The OcuSciences plan was pitched by Matthew Field.

The Runner Up award of $5,000 in the Emerging Company category was captured by DevHive of Livonia. DevHive is building a Software-as-a-Service platform for custom business applications. Mike Burba presented the elevator pitch.

In the New Business Idea category, 3D Biomatrix received the First Place cash award of $5,000 and Dusoto.com was awarded the Runner Up award of $1,000. 3D Biomatrix offers a novel drug discovery platform that allows standardized ex-vivo replication of human tissues with high reproducibility that increases the efficiency of present drug discovery processes. Dusoto.com is an online provider of nightlife information and related travel services to Americans abroad. Both companies are located in Ann Arbor. 

OPS Solutions LLC, was the recipient of the Automation Alley Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Award of $12,500. Danielle DeLonge of Automation Alley-sponsored ConnecTech presented the award to OPS Solutions president Jim Ryznar.

NextEnergy presented the Alternative Energy Innovation Award to FlexSys Inc. Dan Radomski, Director of Industry Services for NextEnergy; presented the $12,500 award to Shridhar Kota, founder of FlexSys. The company is developing adaptive blades for the wind turbine industry that capture wind more efficiently across all operating conditions and reduce structural loads when wind gusts are high.

The top five teams competing for the GLEQ Grand Prize pitched their plans to a panel of investment judges headed by Jack Ahrens, partner at TGap Ventures. Judges included Christine Gibbons, SC Holdings; Michael Raymond, Dickinson Wright; James Lynch, Spartan Ventures; Ron Reed, Seneca Partners; and Jack Miner, BC Ventures.

Presentation scores were added to scores on the companies’ written business plans to determine the overall winners. Finalists in addition to winning companies OcuSciences and DevHive, included BioLumix, OPS Solutions, and SkinTreet.  Kevin Suboski, Executive Advisor, Suboski and Co., was awarded Coach of the Year for his work with two of the Emerging Company finalists, BioLumix and SkinTreet.

The keynote address was presented by Michael W. Long, president and CEO of Velcura Therapeutics. Long was named the third annual Grant Thornton Leader and Innovator of the Year on May 1 and was the GLEQ Grand Prize winner in 2001.

Long’s keynote focused on the foundations of innovation in Michigan: the environment needed to make innovations flourish; the role of entrepreneurs and leaders in translating innovation to commercial reality, and the intellectual and human resources needed to sustain innovation into the future.

Long is a former professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He led the development of 15 patents at UM, as well as three recent patents from Velcura. In 2003, Long left the university to lead Velcura.

Today, Velcura Therapeutics is developing highly differentiated therapies for bone diseases. Bone diseases worldwide strike over 250 million individuals. These diseases have an overall 18.5 percent growth rate and the market for their treatment is expected to reach $65 billion by 2030.

The GLEQ awards event was held in the Atrium Room of the James B. Henry Center on the MSU campus. The event began with an MIT Enterprise Forum panel discussion on "Business Incubators – Opportunities, Trends, Best Practices and Successes in Michigan."

The panel was led by industry expert Sandra Cochrane, Technology Business Consultant with the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers and featured Robert Gadwood, co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Kalamazoo-based Kalexsyn and Joseph Waters, vice president of Jackson-based Apollo Express Inc.

Michigan Television WFUM presented a sneak preview of Open for Business, a 13-part series being produced to showcase entrepreneurship in Michigan.

Additional event supporters included Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers, the Small Business Association of Michigan, MichBio, the Ann Arbor New Enterprise Forum, the MIT Enterprise Forum and TechTown.

GLEQ provides coaching, mentoring, business training and entrepreneurial discussions to entrepreneurs statewide. It also sponsors a two-phase statewide business plan competition each year. The competition is structured into two distinct maturity paths; companies with more developed businesses compete in the Emerging Company path, while teams with new business concepts compete in the New Business Idea path.

Additional information is available at www.gleq.org or by calling Diane Durance, GLEQ Executive Director at (734) 255-3183.