Bio-tech firm Xoran Technologies has hired 12 people over the last year and is in the process of bringing five more on board right now. The Ann Arbor-based firm has openings in software development, quality control and customer service. It has hired people who specialize in sales, operations, customer service, quality control and executive team. "We hired in pretty much every single department," says Rachel Gajda, marketing manager for Xoran Technologies. She adds that the firm expects to continuing hiring in 2014. The portable CAT scan company's principal product is MiniCat, which the company's website describes as "a compact, upright volume computed tomography system designed for high-resolution bone window imaging of the sinuses, temporal bones and skull base." Xoran Technologies has installed hundreds of these scanners around the world, which set the stage for the firm to make 2013 its best growth year since 2008. The 12-year-old company is gearing up to launch its second product release, xCAT, a mobile, interoperative CT scanner this winter. The firm's website describes xCAT as "a fully integrated, mobile, cone beam computed tomography system designed to acquire a variety of high resolution, 3-dimensional images. The design of the xCAT allows clinicians the ability to very quickly and easily acquire and access images virtually anywhere." "It's really going to expand our presence into new markets," Gajda says. Source: Rachel Gajda, marketing manager for Xoran Technologies Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Lavin Lift Strap is a classic example of an invention born out of necessity that evolved into a growing small business based in downtown Ypsilanti. Donna Gilkey-Lavin explains the company got its start when her father-in-law reached the end of his life. The family didn't want to put him into a nursing home and instead decided to take care of him at home. That meant overcoming some big challenges. "This was developed out of need," Gilkey-Lavin says. "His father was a very large man with Alzheimer’s who had become incontinent." It took three to four people to lift and clean him after a visit to the bathroom. The first version of the Lavin Lift Strap made it easy for a single person to perform the job. The technology acts as a mini crane that helps raise the patient's legs or entire lower half off the bed. The family turned the invention into a product and began selling it to people and companies specializing in elder care. Sales mostly came through word-of-mouth and the firm’s website. Lavin Lift Strap reached out to Ann Arbor SPARK a little more than a year ago. The small business accelerator helped the company improve its marketing strategy, overhaul its website to better facilitate sales, apply for patents and gave it an office in the SPARK East incubator in downtown Ypsilanti. SPARK East also helped it develop more iterations of the lift strap, including a disposable version. Check out videos of the different products here. "The product has really morphed in the last year and a half," Gilkey-Lavin says. That helped the company expand its customer base and spike its sales over the last year. It is on target for a 65 percent jump in revenues in 2013, and it has hired 10 people over the last 18 months. It now sells the Lavin Lift Strap to hospice centers, home healthcare centers and other sorts of medical facilities. The firm is looking to begin delivering its products to larger healthcare institutions next year. Ann Arbor SPARK helped make that possible by showing the company how to mass market its product and establish a dealer network. The product has gained so much notice that Amazon.com came knocking, asking if it could sell the product through its website. "They (Ann Arbor SPARK) were instrumental in giving a small company like us the resources we need," Gilkey-Lavin says. Source: Donna Gilkey-Lavin, vice president of sales & marketing for Lavin Lift Strap Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Clean-tech startup picoSpray is putting together a lengthy list of customers for its small-engine technology and is well on its way to proving the viability of its concept. The Ann Arbor-based start-up's technology is basically a low-cost electronic fuel injection system for small engines. The product will help make small engines (think lawn mowers or chainsaws or go-carts) more energy efficient and help reduce their emissions. Check out a video on the technology here. The technology can reduce fuel consumption by 10-15 percent, depending on the type of engine, calibration, and the speed it runs at. "For different customers there are different valuations," says Lihang Nong, founder of picoSpray. He adds that picoSpray has already proven the concept behind its technology to one large manufacturer of small engines. He declined to identify the firm. He did say that his firm continues to test its technology in 2014 and is lining up potential customers. The startup is one year away from commercializing its technology. It is currently working to raise some seed capital to help push the commercialization process forward faster. "We're in the process of raising a seed round in the area of $1 million," Nong says. "We plan to prove the technology in 2014." Nong and his team of seven people are all recent engineering graduates of the University of Michigan. They started working on picoSpray at a business plan competition. It eventually moved into the TechArb, a startup incubator for U-M students in downtown Ann Arbor, and landed a microloan from the Michigan Microloan Fund last year. It is now working independently of the University of Michigan. Source: Lihang Nong, founder of picoSpray Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Source: Tim Colbeck, Ypsilanti DDA Writer: Natalie Burg

Source: Matthew Pietryga, The Black Pearl Writer: Natalie Burg