Local start-ups cash in on GLEQ and E&Y entrepreneur competitions

Lots of local small businesses are benefiting from the latest round of awards handed out by the Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards.

The Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest hosted a business plan competition for start-ups that gave out $250,000 in awards to local companies looking for a leg up. Also included were free business development services from Automation Alley, Ann Arbor SPARK and the Michigan SmartZoneSM Network. The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards recognizes established entrepreneurs who have exemplified themselves and their businesses.

Margery Krevsky, CEO of Bingham Farms-based Productions Plus - The Talent Shop, was one of the 10 winners of the Ernst & Young award and one of the four from Metro Detroit. She compares it to the top awards her talent agency deals with, such as the Tony and Academy awards.

"It's the best you can get," Krevsky says. "It brings credibility and it substantiates my team. One person can't do this. It takes a team."

Other local winners of the Ernst & Young award are John Rakolta, CEO of Detroit-based Walbridge; Pete Lazic, president of New Hudson-based Michigan Automatic Turning; and Mindy Fynke, president of Southfield-based Employee Health Insurance.

Southeast Michigan swept the top spots in the Best of Biotech Awards. Royal Oak-based Innovative Surgical Solutions received $40,000 for first place. It is developing a fast, safe, effective surgeon-driven nerve monitoring system for minimally invasive surgical procedures. Second place and $25,000 went to Bloomfield Hills-based Angott Medical Products, which is working on a multi-modality breast cancer test with higher sensitivity and positive predictive value than clinical breast exams. Tangent Medical Technologies of Ann Arbor took third place and $10,000 for its work addressing health and safety shortcomings of existing peripheral intravenous fluid/medication delivery systems.

Source: Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, Ernst & Young and Margery Krevsky, CEO of Productions Plus - The Talent Shop
Writer: Jon Zemke

Local start-ups cash in on GLEQ and E&Y entrepreneur competitions

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