When Asterand set up operations in Detroit a decade ago, the company became a test case of sorts for whether Michigan's economy could grow an innovative new company that seemed to belong on the East Coast, not the industrial Midwest.
The good news: Michigan aced the exam. But Asterand's path to profitability was anything but assured.
The company's former CEO and one of its founders, Randal Charlton, took a big gamble when he established his start-up firm in Detroit rather than in Boston or San Diego.
Asterand started out with only $500,000 in seed money so Charlton sought the "lowest-cost place in America where there's good research," a search that led him to Detroit.
The serial entrepreneur spent the first year traveling to Russia, South Africa and other countries, setting up agreements with hospitals so Asterand could obtain the human tissue samples it needed. No one knew whether hospitals in foreign countries would comply with American ethical standards or if tissue samples from overseas would be allowed into the U.S. "There were a lot of unknowns," Charlton recalls.
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