A gleaming engine for Michigan's new economy

Today I’m going to tell you about one of the best and most exciting things happening in Michigan.

It’s called the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest awards — and on June 10, some of the smartest, most entrepreneurial people in our state will be gathered in one room in East Lansing, waiting to see who’s going to take home how much of a total in $250,000 in prizes.

In a state still struggling to find ways to grow and diversify its economy, the success of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest – the sponsor of the GLEQ Awards – is cause for admiration and hope.

The Quest is an engine designed to help form new, high-tech, high-growth companies in Michigan, The GLEQ awards are a statewide competition to pick the best business plans prepared by high tech and life science startup companies.

And the prizes aren’t shabby. The winner of the SmartZone Award will take home $100,000, while winners of the Best of Biotech Entrepreneurship Awards will win cash prizes of up to $40,000.

The idea is to connect early-stage, high-technology ventures with the capital they need to move forward.

The competition helps entrepreneurs to get themselves and their business plans in front of venture capitalists and potential “angel investors.”

This has been going on for a few years now. I spoke at the GLEQ awards event a couple of years ago, and the buzz of smart people pitching their ideas and companies to other smart people with money to invest was mind-numbing.

In fact, I’ve never seen a gathering with such frenetic, competitive and focused activity! The person responsible for running GLEQ, Executive Director Diane Durance, is a 51-year-old powerhouse of high energy and enthusiasm. She’s a one-woman band pushing entrepreneurs forward, grabbing the attention of investors and helping shove the state into the 21st century.

I reached her over the weekend, just after she dropped her daughter off for a volleyball tournament in Ann Arbor. “I love what I’m doing, and I really believe GLEQ can play a big part in revitalizing our state,” she says. Durance is a serial entrepreneur herself, having started several businesses, including one designing long-distance telephone networks. After living elsewhere for a while, she moved back to Michigan to help take care of her father, started yet another company, and then was hired to run GLEQ in 2008.

A spin-off from the University of Michigan, GLEQ was founded a decade ago and managed for a time through the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the U of M. A year ago, it got a terrific shot in the arm from the Southeastern Michigan Community Foundation and the state’s 21st Century Jobs Fund.

Additionally, GLEQ was given a Strategic Service Provider grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation of $250,000 a year for two years. That’s the money being used to provide the big cash prizes that brighten the eyes of entrepreneurs and provoke a frenzy of competition and investor interest.

Here’s how it works: Companies interested in competing prepare a draft business plan. GLEQ puts each in touch with a business coach who specializes in their particular field and can help hone the plan into shape to present precisely and compellingly to investors. Revised plans are then submitted to panels of professional investors for more feedback and improvement before being competitively scored. A total of 10 plans are presented live – “elevator pitches” – by company founders at the Awards Event.

“We’ve got a total of 90 investors who volunteer their time to serve on the panels, and it’s their involvement that’s so crucial for the success of the program,” says Durance. “It’s not some abstract activity like a term paper in college. It’s real business plans being critically reviewed and improved by real investors who put their money where their mouths are.”

Durance says something like 300 people volunteer their time to make GLEQ work. Still — it’s mind-blowing to realize she is the only staffer in the entire program.

The program is growing rapidly, in part because the prospect of a $100,000 investment in your company turns on any entrepreneur worthy of the name. Last year, 175 firms registered to compete; this year, it’s 302. About 70 percent of those that register actually get a business plan written and enter the competition, Durance said.

GLEQ already has resulted in a fair number of successful startups. Among them are TJ Technology, a company recently acquired by A123, a leader in the hot field of designing batteries for electric automobile power trains, and Adaptive Materials, an Ann Arbor startup that makes portable fuel cells.

So — anyone interested in this year’s Awards Event – which will be held on the afternoon June 10 at the MSU Faculty Club – should contact GLEQ’s website or call Diane Durance at 734-527-9151.

If you come, you’ll get a look at what just might be the dawn of a future new economy in our state.

Editor’s Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics and a former chairman of the Michigan chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank which is sponsoring Michigan’s Defining Moment, a public engagement outreach campaign for citizens. The opinions expressed here are Power’s own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net.