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AgriSight software grows trust with nation’s farmers Business is sprouting for Jesse Vollmar. In January, his company, AgriSight Inc., raised $4 million. He was recognized as a Crain’s “20 in Their 20s” winner this spring. And now he’s announced that more than 15 percent of the nation’s row crop farms use AgriSight’s software, FarmLogs, to manage their crops. That means his company has more than $11 billion in crops under management. Not bad for a fifth-generation farm boy whose par-
September 29, 2014
CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
RUMBLINGS Duo Security VC round caps season t was a good summer for Dug Song, CEO and co-founder of Duo Security Inc., an Ann Arborbased, fast-growing provider of highly secure, cloud-based authentication services for companies. On June 21, the Ann Arbor Skatepark, a 30,000square-foot park free to all skating enthusiasts, opened in Veterans Memorial Park in Ann Arbor. For years, Song, Song a member of the 2012 class of Crain’s “40 under 40,” had been one of the main organizers behind getting park space set aside for his fellow hobbyists. Summer ended last Monday, Sept. 22, the day it was announced that Duo Security had raised $12 million in a Series B round of venture capital, led by Benchmark, a Silicon Valley-based firm, and joined by Google Ventures, True Ventures and Radar Partners, three other West Coast VCs. In 2009, Song and Jon Oberheide co-founded Duo. In 2000, Song was one of five self-described geeks and hackers who co-founded Arbor Networks, a University of Michigan spinoff doing network security that would attract $33 million in venture capital over the next two years. In 2010, Arbor Networks was sold for an undisclosed sum, which by all accounts made a nice return for investors, to Texas-based Tektronix Corp.
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ents and family work 1,200 acres east of Saginaw. “We are excited to have earned the trust of farmers around the country,” Vollmar, CEO and co-founder of the Ann Arbor-based company, said in a press release. The Web-based software soaks up publicly available data — market prices, rainfall, crop rotations and inventory — and delivers it to farmers in easy-toview disVollmar plays. Farmers can access the cloud-based system from the field, allowing them to better manage operations on the spot.
Car czar on Cadillac move: It’s not driving me crazy The state’s car czar is downplaying the move by General Motors Co. to spin its Cadillac brand into a separate business unit and move its global headquarters to New York City. “This is not a massive thing,” said Nigel Francis, senior automotive adviser for the state of Michigan and a senior vice president at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. In all, about 50 jobs will leave the state next year when Cadillac moves its sales and marketing team to New York. “It’s a small number of jobs,” Francis said. “Every job counts, but this has almost certainly more to do with the executive and where that person wants to have his top office.” In its official announcement, new Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said the move came because “there is no city in the world where the inhabitants are more immersed in a premium lifestyle than in New York.” He went on to add that “establishing our new global headquarters in Soho places Cadillac at the epicenter of sophisticated living.” Wrong, Francis said. “I think we’ve got a much better standard of living in Detroit than you would ever have in New York,” Francis said. “My money goes a lot farther here, that’s for sure.”
WEEK ON THE WEB FROM WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM, WEEK OF SEPT. 20-26
Macomb-OU Incubator offers tech cash, support The Macomb-OU Incubator, the Sterling Heights-based business incubator run by Oakland University, is offering $20,000 in cash and inkind services in a businesspitch competition open to young, fast-growing tech companies. First place is $8,500 in cash and a package of support services from the incubator, with second place worth $1,500 in cash and support services and third place worth $500 in cash and support. The contest is open to Michigan-based companies with revenue of $2.5 million or less that have been in business for five years or less. The deadline for entry is Oct. 14, with finalists announced on Oct. 28 and the pitch contest on Dec. 11. Finalists will also get a one-hour prep session for their pitches. Entrepreneurs can apply at www.oakland.edu/ macombouinc.
Internet’s down, so let’s use the Volt! Things ground to a halt one morning this month at Buff Whelan Chevrolet in Sterling Heights after the dealership’s Internet connection went dead. Staffers couldn’t run lease payments, find cars in inventory or report sales to the factory. Then a lightbulb came on for Matthew Oleszczuk. The new-car salesman remembered that a few of the showroom models were equipped with 4G LTE service, a feature that Chevy is rolling out across most of its 2015 models. The connection through OnStar provides a mobile hot spot that gives users a high-speed Internet connection for up to seven devices. Oleszczuk put a ’15 Volt plug-in hybrid into accessory mode, keeping it plugged into a charging station to avoid battery drain. Within 30 minutes, several sales consultants’ desktop computers were connected. The staff members were laughing because the signal strength topped the dealership’s internal network. Oleszczuk then fired up a Malibu, to connect another seven desktops. Once both cars were beaming signals, sales staffers used the opportunity as — what else? — a selling tool. “One lady asked why the Volt was on, and we told her that our landline was down and the 4G connection was keeping our network going,” Oleszczuk said. “She thought that was pretty impressive.”
GM names Blanchard to lead city initiatives
TURNING SHOVELS FOR ARENA
eneral Motors Co. appointed John Blanchard as lead executive for the company’s initiatives and projects within the city of Detroit and communities throughout Southeast Michigan. Blanchard, 52, has been director of GM local government relations since 2011. He will continue to represent the company on several local boards and commissions.
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ON THE MOVE Thomas Shafer was named president of Troybased Talmer Bank and Trust and COO of its holding company, Talmer Bancorp Inc. David Provost, president and CEO of Talmer Bancorp and chairman and CEO of the bank, had been the bank’s president; there had been no COO at the holding company. Shafer had been president of Ohio-based First Place Bank, acquired by Talmer in 2012. Mark Forchette was named president and CEO at Plymouth Townshipbased Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc. Forchette, formerly president and CEO at Santa Clara, Calif.-based medical device maker OptiMedica, replaces Mark Morsfield, interim president and CEO since October.
COMPANY NEWS Japan-based Yazaki Corp., with its Yazaki North America Inc. subsidiary in Canton Township, agreed in federal court in Detroit to pay $100 million in a civil case related to its three-year criminal prosecution of automotive supplier price-fixing. About $24 million of the settlement is earmarked for auto dealerships; $76 million will go to consumers. The Institute for Population Health, the nonprofit that acts as the city of Detroit’s health department, was to lay off about 135 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed with the state. Dexter-based Northern United Brewing Co. LLC plans to open its fourth Jolly Pumpkin microbrewery and distillery location early next year in Detroit. The space in the historic Willys Overland Building at 441 W. Canfield St. in Midtown will join locations in Ann Arbor, Dexter and Traverse City. Kmart announced the closing of five Michigan stores, including locations in Madison Heights and
ANJANA SCHROEDER/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Construction of the new Detroit Red Wings arena got underway Thursday with a ceremonial groundbreaking at the venue’s Woodward Avenue and Fisher Freeway location. Gov. Rick Snyder (from left), Ilitch Holdings Inc. President and CEO Chris Ilitch, Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit City Council President Pro-Tem George Cushingberry Jr. launched the $650 million project, which also includes plans for a 45block entertainment district.
Rochester Hills, effective in December. Stores in Flint, Burton and Port Huron also will close. Detroit-based United Way for Southeastern Michigan launched its annual giving campaign, setting a goal to raise $42 million, up $2 million from its 2013-14 goal. The Chaldean Community Foundation was set to break ground on a $3 million, 11,500-square-foot community center in Sterling Heights. The project, slated for completion next year, will replace the foundation’s 2,500-square-foot leased location. Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group Inc., which operates Charter One branches in Michigan, had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange after reducing its target price. The IPO, which raised $3 billion, was the largest bank IPO in a decade in the U.S.
OTHER NEWS The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed its first lawsuits to protect transgender people in the workplace, accusing R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes in Garden City and a Lakeland, Fla., eye clinic of illegally firing employees who were making a transition to female, AP reported. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Sheila Gibson, who was repeatedly late to work, was suspended without pay for 30 days, effective Oct. 8, AP reported. The Michigan Supreme Court accepted a settlement between Gibson and the state Judicial Tenure Commission. Carla Sledge, former Wayne County CFO, and Steven Collins, the county’s chief assistant corporation
counsel, were arraigned on charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty tied to the troubled Wayne County Jail project, AP reported. Detroit’s transportation system is getting more than $32 million in federal and state grants to buy up to 50 new hybrid and clean diesel buses for its aging public fleet, AP reported. Construction started on Sea Life Michigan, a 35,000-square-foot aquarium being built at the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills. The attraction, from London-based Merlin Entertainment plc at the Taubman Centers Inc.owned mall, is scheduled to open next spring. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Democratic opponent Mark Schauer agreed to appear Oct. 12 at a televised town hall-style forum, breaking their impasse over whether to debate the state’s issues side by side this fall. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s neighborhood concert series will continue this year on the strength of a $3.75 million grant from the William Davidson Foundation. The DSO has renamed the performances the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series. President Barack Obama issued a federal disaster declaration for Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties in the wake of massive flooding last month, making available federal funding to those affected. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said that the financial emergency has been resolved in Allen Park, and he appointed a transition advisory board to aid the return to local control after two years, AP reported.