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Economic development firm creates fund for area start-ups
9/12/2007
By PATRICK REVERE
RELATED STORIES
Brad MacLean spent several years with furniture maker Herman Miller identifying better ways to bring products to market. His interest was piqued when his wife, children's author Christine MacLean, expressed frustration regarding the ineffective way publishers and authors were expected to meet.
"The average publisher gets about 6,000 manuscripts in the mail each year," Brad MacLean said. "Most of those manuscripts don't even fit the criteria they're looking for. About 60 percent of manuscripts never get seen and an unbelievable number of hours in labor are used to find the ones that are read."
"I thought there had to be a better way," he said.
From this notion, Creative Byline was born.
The business uses Web-based software to connect authors and publishers. It's an interactive database both publishers and authors can purchase on subscription to narrow criteria and more easily meet their demands.
"This is like Matchmaker.com but for book authors and publishers," the founder and CEO said.
A division of a large New York publishing house already has purchased a subscription, and others are interested, Brad MacLean said. But it was an idea that might not have been realized if not for organized local investors.
Lakeshore Advantage, the Zeeland-based regional economic development firm, announced Tuesday that it has started a $1 million seed fund for early investment in local start-up companies.
Creative Byline is the first company to benefit from the Lakeshore Advantage Seed Capital Fund. The Grand Angels, a similar private investment group, also contributed to the business.
"Our typical investment will be between $50,000 and $100,000, and we hope to invest in about 10 to 15 different companies over a period of time," Lakeshore Advantage President Randy Thelen said. "It could take us two to three years or three to five years."
Thelen said the investors behind the economic development firm's seed capital fund are interested primarily in fledgling companies with ideas for telematics, which are processes for new forms of communication, software and Web-based technology products, products from recycled goods and new medical devices.
The Lakeshore Advantage Seed Capital Fund is made up of an unspecified number of anonymous investors from the greater West Michigan area. Application forms for investment consideration can be obtained at lakeshoreadvantage.com. The applications will be reviewed by an investment committee, Thelen said. Companies provided with start-up capital will be encouraged to operate from the Lakeshore Advantage incubator at the Colonial Clock building in Zeeland.
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