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ACE'13 Announces Top Six Finalists In Elevator Pitch Competition

ANN ARBOR -- The 13th Annual Celebration for Entrepreneurship Jan. 31 will feature the following six companies in the Elevator Pitch Competition: ENT Biotech Solutions, Micro-LAM, Ornicept, TempoRun, Social2Step and cureLancher.

Each year, attendees watch a select group of six entrepreneurs tout their companies during the Elevator Pitch Competition. Said Chris Holman, veteran Michigan business commentator who will emcee: "Year after year, the ACE Elevator Pitch Competition puts Michigan's most promising new startups on stage to aggressively and convincingly pitch their innovative ventures."

The review committee found the decision particularly difficult due to the extensive number of qualified applicants received.

"We are very much looking forward to an excellent pitch competition at ACE'13," said Miche Suboski, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest, one of 18 organizations collaborating to produce ACE'13. 

A few details on each company is as follows:

* ENT Biotech Solutions of Detroit has developed an optimal surgical device for adenoid removal. The "Adeno-Electro-Forceps" is a cost effective, easy-to-use disposable device suited to the patient's anatomy, which also reduces postoperative complications and speeds up surgery time. ENT Biotech Solutions is currently working with New Enterprise Forum, TechTown and Michigan Medical Device Accelerator to raise a first round of funding.

* Micro-LAM of Kalamazoo has developed the "u-LAM" technology which uses a laser source coupled to a diamond cutting tool, to thermally heat and soften hard brittle materials rendering them more ductile, easier to machine, fabricate and significantly reducing tool wear; all of which leads to higher productivity in the manufacturing process.

* Ornicept of Ann Arbor has developed an automated bird monitoring system for wind energy developers, military, natural resource managers, regulators and airfield controllers. This system works as a tool to keep up-to-date information on bird movement by collecting data on birds by species as they move through various survey zones. For protected species, wind energy developers need to have a comprehensive understanding of their prevalence for successful permitting and project operations.

* TempoRun of East Lansing is an MSU student run team that has developed an app and on line web tools for runners that organizes the music on a user's smart phone and categorizes them into various levels based on the tempo of the song, producing precisely the workout the runner wants. TempoRun has also recently been chosen to participate in the Student Start Up Madness national pitch contest at South-by-South West.

* Social2Step of Ada enables companies to activate its Employee Media Channels to engage consumers across all social media touch points. The S2S platform consolidates each of the employee's social channels into one convenient platform for streamlined access and integrated reporting.

* CureLauncher of Bloomfield Hills solves the clinical trial enrollment problem.  Among the 50,000 trials in the U.S. every year, each one is delayed by 4.6 months due to enrollment issues. CureLauncher provides easy-to-understand information about trials and the enrollment forms to connect people to lifesaving new treatments. Every enrolling breast cancer trial in the country is available on curelauncher.com right now.

ACE '12 attracted over 1,000 attendees last year and became the largest entrepreneurial event in the region. With the new venue -- Burton Manor in Livonia -- and quality of programming, ACE'13 is anticipated to be attended in even larger numbers.

Register at www.ace-event.org.

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