Last November, 20Fathoms, our regional ecosystem partner supporting entrepreneurs and technology start-ups, received a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The funding is helping support 20Fathoms’ expansion to offer its services to small businesses in all ten counties of Northwest Michigan, including Manistee, Charlevoix, Cadillac, and Petoskey. The support also means that Northwest Michigan entrepreneurs can access new funding and resources through new partnerships between 20Fathoms, Michigan SBDC, Northern Lakes Economic Alliance, Venture North, and Traverse Connect. New services include grants, business consultations, educational programming, and professional service provider support. All entrepreneurs in Northwest Michigan are eligible.
One local BlueTech startup, Wave Lumina, has received support from 20Fathoms, including its long-running program, TCNewTech, as it seeks to address environmental challenges related to PFAS and forever chemicals.
Vernon LaLone, a scientist and entrepreneur who grew up in Elk Rapids, recently founded Wave Lumina – a company based in Traverse City – to tackle a specific challenge related to PFAS. Before environmental engineering firms and government response teams can clean up PFAS, they need to know where it’s hiding, but laboratory testing is currently expensive and time-consuming. Since 2015, Vernon has been using the technology that Wave Lumina is leveraging for PFAS detection, but in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and biomaterials engineering industries. Once he started learning about PFAS and digging into recent research, Vernon began exploring new business opportunities.
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Vernon and the team at Wave Lumina turned to 20Fathoms for support through workshops and pitch coaching. “We’ve participated in several of the workshops offered. The intellectual property and entrepreneurial operating system workshops were particularly helpful to us,” shared LaLone. “We’ve also received a ton of support refining our pitch for events like TCNewTech and others, which has been pretty successful!” The team at Wave Lumina has also found the networking opportunities afforded them only because of their engagement at 20Fathoms have been critical to their success. “We have met so many investors, potential clients, and business support service providers through the network that have helped us along the way.”
While Wave Lumina is advancing along its startup journey, its team members plan on engaging with 20Fathoms’ 1:1 Coaching Sessions and Scrum Sprint programs in the future. Wave Lumina was one of five startups competing in the Small Town, Big Ideas Pitch Competition held on November 13. The competition showcases innovative, investor-ready, scalable tech startups from communities in the Center for Rural Innovation’s Rural Innovation Network and 20Fathoms helped the team at Wave Lumina make the cut to be one of five startups competing for $10,000.
Wave Lumina demonstrates its technology for Michigan’s Chief Growth Officer, Hilary Doe in July.
LaLone recommends any early stage startup engage with 20Fathoms and commit the time to engage with its programs and services. “Start meeting the incredible folks at 20Fathoms, and they will probably find ways to help. Just by chatting, a small business owner might express a need that reveals a new potential program that 20Fathoms might create and offer as support!”
20Fathoms‘ newly expanded programming provides entrepreneurs and small business owners in Northwest Michigan with more resources to help them launch and grow their businesses. All services are no-cost thanks to support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Complete the Startup & Small Business Assistance Inquiry on their website to access their services!
