success stories 

Comments from our current and past incubator members and consulting clients:

“WMSTI is allowing us to defer the acquisition of over $250,000 in equipment. We’ve chosen Grand Rapids because of how much WMSTI has lowered the cost of entry. There’s no other incubator like itin Michigan.”
— Barry Nowak, Syzygy Co-founder

“The Initiative helped me find companies in the area to participate in the development, design and manufacture of my inventions. That is a huge advantage over traveling outside of our region to have those needs met.”
— Jihad Mustapha, M.D., cardiologist, inventor, entrepreneur



 Read a few of the recent success stories from our current and past incubator members and consulting clients: 

  • The Michigan Strategic Fund and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. will continue to support Michigan incubators with $6 million in grants for 2012.
  • Current WMSTI incubator member, The Center for Molecular Medicine, a Grand Rapids-based subsidiary of Sequenom Inc. recently released a diagnostics test that will help determine prenatal diseases and conditions.
  • DornerWorks Ltd, a member of the West Michigan Medical Device Consortium, recently ranked on the Inc. 500|5000 list. 
  • Congratulations to Syzygy Biotech, winner of the GLEQ Business Plan Comeptition.  
  • The Michigan Economic Development Corp. evaluated the effectiveness of the state’s incentive programs in retaining and attracting business investment, they found few programs with a better return on investment than the SmartZone programs.
  • Kevin McCurren was recently appointed director for The Center for Entrepreneurship, one of 18 organizations which form a comprehensive business support network of resources available through Grand Valley State University and its affiliated organizations. WMSTI is also a part of this network.
  • For Barry Nowak, president and CEO of Syzygy Biotech, WMSTI’s mini-lab “made a huge difference.”
  • Following "lean" startup principles, Dr. Mark Gurney took the first step on the long journey this summer with the launch of Tetra Discovery Partners, operating out of WMSTI's incubator.