Defense contracts fuel ePack’s growth; hires planned

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition served a higher purpose for ePack than the normal networking and fundraising efforts. It helped the Ann Arbor-based company take a serious look at itself.”It was a good excuse to re-evaluate our business plan and get some feedback,” says Jay Mitchell, president of ePack.Part of that re-evaluation is a tweaking of its focus. The start-up that is developing technology to protect micro devices is shifting its focus from consumer electronics to defense. Revenue at the 3-year-old company reached $400,000 in 2010, with about two-thirds of that coming from government defense grants.”We’re going to focus on the lower-volume and higher-margin markets,” Mitchell says.ePack’s two co-founders are now full-time with the company after serving as part-time researchers at the University of Michigan. Mitchell expects to go after more grants and contracts in 2011, which should allow the company to go from two full-time employees and an independent contractor to a staff of 4-5 people full-time.ePack expects to finish product development and bring it to market within two years. The long-term plan is to reach the point where it can open a manufacturing facility.Source: Jay Mitchell, president of ePackWriter: Jon Zemke