In the News

Business Week names Mobiata founder a top young entrepreneur

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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Entrepreneurship, Software Design, Transportation

Ann Arbor

Ben Kazez might be a young fella in charge of a small business in Ann Arbor, but that start-up (Mobiata) and its founder (Kazez) are gaining more and more respect nationally as leaders in the smart phone app development world.

Excerpt:

In August 2008, waiting for a flight from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, Ben Kazez got sick of having to constantly check and recheck his boarding pass and gaze at departure screens. The computer programmer created FlightTrack, a mobile app that gives travelers flight-status updates, live maps, and weather news, among other information. Kazez launched his company, Mobiata, in November 2008 and created a fleet of travel apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre users. The $5 FlightTrack helps fliers keep up with changing flight information, while the free HotelPal app lets users book rooms at thousands of hotels, including Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt, for which Mobiata receives a commission. Kazez says the 12-employee startup, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., had $1 million in revenue in 2009 and is on track to double the figure this year.

Read the rest of the story here.

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.