Sarah Schmid Stevenson

Sarah is the editor of Xconomy Detroit/Ann Arbor. She joins Xconomy after working in Communications for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the state's business development office, and the Michigan House of Representatives. She's an award-winning journalist who cut her teeth at the small but fiercely muckraking Missoula Independent, where she carved out a beat covering issues critical to Native American people living in the state of Montana. Her reporting resulted in institutional changes that forced local school districts to better serve Native students. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Montana and proudly calls Detroit "the most fascinating city I've ever lived in."

Recent posts

Local Orbit Out to Boost Food Supply Chain for Farmers, Institutions

When Ann Arbor, MI’s Local Orbit first took root in 2010, founder and CEO Erika Block wanted a better way to connect local growers and food producers with restaurants and other... Read more »
Lessonly’s Automated Learning Tool Helps Optimize Business Processes

In 2012, three Indianapolis entrepreneurs with IT backgrounds and ties to ExactTarget had the idea to create “an easy learning platform,” says Zach McFarlen, Lessonly’s director of brand and messaging.... Read more »
Roundup: Naturalicious, Ford STEAM Lab, MedHealth Summit & More

Here’s a look at recent tech and innovation news from around Michigan:

—Gwen Jimmere, founder of Detroit-based beauty startup Naturalicious, has been named one of the 100 most influential African... Read more »
Propel Aims to Close Tech Talent Gap by Offering On-Demand IT Gurus

A few years ago, when Nick Birch and Scott Jones co-founded Indianapolis’s Eleven Fifty Academy, a nonprofit coding school, they realized their goal of harnessing Eleven Fifty to “close the... Read more »
Accelerate Michigan 2016: One Day, One Location, 36 Semi-Finalists

The 36 semi-finalists competing in the annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, the state’s largest business plan competition targeting mid-to-late-stage startups, have been announced.

Although this year’s edition, overseen by Invest... Read more »
Green Sense Farms Aims to Change How Produce is Grown, Distributed

Green Sense Farms is on a mission to build the country’s largest network of tech-enabled, indoor vertical farms.

To help it get there, the Portage, IN-based company has turned to a... Read more »
Wipro Splashes Out $500M to Acquire Appirio in Cloud Services

Wipro, a Bangalore-based IT services firm, announced today that it has signed an agreement to fork over $500 million to acquire Appirio, an Indianapolis-based cloud services company.

Established in... Read more »
Notion Emerges From Stealth with Smart E-Mail App, $9.5M in VC Bucks

After more than a year spent quietly beta-testing its intelligent e-mail app, Ann Arbor, MI-based startup Notion publicly launched this week with the goal of nothing less than solving our modern... Read more »
Urban Entrepreneurship Event Looks at How Startups Can Revitalize Flint

The Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative’s (UEI) annual symposium kicks off today and brings together startup founders, academia, community organizers, government officials, and other interested parties to discuss how entrepreneurial solutions can... Read more »
Chinese Firm Invests $27M in U-M’s Autonomous Tech Research

The Chinese investment firm Frontt Capital Management has invested $27 million to advance autonomous vehicle and robotics research at the University of Michigan, the school said in a press release.

Mark Schlissel and S. Jack... Read more »
$4M Grant Aims to Boost Minority Representation in Informatics

A new $4 million grant National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Ivy Tech Community College seeks to introduce... Read more »
NEI Reports Find Detroit’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is Growing

Last month, the New Economy Initiative (NEI), one of the nation’s largest philanthropic partnerships focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, unveiled the results of two reports it commissioned to measure the organization’s... Read more »
Silicon Valley VCs, Software Experts Contribute $3.3M to Zylo

Zylo, an Indianapolis-based startup working on cloud optimization software, today announced that it has raised a $3.3 million seed round.

Both institutional and individual investors contributed to the round. They... Read more »
Automation Alley Drives Toward Autonomous Future with New Director

As Automation Alley prepares to host its annual awards gala this week, it’s a good time to look at what the organization is up to and what progress it has made... Read more »
Roundup: Purdue Patents, Knight Challenge, Remy International, More

Here’s a look at innovation news from around Indiana:

—Last week, the Purdue Research Foundation announced that in 2016, the number of startups spun out of university-owned intellectual property had grown... Read more »
Indiana Biosciences Research Institute Hires Chief Scientific Officer

In 2013, the state’s government teamed up with Indiana-based biotech companies and university officials to unveil the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), what organizers call the first industry-led collaborative life sciences... Read more »
Indiana VC Activity Down for Third Quarter, Up for the Year

According to a new quarterly report put together by Seattle-based PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association, Indiana’s VC and angel investment activity was down in the third quarter of 2016.... Read more »
Healthtech Startup Curo Opens First U.S. Office in Ann Arbor

Curo Technologies, a Melbourne, Australia-based healthtech startup, announced this week that it is opening its first U.S. office in Ann Arbor, MI.

Steve Hopkins, who will run the Ann Arbor... Read more »
Roundup: WSU’s ITT Outreach, LIFT Prize, VNN & More

Here’s a look at tech and innovation news from around Michigan this month:

—Wayne State University is offering free academic counseling to displaced ITT students. According to a press release,... Read more »
Kenji App Looks to Match Small Businesses and Attorneys for Hire

Ken Minturn, the founder of Indianapolis-based Kenji, says one of the biggest challenges facing attorneys is finding new business that matches their expertise, and then getting paid on time for... Read more »