Sarah Schmid

Sarah is the editor of Xconomy Detroit. 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

Kiva’s Domestic Microlending Initiative Expands to Flint

Kiva Detroit, Kiva’s first domestic microlending initiative—and the country’s first community-led microlending program—spent its first year focused on expanding the social network of lenders and community volunteers on the... Read more »
NYT: Chinese Automakers Building Detroit Presence

A story ran in Monday’s New York Times detailing the increasing presence of Chinese automakers in Detroit. Though the headline suggested the Chinese companies were establishing their American outposts “quietly,” ... Read more »
NewME To Bring Silicon Valley to Detroit With Pop-Up Event

The San Francisco-based NewME Accelerator, a tech startup incubator focused on businesses led by minorities underrepresented in the tech world, is planning a Detroit pop-up accelerator May 29 to May... Read more »
ePrize Snaps Up Competitor in Third Acquisition This Year

The Pleasant Ridge, MI-based digital marketing and engagement company ePrize announced this week that it has acquired Promotions.com. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company did... Read more »
Rockwell Medical Set to Disrupt Dialysis Treatment With New Drugs, DaVita Deal

In the late 1990s, Wixom, MI-based Rockwell Medical revolutionized the dialysis industry by being the first to develop, patent, and bring to market a dry acid mixing system for hemodialysis concentrate.... Read more »
Quikly: Part Daily Deal, Part Flash Sale, All Growth

Back in February 2012, Xconomy profiled Shawn Geller, the founder and CEO of the startup Quikly (though back then it was called Quikkly).

Geller had come to Detroit from Philadelphia to... Read more »
Ambiq Micro Continues Growth From Austin Base

When we last caught up with University of Michigan spin-off company Ambiq Micro, it was moving its microcontroller development operation to Austin, TX. Co-founder Scott Hanson told AnnArbor.com at the... Read more »
Vectorform: Quietly Developing Software for Some of the World’s Largest Brands

The news hit the blogosphere two weeks ago that Michigan Gov. Rick Syder’s administration was supposedly holding secret meetings with tech companies in an effort to develop “value schools” that relied... Read more »
Synthetic Biologics, Fuelled by Billionaire, Takes Aim at C.Diff

[Corrected 5/3/13, 2:30 p.m. See below.] Founded in 2001, Synthetic Biologics is a biotech company headquartered in Rockville, MD, with an office in Ann Arbor, MI, focused on the... Read more »
Rapt.fm Offers Online Space for Freestyle Rappers to Battle

My friend Troy has a rapping alter ego he calls Masta Flow. At parties, after a certain number of beverages have been consumed, Masta Flow often makes an appearance.

Masta Flow’s... Read more »
Esperion Therapeutics Raises $33M to Further Clinical Trials

The Ann Arbor-based biotech company Esperion Therapeutics announced today that it has completed a $33 million round of preferred stock financing. Longitude Capital led the round, with Aisling Capital, Alta Partners... Read more »
Seelio Raises $900K For Online College Student Network

The Ann Arbor-based startup Seelio, which has developed an online networking platform to help students and fledgling professionals showcase their talent, announced this week that it has raised $900,000 in seed financing.... Read more »
Canadian Software Firm Red Piston Happy to be in Detroit

Developing a mobile game featuring flying penises might not sound like prestigious work, but for Red Piston it was a pretty big deal. The Windsor, ON-based software company with a new... Read more »
U-M’s Student-Led Social Venture Fund Invests in Mytonomy

The University of Michigan’s student-run Social Venture Fund announced last week that it has invested in Mytonomy, an ed tech startup based in Washington, D.C. NewSchools Venture Fund led the... Read more »
Venture Funding in Detroit Down in Q1, Still Higher Than 2011

According to MoneyTree data released today, first-quarter venture funding in southeast Michigan was down compared to the first quarter of 2012, though the deal count rose by one. Compared to last... Read more »
AlertWatch Offers New Way to Monitor Patients in the OR

Watching the real-time feed of AlertWatch patients in the operating room at the University of Michigan hospital is a hypnotic experience. In fact, CEO Justin Adams admits that at least one... Read more »
Coolhouse Labs: The Accelerator With a View of Lake Michigan

When you grow up in a quaint resort town on the hilly shores of Lake Michigan, moving back is always on your mind. So says Jordan Breighner, founder of Coolhouse Labs... Read more »
EcoMotors CEO Talks $200M Deal With Chinese Manufacturer

Last week, Allen Park, MI-based EcoMotors announced a $200 million deal with China’s Zhongding Power to build a manufacturing plant in Anhui Province. The plant will produce EcoMotors’ opposed piston opposed... Read more »
Who Says There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch? Not Danny Beckett

Danny Beckett, the co-founder and chairman of Free Lunch Friday, says his concept offering startups a monthly opportunity to break bread and connect without spending any of their hard-earned cash... Read more »
Llamasoft Continues Push Into Chinese Market With Mengniu Deal

Llamasoft, the Ann Arbor-based supply chain software company, announced this week that it has inked a deal with Mengniu, one of China’s leading dairy producers. Mengniu will use Llamasoft’s... Read more »

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Sarah Schmid

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