AutoHarvest, the nonprofit focused on fostering collaboration and innovation in the auto industry, is prepping to launch a new software platform that the organization's leaders are calling the Amazon.com of intellectual property innovation.
The new marketplace for innovation will allow inventors, entrepreneurs, businesses and institutions to buy, sell and collaborate on technology. The eBay-like platform is currently in private Beta with about 1,000 participants. It expects to launch publicly later this year and expand to reach several thousands of users by the end of 2013.
"This lets people have a line of sight to an opportunity, whether it's a technology or a need," says Jayson Pankin, president of
AutoHarvest. "That means the next Steve Jobs working in a garage can have that opporutnity to reach out and collaborate and transact."
AutoHarvest is 2 years old and has offices at
TechTown in Detroit and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It has a staff of six people, including a rotation of fellows from local universities. These fellows, ranging from undergrad to MBA students, work at AutoHarvest for several months before rotating into the automotive/tech industries. So far about a dozen fellows have gone through the program.
Source: Jayson Pankin, president of AutoHarvest
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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