HOUGHTON — The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program (AMMP) through the nonprofit MTEC SmartZone in Houghton launched its Accelerator 2025 Kickoff at the Lakeshore Center on Tuesday. The AMMP Accelerator is a summer long cohort-based program aimed at Midwestern manufacturing companies in early-stage operations with its lessons designed to support underrepresented entrepreneurs which includes those in rural regions.

Among the companies in this year’s cohoert are BRCE, RecyKol Technologies, Solidwave Solutions, Superior Sustainable Solutions and TrailEagle Packs with Nudena and PharmaBlue Labs involved in portions of the program.

MTEC Smartzone, one of 20 SmartZones in Michigan, was established to diversify the state’s economy so Michigan did not need to solely rely on the auto industry to keep the state’s economy afloat. With the Houghton area influenced by Michigan Tech, MTEC SmartZone has a focus on technology and manufacturing. MTEC SmartZone collaborates with Michigan Tech’s faculty and researchers and seeks local talent to create opportunities to build companies around innovative ideas.

MTEC SmartZone CEO David Rowe introduced attendees to the program and explained its importance to the Keweenaw. “We’re chartered to help develop and create economic development in our region, primarily through helping innovators and founders of startup companies take their idea, their novel approach, their novel product, their novel process– whatever it may be, and we help them commercialize that from throughout the entire process,” Rowe said.

He said MTEC SmartZone is fortunate Michigan Tech provides a relatively steady pipeline of innovators and founders emanating out of the university, which allows a growing ecosystem of high tech startups and founders in the area.

Brad King, founder of Orbion Space Technology of Houghton, shared his experience of starting a space technology company in the Keweenaw. King said the SmartZone was critical in the founding and success of Orbion when he needed mentorship. He said helping SmartZone by giving a presentation to advise other companies how to find success in their startups was a way to repay them.

King shared four lessons he learned when starting Orbion — Get going then get good, burn down your risk in stages, find people to fill your blind spots and stay in the saddle. King explained that when trying to get an idea off the ground there is no time to try to perfect it before showcasing it because the market could move on by the time a product is flawless.

“You don’t have to polish a rock and make it perfect before you’re afraid to unveil it,” King said. “You want to talk to these seed stage investors and get capital to mature your product as you go along.”

King advised that when looking to pitch an idea to investors it isn’t necessary to insist there are no risks involved. He said to identify the main risks and instead convince investors that there is a plan to address them or make sure that there is awareness of them.

“Communicate the risks and come up with your plan to address them one at a time,” he said. “Remember your plan is not to make the risks go away at any time in your journey. You may find a risk you can’t solve, and you need to communicate that, but you need to have a plan to do them in order so that it’s a logical progression to the promised land.”

When it comes to business and the various aspects of it, King explained that others will need to assist in covering areas that the individual is not familiar with such as sales or accounting. The last lesson of staying in the saddle was one King said was needed for success. He explained that conditions of the market and the world will constantly be changing and to succeed in a business means always finding a way to adjust to the change.

“‘Something happened in the lab or some competitor did something. It’s over. It’s done. There’s no way around this.’ Then you got to find a way. And after that happens enough times, you start to trust yourself to find your way out of planet killing asteroids stories, but you’ve got to be ready for that to happen,” Kind said.

After the presentations, attendees began networking with one another and began the first step in the program, hopefully on their way to starting the next big company in the western U.P.