HOLLAND, Mich., June 12, 2017 – Collective Idea is honored to be named a Michigan Economic Bright Spot by Corp! Magazine. Every year, Corp! celebrates small, medium, and large businesses in Michigan that continue to see economic growth, expansion, and hiring. Collective Idea, a software and digital product development business, is one of just five small businesses in West Michigan to make the 2017 list.

From 2015 to 2016, Collective Idea added 12 new team members. In 2017, the Holland-based company added five more employees to accommodate a growing portfolio of work and services. One of the new positions added to Collective Idea is that of Director of Strategy, a role that helps clients clarify business goals and identify new growth opportunities.

“We want to help other businesses in our state to succeed. That’s why we added a Director of Strategy,” says Collective Idea founder, Daniel Morrison. “Whenever a client comes to us for a digital product, we can come alongside them and help them commercialize it for themselves. This is just one way we’re investing in our state’s economy.”

Collective Idea continues to attract and hire local talent. Some of the most recent hires over the past two years included local college graduates and new families. Instead of taking a job outside of the state, they and their families committed themselves to fueling the Michigan economy.

This most recent award from Corp! comes on the heels of being named a Michigan 50 Company to Watch by Michigan Celebrates Small Business. Collective Idea and other companies named to the list are ones that demonstrate exceptional entrepreneurial leadership, creation of innovation, and have sustainable competitive advantage.

HOLLAND, Mich., Jan. 26, 2017 – Collective Idea, one of West Michigan’s leading software and digital product development businesses, started off the new year with two new hires. As the industry continues to grow in the region, so does the need for talented developers and strategists.

With over 15 years of experience in product development, Mac Fowler joins Collective Idea as Director of Strategy to work alongside clients to help them clarify business goals and identify new opportunities to help grow their business.

“Over the years, we’ve noticed there is sometimes a disconnect for businesses when it comes to requesting a digital product and then actually commercializing it,” says Daniel Morrison, president and founder of Collective Idea. “That’s why we’ve hired Mac Fowler. Mac will bring a blended approach of design thinking, technology know-how, and strategy implementation to our client’s product offerings.”

Most recently Fowler worked at Modustri in Grand Rapids where he led the product and development strategy as CTO. Previously, he served as Vice President of Software Engineering at Adonit between Grand Rapids, Michigan; Austin, Texas and Taipei, Taiwan.

The second new hire at Collective Idea this year is Cam Bass, a recent Grand Valley State University graduate. He joins the team as an additional software developer who will help with the increase in project needs. In 2016, Collective Idea hired six new employees and expanded their office, more than doubling their space to accommodate the quickly growing needs in the software industry.

West Michigan has one of the fastest growing Information Technology sectors in the nation, growing at a rate of 13 percent according to economic development organization, The Right Place. The national average is 9 percent. Much of this growth can be attributed to more companies desiring technology-based solutions such as mobile apps or custom web applications to help simplify and grow business. An increased interest in IoT products is also fueling the growth.

Holland, Mich., Dec. 1, 2016 - Collective Idea is one of ten Michigan businesses named as a Stellar Start-Up by the BEST of MichBusiness Awards. The award ceremony, put on yearly by MichBusiness, is dedicated to recognizing companies and individuals who make Michigan a great place to do business.

Collective Idea, a custom web and mobile software development company, is the only West Michigan business to be named a 2016 Stellar Start-Up by MichBusiness.

The Holland-based company began in 2005 with a small team of three web developers. Today, Collective Idea boasts 29 full-time team members, including five in other states.

“Even though we’ve been around for a while and we’re larger than our original team of three, we began as a startup and are still very much a startup in the way we work,” says Daniel Morrison, president of Collective Idea. “Right from the beginning, we adopted the agile, entrepreneurial spirit of a Silicon Valley startup. We continue to use that mentality to innovate creative and highly-customized web and mobile software experiences for companies around the country.”

In addition to recognizing Stellar Start-Ups, the BEST of MichBusiness gave out awards in other categories like best non-profits, CEOs, community leaders, and more. Other businesses recognized include Atwater Brewery, Crystal Flash, and Bluewater Technology. The award gala was held at the MGM Grand Detroit on December 1.

The number of women earning computer science degrees in the United States has fallen from 36 percent in the 1980’s to less than 20 percent today. That’s despite the growing number of software engineering jobs that have skyrocketed in the last 30 years. So why is the gender gap getting worse? Collective Idea, one of West Michigan’s leading software development consultants, along with Hope College want to explore the topic with a free screening of the documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.

The screening will take place Monday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at Graves Hall located on Hope College’s campus in Holland. It is free to attend, but RSVPs are encouraged. Both Collective Idea and the Hope College Computer Science Department worked to bring the film to West Michigan.

CODE is an award winning documentary that takes a hard look at the deficit of women and minority computer science engineers in the country. More importantly it dives into how cultural stereotypes, educational hurdles, unconscious biases and sexism play a role in the gender gap.

“Gender diversity is a big problem in our industry and we want to do all we can to address it,” said Daniel Morrison, president of Collective Idea. “We’re all a little better off when we discuss sticky issues and we hope that screening the film for our community will constructively add to the conversation.”

Digital press kit assets for CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap can be found here.

West Michigan’s IT industry is growing faster than companies can staff. Collective Idea, one of the region’s leading software development consultants, added eight new team members during the first three quarters of 2015, nearly a new person every month, and a 47 percent growth rate over 2014. Among the additions are three women and the former co-founder of Ars Technica.

Leading the growth is an increase in client work and growing demand among companies looking to “on-shore” its software programming. Collective idea specializes in web and mobile software development for multi-national, mid- and small-businesses and startup organizations.

Among Collective Idea’s 2015 additions are Dana Jones, Laura Mosher and Brianna Onken, three women who collectively bring more than 25 years of technology and development experience to the Collective Idea team. Each bring a diverse set of skills in front-end development as well as coding languages Ruby, Rails and Erlang, a popular language in mobile communications.

“Michigan’s technology ecosystem is distinct from other parts of the country. It is diverse, uniquely collaborative, highly accessible and defined by a work ethic that values action and experimentation. That’s deeply attractive to the tech community,”.” said Daniel Morrison, president of Collective Idea. “Collective Idea’s developers aren’t just employees, they are entrepreneurial people from across the country who are passionate about designing, creating, integrating and launching software that aligns with the needs of people.”

Jon Stokes, another new addition, is the co-founder of Ars Technica, among the world’s leading technology news and information websites. Stokes considers the Collective Idea team “amazing coders,” and among the hundreds of development companies in the United States, chose to join Collective Idea.

“Programming is a creative profession, and it has been a great pleasure to work with Collective Idea on my projects for more than four years, and now to work with them side-by-side to create new software for our clients,” said Stokes. “The Midwest is a hot spot for high-caliber developers who have critical insights, can quickly identify problems, and find solutions using the right code.”

Collective Idea’s newest team members have come from all over the country with eclectic backgrounds of interests and talents. They include Ray Brown, Mike Kopchick, Joshua Kovach and Ben Lambert.

The hiring landscape is highly competitive for qualified programming talent. To win the best talent, Collective Idea offers originative ideas of their own, including a way for team members to have some fun at work.

“We’ve recently added a small fleet of bicycles for the team to use around town as they please,” added Brian Ryckbost, Collective Idea vice president and veteran developer. “They’ve already been places like the lake, several restaurants and have baskets so bringing delicious food back to the office is always a possibility.”

Full bios for new team members and others can be found at: www.collectiveidea.com/about

Read the full article here: http://www.grbj.com/articles/80697