iRule adds 8 people as it moves toward second stage status

Downtown Detroit-based iRule is starting to make the transition from small start-up to second-stage company as the firm's home theater software gains more and more traction in the market.

The 3-year-old company creates and sells an app that turns a smartphone into a universal remote for a home theater. Itai Ben-Gal and Victor Nemirovsky launched it as a side project which grew to the point where it garnered an investment from Compuware's venture capital arm. That prompted the partners to quit their day jobs and move the business to the Compuware Building in downtown Detroit.

That was a little more than a year ago. Since then the company has hired seven people and is about to hire an eighth. Prompting all of this growth is the increasing demand for iRule's universal remote app. The company has gone from its high-end installations for the wealthy and consumer electronics nerds to more of a mainstream acceptance from bigger customers.

"The shift has been in one major direction," says Ben-Gal, CEO of iRule. "The growth has come from the professional installer market. The guys we are talking to now are at the top of their business sector."

Source: Itai Ben-Gal, CEO of iRule
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.