Entrepreneurs : Buzz

Few people that we know spend money, and lots of it, more wisely than Dan Gilbert. This short announcent by Venture for America says it all. An excerpt:  

Last week, the Quicken Loans chairman and founder continued his quest to remake Detroit, with the goal to "turn downtown into a high-tech hub, where young entrepreneurs both live and work." He took another step toward achieving his goal by announcing a $1.5 Million pledge to Venture for America to continue sending our talented and enterprising Fellows to Detroit and Cleveland over the next five years. Already, he’s pumped about $1 billion into the city to acquire almost three million square feet of real estate.

It's not every day that we get to edit a press release from the White House. We are geeked to help break the news that Amy Kaherl and Detroit SOUP are being honored today as "Champions of Change," one of 12 people across the country to get this inspirational award.

Here you go: 

On Tuesday, June 4, the White House honors Amy Kaherl as one of twelve people who are Crowdfunding "Champions of Change." This Champions event will focus on entrepreneurs who exemplify the promise of crowdfunding to fuel the growth of startups, small businesses, and innovative projects across the Nation. "Crowdfunding" means raising money in small increments from many individuals, typically using an Internet platform. Donation-based crowdfunding is already empowering many entrepreneurs, while investment-based crowdfunding platforms will soon be facilitated by the bipartisan Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which the President signed last year and the SEC will implement.

"The Champions of Change that the White House is honoring today are using crowdfunding to create jobs for our nation's veterans, accelerate the deployment of solar energy, revitalize our cities, and expand the frontiers of citizen science," said Thomas Kalil, Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Crowdfunding is the 21st century equivalent of barn-raising. We can use it to help our neighbors and fellow citizens start a business, enrich our culture, and apply grassroots creativity and imagination to challenges big and small."
 
The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White house to feature groups of Americans – individuals, businesses and organizations – who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities.  

To watch this event live, go here today at 2:30 p.m. To learn more about the White House Champions of Change program and nominate a Champion, go here. 

Amy Kaherl is the Director of Detroit SOUP. She received her MA in Theology (emphasizing in popular culture) in 2008 from Fuller Theological Seminary. Detroit SOUP is a microgranting dinner that celebrates creative projects in the city and has helped Detroiters giving back to Detroiters through over $30,000 towards art, social justice, social entrepreneurs, education, technology, and urban agriculture. While not running SOUP, Amy is also involved in planning the Nain Rouge Parade in Midtown and serves as DJ Amy Dreamcatcher with a monthly party called "Nothing Elegant."

It's nice to see Detroit and Silicon Valley used in the same sentence. It seems to happening a lot more of late, thanks to goings-on at the Madison Building in particular.

An excerpt from Inc.:

When tech entrepreneur Bob Marsh is on the phone with a prospective client and they ask him where LevelEleven is headquartered, he doesn't hesitate to declare: "Detroit."

"You can hear the smile in their voice on the phone," he says, "They say, 'Wow. It's so cool to hear that.'"

We think it's cool, too. Now let's fill up two or three more downtown towers with techie entrepreneurial nerds and make sure the scene continues to grow.

Read more here.

There is more shopping possible in downtown now than in recent memory. We like the pop-up to permanent vibe on Woodward and we like the use of Cadillac Square, just east of Campus Martius, for more retail this summer.

An excerpt from the Detroit News:

The retail market, simply called "The Market," will take place every fourth Friday and Saturday in June, July and August. According to the Campus Martius website, it will "feature an area dedicated to dynamic retailers, artists, designers, crafters, vintage/antique dealers, craft-prepared food products, and distinctive apparel.

Nice. We'll meet you downtown next month. More here.

It may be an old story for us to read about techie entrepreneurs setting up shop in old U.S. cities like Detroit. But it's still some sort of validation when Bloomberg News picks up the ball and runs with it.

An excerpt:

While the bulk of venture capital dollars go to Silicon Valley and New England, cities little heralded for their tech scenes have been successfully coaxing technology entrepreneurs to set up shop in recent years. That includes Detroit, New Orleans and St. Louis, where municipal and private initiatives are attracting newbies and natives returning from the coasts.

Read more here.

With the craft beer craze continuing to sweep Michigan and summer approaching, Pure Michigan and Founders Brewing Co. have teamed up to give fans and craft beer enthusiasts a chance to pick a Founders beer style that best represents Pure Michigan. 

The beer chosen by fans will be featured in the Founders tap room in downtown Grand Rapids throughout July as part of Michigan Craft Beer Month.

Running through Friday, May 3, fans can vote between the following three beer styles – Vanilla Stout, Apple Ale and Wheat IPA. To vote, go here. Individuals 21 and over can vote once a day for the duration of the contest and the winning beer will be announced in May. 

Home to more than 100 breweries, Michigan is fifth in the nation for the number of breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs. Michigan’s craft brewers are also part of a close knit community, promoting all that the Great Beer State has to offer.

Hey, gardeners and other flora lovers, Pot & Box: Detroit, which is planning on opening a permanent location in Corktown later this year, will be in residence at downtown's D:hive from May through July this summer.

Join the celebration this Thursday, May 2 for a ribbon cutting promptly at 6:15 p.m. with cans of champagne (P&B's signature shop drink at the Ann Arbor location), pizza from Supino, and other treats.

D:hive is at 1253 Woodward Ave., Detroit.

Get more info here.

Sure, we hear about another new purchase by Dan Gilbert's real estate team every other week or so, but what's not to like about a major league redevelopment project that aims to turn downtown Detroit into one of the country's most liveable neighborhoods?  

Even the Brit journos are noticing. Another good sign. An excerpt:

His Bedrock property management company owns 22 buildings with more than 3m square feet in the city. He's attracting big names back into the city. Gilbert convinced Chrysler to take office space downtown and renamed a building after the car firm; he recently toured the city with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. He's effectively created a business campus in the heart of a city some had written off as dead. A death that had been a long time coming.

Blimey, how dramatic. Read more here.

Fast Company jumps into the early 21st century Detroit narrative, complex and ever-changing as it is to us here on the ground, in this feature published this week.

An excerpt: 

But the city's depression -- and the depressed real estate prices that came with it -- created opportunities. And opportunity lures entrepreneurs. The startup types, like Paffendorf. And the ones with lots of money, like Dan Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, the third-largest mortgage provider in the country; he moved 1,700 employees downtown in 2010, giving him 7,000 employees there and making him Detroit's third-largest landowner (trailing only the city and General Motors). With slicked-back hair and a perpetual poker face, Gilbert has just gotten started on his plan to transform the area.

More to dig into here.

Individuals and teams will have until April 10 -- next Wednesday -- to submit an initial application as a New Idea or Emerging Company for the Pure Michigan Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Applicants will then get access to coaches and special events to support the preparation of their final submission before a deadline of May 20.

All you need to get started is right here.

It's hard not to get excited when the words "two residential towers" and "downtown Detroit" are used in the same sentence. This may or may not happen the way it appears in this little piece in Curbed Detroit, but it sounds incredibly reasonable and possible.

An excerpt:

Bedrock head honcho Jim Ketai dropped the name Grand Circuit Park in a reference to Gilbert's real estate "target area" along Woodward...sorry,Webward Avenue. That wasn't the only interesting tidbit: Ketai also mentions plans for the Hudson's site involving two residential towers.

Go here to read on.

It's nice to see our Ohio friends to the immediate south in Toledo taking a deep dive into contemporary Detroit, interviewing enterprising people like Torya Blanchard, Josh Linkner, Shawn Geller (of Quikly), Kurt Metzger and others. Solid reporting, without pulling punches.

Check it out here.

Nestled in downtown's Ford Building, the year-old startup and its team of seven people launched its iPhone app last fall and is working on an Android version. The company raised $500,000 in angel funding in 2012 and plans to close a Series A round of investments in 2013.

Now this, a nicely-timed mention in the Wall Street Journal:

With a partner, (Mike Vichich) launched Glyph at the App Store in November, after attracting $500,000 in seed capital from local investors earlier in the year: "I'm by no means a developer now, but at least I can speak the language," he says.

Read more here.

Billionaire and savvy downtown investor Dan Gilbert received an extension until June 30, 2016 to develop plans for the site of the former Hudson's flaghip department store on Woodward, between Gratiot and Grand River. Gilbert has launched an international design competition for the site and plans a mixed used project made up of commercial, residential and parking.  

An excerpt:

The city-controlled site has been vacant since the city demolished the flagship store for the J.L. Hudson Co. in 1998. The vacant Woodward block sits atop an underground parking structure, with infrastructure already in place to have a building constructed above it.

More from the Detroit News here.

Shinola, OmniCorp Detroit, Ponyride, the Detroit Creative Corridor Center and other havens for the doers and changemakers literally reconstructing Detroit are profiled in part II this story (with video) by Matt Haber. Good stuff. Well done.

Catch up to part I then take a look at part II here.