Patronicity aims to localize & energize crowd funding

When it comes to crowd funding, Detroit is an early adopter. Detroiters have harnessed the idea of gathering small donations from many over the Internet to make a number of projects happen that might otherwise not. Now the Motor City is working to become an innovator in crowd funding with a new startup, Patronicity.

The Midtown-based company, it calls Green Garage home, is creating a software platform that makes crowd funding more local. The problem with crowd funding platforms now is they are so popular it creates an environment filled with white noise of a growing number of projects from all corners of the world competing for the same dollars. Patronicity cuts through that by creating a funding environment with only local projects in a Metro area.

"They can't donate to you because they can't find you," says Chris Blauvett, founder & CEO of Patronicity. "There is so much noise out there."

Patronicity currently has helped eight local projects since its official launch in March. One of those is helping Treats by Angelique, a local baker starting a business from scratch, raise $2,000 to buy a computer and other electronics to help grow her business. Before that Treats by Angelique's owner, Angelique Robinson, ran the business from her smart phone. Eight hundred dollars of that $2,000 came from Robinson's personal network.

"That was nice because we were driving more business toward local business," Blauvett says.

Patronicity is composed of two employees and three interns. Last week it won the Millennial Social Innovation Prize at Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, a win worth $3,000 in seed capital. Blauvett plans to grow Patronicity throughout Metro Detroit this year and expand to Ohio next year. He hopes to help projects in those areas raise more than $1 million over the next year.

Source: Chris Blauvett, founder & CEO of Patronicity
Writer: Jon Zemke

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