Startup News: dodetroit.com expands staff to 10, plans to expand into TV

Something is growing deep inside the Russell Industrial Center. Well, lots of things are growing there, but as fast as dodetroit.

The website focuses on connecting people with the fun, exciting and positive things going on in the city and is planning to grow beyond the World Wide Web. The 1-year-old media firm went from its founder, Bill Stacy, and a staff of six freelancers and interns to six employees and four interns. He has also hired three former interns. The company is currently looking for writers, sports scribes in particular, and expects to hire 6-10 people within the next year.

Fueling that growth is a free subscriber list to dodetroit’s newsletter from nothing to 3,000 plus today. The website has been adding a few hundred subscribers per week recently and expects to hit 20,000 to 30,000 subscribers.

“Our users are growing exponentially,” Stacy says. “We grew really fast. Faster than I expected.”

Dodetroit is also looking to expand into new markets, namely television. The startup plans to launch a service where it supplies Detroit-centric content on TVs in businesses throughout the city.

“We saw a need for media with businesses, restaurants and retail stores in the city,” Stacy says. “People have high-definition TVs everywhere. We would supply Detroit music videos and other content for them in a two-hour loop.”

Source: Bill Stacy, editor in chief of dodetroit
Writer: Jon Zemke