U-M student-led tech start-up Are You a Human moves downtown

Are You a Human, a heralded start-up with roots at the University of Michigan, plans to move to the Madison Building this fall when construction on the downtown Detroit building finishes.

U-M graduates and students founded the 2-year-old company as way of reinventing CAPTCHA, the squiggly words on webpages. Are You a Human's technology makes users play a Duck Hunt-style game to authenticate they are people and an automated computer program. It recently received $750,000 in venture capital with the bulk of it coming from Detroit Venture Partners.

"I'm hoping to grow the team a lot," says Reid Tatoris, co-founder of Are You a Human. "We have eight contributors and we want to bring a few of them on full-time. It's a matter of finding the right people with the right skills."

Are You a Human was a top finisher at the prestigious Rice University Business Plan Competition earlier this year. It was a win that netted it $115,000 a few months before Detroit Venture Partners' investment. That makes Are You a Human one of Detroit Venture Partners top start-ups in the Madison Building, a structure it plans to turn into an entrepreneurial tech hub overlooking Grand Circus Park.

Source: Reid Tatoris, co-founder of Are You a Human
Writer: Jon Zemke

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