Eastern Market will host this year's FutureMidwest digital technology conference and Funded by Night, a business competition with a $100,000 grand prize.
FutureMidwest got its start in 2009 as a conference for local tech and digital media enthusiasts. Its founders, Jordan Wolfe and Adrian Pittman and Zach Lipson, are now trying to build it into a South by Southwest-style conference for entrepreneurs, marketers, communication professionals, techies and students from across the Midwest. This year it will take place over April 28-29 in Eastern Market.
Helping make an event of that magnitude possible is the Funded by Night business plan contest. The one-day competition will feature 25 start-ups who will pitch their products and visions to potential investors. The winner will walk away with a $100,000 convertible note from two local venture capital firms,
Detroit Venture Partners and
Ludlow Ventures. The idea is to help get more seed capital flowing to the region's emerging class of entrepreneurs.
"The capital is here," says Wolfe, who is also the founder of
Funded by Night. "We don't have the right investors that look at the world the same way they see it on the coasts."
Tickets for both events are $250. Tickets for Funded by Night and the FutureMidwest evening networking event on April 28 are $25 for professionals and $10 for students. For information on FutureMidwest, click
here. For information on Funded by Night, click
here.
Source: Jordan Wolfe, founder of Funded by Night
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at
SEMichiganStartup.com.
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