Own Point of Sale moves marketing/sales workforce downtown

Own Point of Sale is moving its marketing and sales workforce to downtown Detroit as the retail software start-up begins leveraging a venture capital investment from Detroit Venture Partners.

The 2-year-old firm that makes a software platform for coffee shops and other small retail outlets received $850,000 in seed capital from a group of angel investors led by Detroit Venture Partners. Own Point of Sale, formerly Ergun Technologies, is moving its headquarters to San Francisco to bring its engineering team closer to Silicon Valley and its marketing/sales team to downtown Detroit to be close to the Quicken Loans family of businesses, which includes Detroit Venture Partners.

Own Point of Sale currently employs 19 people, but plans to significantly increase that number as it scales its technology in the coming years. Verdi Ergun, founder and chairman of Own Point of Sale, couldn't give a firm estimate on the size of the downtown Detroit workforce, but said it wouldn't be small. "It's going to be a good-sized team," Ergun says. "That's for sure." He adds the growing concentration of tech entrepreneurs downtown also made the decision easy.

"A lot of it is the renaissance that is happening down there," Ergun says. "It's happening so fast and people don't even know how fast it's changing. It's changing more and more each month."

Ergun started Own Point of Sale while running a burrito eatery in Ann Arbor. He was frustrated by the software platforms for independent retail establishments and created Own Point of Sale to fill the void for places like coffee shops and deli. The software platform lets owners of multiple eateries monitor sales activity in real-time from an iPad. Ergun and his investors plan to make the current version of that platform available for retailers of all shapes and sizes.

"It will make Own the standard platform in retail stores," Ergun says.

Source: Verdi Ergun, founder & chairman of Own Point of Sale
Writer: Jon Zemke

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