TechTown plans to reach out to city neighborhoods

TechTown has new leadership now that Leslie Smith has taken over as the New Center-based business accelerator’s president & CEO.

Smith, previously TechTown’s general manager, is succeeding Randal Charlton who is taking a more chairman emeritus-style role at TechTown, focusing on helping push forward efforts for senior citizen entrepreneurs.

Smith has a couple of goals for TechTown, including increasing the number of tech-oriented businesses and reaching out more to Detroit’s neighborhoods. Reaching out into the city’s neighborhoods would require TechTown to work more hand in hand with established community agencies, such as Southwest Solutions in southwest Detroit and Vanguard in the North End.

“We have an opportunity to really expand our body of work,” Smith says. “I’d like to expand our footprint into the neighborhoods of Detroit.”

Smith also plans to have TechTown “shine a brighter light on Wayne State University spin-outs.” Currently, TechTown has an 20 percent share of tech-oriented businesses with the rest consisting as life style businesses. Smith wants to expand that percentage of tech firms to 30 percent over the next few years.

Source: Leslie Smith, president & CEO of TechTown
Writer: Jon Zemke

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