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When it comes to crowd funding, Detroit is an early adopter. Detroiters have harnessed the idea of gathering small donations from many over the Internet to make a number of projects happen that might otherwise not. Now the Motor City is working to become an innovator in crowd funding with a new startup, Patronicity.

The Midtown-based company, it calls Green Garage home, is creating a software platform that makes crowd funding more local. The problem with crowd funding platforms now is they are so popular it creates an environment filled with white noise of a growing number of projects from all corners of the world competing for the same dollars. Patronicity cuts through that by creating a funding environment with only local projects in a Metro area.

"They can't donate to you because they can't find you," says Chris Blauvett, founder & CEO of Patronicity. "There is so much noise out there."

Patronicity currently has helped eight local projects since its official launch in March. One of those is helping Treats by Angelique, a local baker starting a business from scratch, raise $2,000 to buy a computer and other electronics to help grow her business. Before that Treats by Angelique's owner, Angelique Robinson, ran the business from her smart phone. Eight hundred dollars of that $2,000 came from Robinson's personal network.

"That was nice because we were driving more business toward local business," Blauvett says.

Patronicity is composed of two employees and three interns. Last week it won the Millennial Social Innovation Prize at Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, a win worth $3,000 in seed capital. Blauvett plans to grow Patronicity throughout Metro Detroit this year and expand to Ohio next year. He hopes to help projects in those areas raise more than $1 million over the next year.

Source: Chris Blauvett, founder & CEO of Patronicity
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Detroit-based startups and organizations did well at the first Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, taking home $76,000 of the $93,000 in seed capital awarded.

A couple of those winners came from a local same small business incubator, Green Garage. The Midtown-based incubator describes itself a "a business enterprise, and a community of people dedicated to Detroit's sustainable future" on its website. It adds that its "principal business focus is helping triple bottom line businesses grow naturally." Triple bottom line businesses focus on the economic, ecological, and social aspects of their enterprise.

That focus means Green Garage attracts a lot of social entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their community through their business. One of its early clients, Fresh Corner Cafe, is a startup that is helping bring healthy eating options to corner stores in underserved areas of Detroit. The 3-year-old business took first place in the Emerging Company category of the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. Noam Kimelman, co-owner of Fresh Corner Cafe, credits Green Garage's tutelage as a major factor in his company's win.

"Once you're in this space there are a lot of advantages to be had, ranging from networking to resources that allow us to grow," Kimelman says.

Fresh Corner Cafe has expanded its staff to 10 people over the last year thanks to three recent hires. The $20,000 it won at the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (the second largest prize) will go toward a larger fundraising round (with a goal of raising $50,000) to grow its reach even further.

Patronicity is another Green Garage startup that placed at the Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge. It won the Millennial Social Innovation Prize (worth $3,000) for its crowd-funding platform that focuses on connecting local projects with local donors. Chris Blauvelt, the company's founder, believes Green Garage's entrepreneurial ecosystem helped significantly in Patronicity's win at the competition.

"Everyone supports one another," Blauvelt says. "We want to collaborate with each other. That mindset is powerful."

Source: Noam Kimelman, co-owner of Fresh Corner Cafe and Chris Blauvelt, founder of Patronicity
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Eastern Market has a new welcome mat: behold one of the new murals on Gratiot entering the market, courtesy of German and Austrian artist collective "The Weird," recently in town for their group exhibition at Inner State Gallery. After spending some time absorbing the history and the "characters" of the Market, the Weird created this mural, which offers their interpretation of the people and places they saw. (And, yes, it's kind of weird.) 
 
The Weird's murals (they did a few) are the latest in an ongoing public art effort spearheaded by the guys behind Inner State (formerly 323 East in Royal Oak) and 1xRUN. "We've been engaged in public arts projects for many years," says Jesse Cory, who founded 323 and 1xRUN along with partners Dan Armand and Ryan Brogan. "It has always been in our blood and something we thought was important."
 
It started with the mural on their 323 building. They then moved on to Woodward Windows, a public art project that took over vacant storefronts along Woodward Avenue and included works from local artists like Malt, Sintex, Hygienic Dress League, and the Detroit Fashion Collective. Then, last summer, 1xRUN produced the Detroit Beautification Project in collaboration with Matt Eaton. This project yielded dozens of murals throughout Hamtramck and garnered national coverage (and controversy). It was during this project that Cory and his team were approached by Plymouth Educational Center instructor Allie Gross to collaborate with her 5^th grade ChangeMakers class.
 
The ChangeMakers are a civically-minded group of students that had already put together a winning proposal at Detroit Soup. A crowd-funding campaign was launched to cover the cost of supplies, and 1xRUN brought San Diego-based artist Persue in to work with the students on creating a mural using his signature Bunny Kitty character. Persue worked with the kids for three days last month to create the mural on Russell between Mack and Warren in Eastern Market on the side of an abandoned juvenile detention center.
 
1xRUN's/Inner State's focus this year is all on Eastern Market, their new home since May. They have produced nine murals in the market so far this year. The murals serve several purposes: first, they are public works of art for all people to enjoy, taken outside of the confines of a traditional gallery and put out in front of the public. Second, the murals are from internationally-renowned street artists; petty taggers are deterred from destroying them (there is a strict street art code at play) so walls previously full of junky tags are remade into actual works of art. Third, since 1xRUN/Inner State self-funds all of these projects (with occasional help from sponsors like Montana Cans) and works with artists they're already collaborating with on limited edition print runs or an exhibition, the murals give them a chance to further showcase their artists and their brand. Cory says, "It gives traveling artists the same opportunity to leave behind something better."
 
Source: Jesse Cory, co-founder of 1xRUN and Inner State Gallery
Writer: Nicole Rupersburg


Got a Development News story to share? Email Nicole here.

Excerpt: 

Detroit is littered with empty warehouses — more than 7,000, by one estimate. They've become skeletons of the city's industrial past.

But not this warehouse, where Jennifer Blake is feeding quilted fabric through a sewing machine. She's making a coat. Fashioned with Velcro fastenings, it has a sleeping bag that slips out on the bottom, and is made of recycled car parts, she says.

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Excerpt:

It's a scene that fits most people's image of Silicon Valley, not the Motor City: young engineers taking a break with a ping pong game, a business meeting in bean bag chairs, and rows and rows of 20-somethings intently studying computer code on screens.

The setting is two floors of downtown Detroit's Madison Building, which was built in 1917 -- just four years after Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line. It's now home to more than two dozen high-tech start-ups backed by two venture capital firms.

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Excerpt:

Detroit has suffered a bad reputation for years now, thanks to its weak economy and mass exodus of residents. "It's a tale of two cities: the one that’s bankrupt and then there’s the one that’s revitalizing its downtown and attracting the 'young and the restless,'" says Lee Fisher of CEOs for Cities. Detroit's downtown is transforming in large part thanks to billionaire and Quicken loans founder Dan Gilbert, who has poured millions into redeveloping the area's commercial real estate, relocating many of his businesses to the area. In 2011, five companies — Quicken Loans, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, Compuware, DTE Energy and Strategic Staffing Solutions — pledged more than $4 million to encourage and aid employees in buying, renting or remodeling homes in the area. It's part of a larger initiative to attract 15,000 young professionals to downtown by 2015, Forbes' Joann Muller says.

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Excerpt:

The world’s cities are all trying to emulate Silicon Valley’s example and become the next global hub. Leading cities such as London, New York, Tel Aviv, Beijing and Berlin are all creating friendly conditions for startups to thrive, but other incipient companies in more unlikely places are also prospering.

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Excerpt:

When tech entrepreneur Bob Marsh founded his company LevelEleven, which helps businesses to boost their sales using game-inspired incentives for employees, he faced a tough decision: stick to his Detroit roots, or move to a tech hub like Silicon Valley. Here are four reasons why he chose to remain in his hometown--and why he doesn't regret his decision.

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Excerpt:

Over 900 applied and 17,000 voted in 2012 for the opportunity to work in Detroit. Yes, Detroit, the city that’s much-maligned nationally for crime, corruption and the decline of American manufacturing. Problems do exist in Detroit, just like in any large metropolis. But the city has embarked on a solution called Challenge Detroit, a program designed to attract top-level talent to some of America’s largest companies. 

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Excerpt:

Emblazoned on Detroit’s city seal is the Latin phrase, "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus." Coined in the wake of an 1805 fire that leveled much of the city, it’s equally relevant more than two centuries later. The translation: "We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes."

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Excerpt:

The modern mythology scholar Joseph Campbell once said: “Only two things unite people: aspiration and terror.” Campbell would have played well in Detroit.

Its core business had to be bailed out. Overall manufacturing hit the skids. The national economy tanked, and America’s 18th ranked city lost its financial autonomy. Now terror is starting to be replaced by aspiration in Detroit. Overall, the U.S. manufacturing comeback is gaining momentum with some 500,000 jobs created in the past three years. It marks the first time in more than a decade that the number of factory jobs has gone up instead of down. In Detroit, the Made In America comeback led by the auto companies is being joined by some new brands that are fueling growth through innovative products and edgy marketing.

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Excerpt:

I got on my plane to NY after 48 hours in Detroit with tears in my eyes. Why was I so moved by the people, entrepreneurs, and start-ups I met during such a short visit? Trips to London, Milan, Los Angeles and San Francisco have never affected me in such a way. I realized what I was feeling was complete admiration for all of the people whom I met-- from new college grads who had forsaken six-figure jobs in major cities to grown-and-bred Detroiters who have refused to give up on their beloved city.

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Excerpt:

Despite decades of decline and mismanagement, there are signs of life in Detroit as private sector companies try to rebuild the city. But is it too late?

Outside the baseball stadium in Detroit the other week a man sold T-shirts printed with white capital letters on a black background: Detroit vs Everybody.

Being a journalist in need of a metaphor, it stuck in my mind.

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It's official. Detroit wowed ESPN enough to be named a finalist in the sports network's quest to choose a host city for the Summer X Games beginning in 2014.

On Tuesday, ESPN announced the competing cities had been narrowed down to Detroit, Chicago, Austin, Texas and Charlotte, N.C. Organizers Kevin Krease and Garret Koehler, with the support of city administration, business leaders and other stakeholders, submitted their official bid for the project in early April.

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Why can’t we just get over Detroit — by common agreement, the most bankrupt, abandoned, misbegotten enterprise ever designed by Americans, at least so far as cities go — “the country’s most startling example of modern urban collapse,” as the New York Timesput it? [4] Maybe it’s the sheer scale of the catastrophe being perpetrated here. The Timeswas reporting on the latest census of 700,000 souls, down from 1 million a decade ago and 1.8 million in 1950. Hardly a week goes by without national headlines about the murder rate or economic meltdown or impending civic bankruptcy (the biggest in U.S. history), or the Big Three automaker bailout, the corruption of public officials, the dumbfounding ineptitude of the electorate. Then there are the ruins that cast Detroit as a post-industrial Acropolis or Pompeii (except our ruins are larger), and the caravans of filmmakers and journalists and gawkers who want to get one last look, say one last word before the whole thing finally collapses. With all those end-of-everything narratives, you’d think by now we would have really reached the end — of conceivable stories, or patience — the end of Detroit as the “set for some movie about the last hours of the Planet Earth.” [5] That crack, by James Howard Kunstler, came 20 years ago, yet the end-of-time tourists keep returning to the set, locals too, which leads to my question: Why can’t we just let go?

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