News

LOVELAND Technologies is on the verge of enjoying a bump in its WhyDontWeOwnThis.com website thanks to an unexpected auction of tax foreclosed properties from Wayne County this month.

LOVELAND Technologies an eclectic software start-up based in Corktown that has made a name for itself with big name projects, such as the Imagination Station and the Robocop statue. It made an even bigger name for itself in local tech circles by putting the morass of information from last fall's Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction (13,000 properties mostly in Detroit) easily digestible thanks to an online mapping system on WhyDontWeOwnThis.com. Each property entry provides vital information, such as property ID number, opening bid, condition of the property and a Google Street View of the building.

WhyDontWeOwnThis.com has been evolving its technology since then, creating a similar database/online mapping tool for vacant parcels in Detroit that are owned by the city, county and state. It is now creating a similar database for the 5,000 properties that will come up in auction later this month.

Wayne County is holding an auction for 5,000 properties left over from last fall's auction. Vacant lots will be for sale for a minimum bid of $200 and those with structures will be for sale for a minimum bid of $500. For information on the auction, click here www.waynecountytreasurermi.com.

"We want to be make sure everyone can see what properties are around and create some conversations around them," says Jerry Pfaffendorf, co-founder of LOVELAND Technologies.

The 4-year-old start-up is made up of its three co-founders and a growing stable of independent contractors. It was the first tenant in the quasi small business incubator at 2051 Rosa Parks Blvd in Corktown when it moved in last fall. It is looking to create a bigger conversation about vacant, underutilized property next fall at the next Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. Pfaffendorf equates it with a aggressive grassroots effort to find owners for every building.

"LOVELAND has been talking very seriously about the possibility of doing a large crowd-funding effort for next fall's auction," Pfaffendorf says. "We're think of it as a no property left behind thing."

Source: Jerry Pfaffendorf, co-founder of LOVELAND Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The ups and downs of the Detroit's mass transit efforts have not only enough drama to keep people interested but some inspiration for at least one new business.

The Detroit Bus Company launched last week, providing a weekend bus loop in the greater downtown Detroit area. The Corktown/Ferndale-based business will have 12 stops in downtown, Midtown, New Center, Eastern Market, Corktown, Hubbard Farms and Woodbridge. The buses will run from the afternoon until just after the bars close on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

"It really came out of frustration for having all of the these public solutions pop up and fizzle," says Andy Didorosi, president & founder of Detroit Bus Company. "This is a solution for the mean time until a public solution pans out."

Riders can purchase a $5 wristband that will provide them access to the bus for the entire day. The bus will arrive at each stop once every 35 minutes during operating hours. The Detroit Bus company is using bars, restaurants and stadiums as bus stops, including Slows, Comerica Park and Woodbridge Pub.

"Bars are an ideal bus stop," Didorosi says. "They are a natural space to congregate. I can't think of a better place for a bus stop."

Didorosi, who owns Paper Street Motors in Ferndale, started working on the company in January and now employs a team of four people. He plans to focus on dependability in the company's first few months before seriously exploring creating a second bus line up Woodward Avenue later this year.

"We want to do a Royal Oak to Hamtramck to downtown Detroit route," Didorosi says. "We tested that and it worked pretty well."

Source: Andy Didorosi, president & founder of Detroit Bus Company
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Rippld, a start-up that provides a professional network for creatives, has landed $78,400 in seed capital that it plans to fuel a private Beta launch this summer.

The 1-year-old firm is creating an online network for creatively inclined professionals to collaborate, post portfolios and share jobs. Lander Coronado-Garcia, Adrian Walker and Wilbert Fobbs III co-founded Rippld and are building it at the Detroit Creative Corridor Center in New Center, overseeing a team of seven other people.

Making this possible is a $50,000 microloan from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, which Rippld landed last week. The start-up also received a $28,5000 business acceleration grant from the state. Money that will go toward the Beta launch and beyond.

"We will leverage it in our style to A) grow our development team, B) marketing and C) some future research-and-development," Fobbs says.

The private Beta launch will begin on July 9 and continue throughout the summer. The trio plan to focus on the Metro Detroit region first before spreading it across the country and around the world.

"We are definitely looking internationally and creating a density among creatives throughout the U.S.," Coronado-Garcia says.

Source: Lander Coronado-Garcia, Adrian Walker and Wilbert Fobbs III, co-founders of Rippld
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The second wave of creatives/entrepreneurs is about to hit the Detroit Creative Corridor Center this summer.

The New Center-based small business incubator specializes in helping creatively inclined professionals, like designers and graphic artists, find their entrepreneurial mojo. The idea is to enable them to start their own businesses and help populate the lower Woodward corridor (between New Center and downtown) with a growing number of creative entrepreneurs.

The Detroit Creative Corridor Center, which calls the College for Creative Studies Taubman Center home, launched last summer with about a dozen entrepreneurs working to create seven start-ups and businesses. Each one of these businesses has grown.

"Each entity has hired on average of 2-3 employees," says Matt Clayson, director of Detroit Creative Corridor Center. "They have blown us away with how they have been able to improve their margins and revenue and all of the things businesses are supposed to do."

The Detroit Creative Corridor Center has taken applications for this year's class of entrepreneurs and expects to enjoy similar success as the initiative gains traction. The new class will be chosen and inducted later this summer. "We're looking at potentially doubling the people we serve," Clayson says.

Source: Matt Clayson, director of Detroit Creative Corridor Center
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Creative class scholar Richard Florida is dedicating a career to finding out what works to make cities vital and vibrant. This first piece in a series now running in Atlantic Cities jumps on the multiple ways Detroit is shaking off its rust and finding new ways to thrive.

An excerpt: Detroit’s new generation of place makers and city-builders draws deeply on the city and the region’s many assets. Yes, urban renewal devastated parts of the city, and yes, it’s true that there are too many empty lots and abandoned buildings. But a walk through and around the urban core evidences a fabulous urban fabric with fantastic historic buildings of the very sort that Jane Jacobs was talking about when she said that old buildings give rise to new ideas.

Much more here.

DTE Energy and the Engineering Society of Detroit are looking for a few good energy conservation ideas through its new E Challenge contest.

The $250,000 contest is looking for a commercially available energy saving product, material, system, structure, process or methodology. The bottom line is it must show energy savings and save electrical or natural gas energy.

"Basically, we're looking for energy saving opportunities," says Waldemar Czarnik, principal Energy Manager for DTE Energy. "We are looking for innovative ideas that will save our customers money."

Entries are due by June 29. Screenings of the contestants will take place in mid August and the awards made in November. For information, contact Tim Walker at [email protected].

Source: Waldemar Czarnik, principal Energy Manager for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Jenile Brooks has a catch phrase for her new online grocery story, Harvest Express, Food Desert Fresh.

The inspiration came when a friend of Brooks quipped that she and her Boston-Edison-based business were "Food Desert Fresh." She is now using the phrase emblazoned on a t-shirt to help raise $10,000 needed to finish renovations to a former liquor store to fresh food warehouse.

"Nothing will be more satisfying than turning former refrigeration for beers and liquor into a place to house fresh food," Brooks wrote in an email about Harvest Express. "If this campaign is successful I'll be able to pay for the renovations it needs to pass the health inspection."

Brooks was a TV producer living in New York City and Washington, D.C., when she became fascinated with food access and urban agriculture. That led her to Detroit and the idea of starting an Internet-only grocery store for people with limited food access or just not enough time. "We consider ourselves a grocery store, just online," Brooks says.

The downtown Detroit resident met a woman who bought a large house in Boston-Edison at last year's Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. There was also an abandoned liquor store next to it that she wanted to turn into a grocery store. The synergy between their two ideas was almost instantaneous and the two started working together to launch Harvest Express from what is a largely intact and up-to-code building.

Brooks and her team of three people are using the www.TeeSpring.com crowd-sourcing platform to raise the $10,000 to make the building ready to go and they can start selling produce, dairy, meat and bakery items by mid-summer. More information on the crowd sourcing effort here.

"As soon as the renovations are done we will be ready to start delivering," Brooks says.

Source: Jenile Brooks, founder of Harvest Express
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The first installment of the 2012 Tashmoo Biergarten kicked off last weekend in Detroit's Villages.

The initial community outdoor beer drinking extravaganza at 1420 Van Dyke was a tester for this year's round of events, which will be begin in earnest this fall. "This was a one-weekend spring fling," says Aaron Wagner, co-founder of Tashmoo Biergarten.

Wagner participated in the initial class of the BUILD program at D:hive, which teaches local residents the basics of starting a business and organizing an initiative. Wagner and his fellow co-founder, Suzanne Vier, are looking at expanding the Tashmoo Biergarten this year so nonprofits and other community groups could use Tashmoo's expertise to host their own biergarten parties.

"We're looking at doing a pop-up biergarten in a box," Wagner says.

Tashmoo Beirgarten got its start last fall as a way to build community and buzz in the Villages area on Detroit's East Side. The duo took over a vacant lot, fenced it off and built picnic tables out of old doors, creating a space to serve high-quality beer and for locals to congregate. The mixture proved to be an instant hit with hundreds of participants at a handful of events last fall.

Wagner and Vier plan to do a repeat performance this fall and are also looking at expanding the idea to other neighborhoods in Detroit.

"We're definitely looking at it," Wagner says. "Nothing is set in stone."

Source: Aaron Wagner, co-founder of Tashmoo Biergarten
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit thrive in Detroit. "Design in Detroit," an online platform and annual festival, will allow individuals and institutions across Southeast Michigan to connect and partner with the entrepreneurial community.
 
"Detroit is becoming a leader in creative and civic innovation," said Rishi Jaitly, program director/Detroit for Knight Foundation. "We hope this project will help foster an environment where all people and institutions can share in the city’s social entrepreneurial momentum and advance the success of the movement itself." 
 
This three-year project is led by Detroit Creative Corridor (DC3) and funded by a $510,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. It will be anchored by the annual Detroit Design Festival, which next month will call on Detroit’s creative community to submit new ideas for design, business and technology that advance local community interests.
 
In 2011, the pilot design festival produced "Mind the Gap," a contest to improve Detroit’s in-between spaces. More than 200 Detroiters viewed and rated proposals to transform vacant and under-utilized spaces in the city. A high school student from Henry Ford Academy: School for Creative Studies in Detroit entered the winning submission. It was shared with hundreds of Detroiters and business and creative-cultural leaders in a series of events that featured the concept.
 
The online platform and real-world forums will allow people and institutions to pledge financial, leadership, volunteer and marketing resources to the submitted projects. Over the course of a year, DC3 will lead programming to nurture the connections, ensuring that the results improve Detroit’s quality of life.
 
"'Design in Detroit' will result in a unique digital and physical infrastructure for the local creative movement to showcase its skills and ideas to the broader community," said Matt Clayson, director for Detroit Creative Center. "We’re looking to create a global model here, one that respects the authenticity of local creative movements in Detroit while encouraging deeper engagement and more meaningful connections."

Sources: Andrew Sherry of Knight Foundation and Matthew Clayson, Detroit Creative Center 
Writer: Leah Johnson 

"In a city where affordable, sustainable transportation is difficult to come by, one person is working to give community members wheels.

Sarah Sidelko founded the bicycle program Fender Bender with three others in 2010, and the project now has a home at the Cass Corridor Commons in Detroit. Less of a shop than a community and education center, Fender Bender is meant specifically for women, queer and transgendered people. For now, Sidelko runs the space part-time in addition to working two other jobs, but she squeezes in open shop nights, mechanic training classes and bike-related art workshops."

For the full story in The Huffington Post, read here. For Sarah's profile on UIX, read here.

From The Huffington Post:

"It doesn't take a college degree to start tackling Detroit's problems and making the city a greener, more walkable place. While Wayne State University student Kyle Bartell, a native Detroiter, works to complete his Urban Studies degree, he's also spending time trying to create public parks.

'Living here in the city, that's been one of the biggest educators for me," Bartell said. "It's given me the first-hand experience of wanting to get involved.'"

For the full article, read here.

D:hive -- the new welcome center for anyone looking to live, work or engage in Detroit -- is now open to the public in a storefront space at 1253 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit. The space also features a new retail shop, D:pop created by entrepreneur Margarita Barry of 71 POP fame.

For a peek inside their renovated digs, check out this preview from Curbed Detroit. For more info on D:hive, visit their new website or stop by to say hello.

From Model D:

Jay Rayford believes in Detroit. So much so that he is always on the lookout for positive stories about it. That hobby turned into a start-up based out of his Warrendale home, Rep Your City.

The small business is an aggregator for positive news stories about the Motor City. "There was no one place I could go online to find everything positive that is going on in the city," says Rayford, CEO & founder of Rep Your City. "I wanted to bring all of that positive energy together."

Rayford quarterbacks a team of five people that make the website go. Rayford recently completed the BUILD program at the D:hive in downtown Detroit. The program teaches its participants the basics about running a business or heading up a project.

Rep Your City has also recently branched out to helping support local business. The start-up has created a City Loyalty Program that uses key tags as a punch card to reward people who patronize local businesses.

"It's more of a movement than just a website," Rayford says.

Source: Jay Rayford, CEO & founder of Rep Your City
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The Detroit Journal was awarded $1,000 last week by the Awesome News Task Force Detroit at a party at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Arts Center in downtown Detroit. Awesome also celebrated its launch at the same time.

Where did we find this awesome news? In Kate Abbey-Lambertz piece in HuffPost Detroit, that's where.

The Detroit Creative Corridor Center is seeking new residents for their Creative Ventures program, and they enlisted the talented folks at DETROIT LIVES! to give us a better sense of how it works. Check out the video here:

"Be a Venture" - Detroit Creative Corridor Center from DETROIT LIVES! on Vimeo.