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I suppose this article is musing about how the big car companies are responding to the pressure from tech companies, and how they are trying to pivot into tech
by leesec 8y ago
I suppose this article is musing about how the big car companies are responding to the pressure from tech companies, and how they are trying to pivot into tech companies themselves, which is a fine premise.
I do think the title is misleading though, by conflating "Detroit" with "The Big 3" (General Motors, Chrysler and Ford).
Detroit itself is already well on it's way to diversifying it's economy and particularly making investment in tech. There is what's known as "The Family Of Companies" (1) referring to a whole fleet of businesses supported by Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans and many of them are in tech and in the buildings downtown. Gilbert himself owns something like 30+ buildings in the Detroit area.
There is a start hub near by as well in Ann Arbor which has recently produced companies like Duo Security and FarmLogs.
Real estate/cost of living here is much cheaper than in most of the bigger tech hubs and it's bringing all sorts of companies.
There is a somewhat valid critique that salaries aren't quite competitive for tech, but I've found the quality of life has been quite nice. For ex: I know several people coming out of bootcamps with or without degrees and making 70/80~k with 1-2 years experience, but with rent being only 700-1k for your own apartment ( less with roommates obv ), you wind up putting away plenty at the end of the month.
In my opinion, it's actually a pretty great place to live and is handling the shift of becoming a tech city quite well.
(1) https://www.quickenloans.com/about/partner-company#chat_close https://www.quickenloans.com/about/partner-company#chat_clos...
- jdhn 8y agoAs someone who works in Detroit, I think that the city is a lot more fragile than people like to believe. Quicken Loans is just as vulnerable as the auto makers due to the fact that its core business is dependent upon consumer demand. Fewer people buying homes due to economic factors like rate raises and a general downturn in the economy is going to hit them hard. Sure, there's other companies downtown like GM in the RenCen, BCBS, and StockX, but Quicken Loans is the juggernaut.
- roymurdock 8y agoas a young person i'm constantly looking for cheap areas to live with growth prospects. i went to detroit for a weekend last year and was just stunned by how cheap some of the property is, but also how run down the east side of town is, it's unfathomable to believe that could happen to an american city until you visit. on a block of 10 houses there would be 5 empty/stripped, 4 rundown, 1 artist commune. i just don't see what the growth prospects are for detroit. i don't think manufacturing is coming back anytime soon to the US, and in terms of natural resources/weather detroit seems limited. the music scene is cool, but not the serious tax revenue generator the city needs. as a resident are you seeing any growth industries cropping up?
- echelon 8y ago> just stunned by how cheap some of the property is What kind of prices are you talking about?
- mixmastamyk 8y agoNot up on the current but there were houses for ~$10k a few years ago. That's next to a burnt out crack house from the Eminem movie, like #8 below: https://detroit.curbed.com/maps/lose-yourself-in-this-8-mile-filming-location-map https://detroit.curbed.com/maps/lose-yourself-in-this-8-mile...
- jdhn 8y agoHere's a selection of homes from East English Village, which has won the Detroit Curbed Cup competition 2 years in a row (for what that's worth): 3 bd / 1 bth / 2 car garage: $90k [0] 4 bd / 2 bth / 2 car garage: $190k [1] 3 bd / 2 bth / Garage status not mentioned: $120k [2] [0]https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/5257-cadieux-rd-detroit-mi-48224--2050771507 https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/5257-cadieux-rd-detroit-... [1]https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/4800-bishop-st-detroit-mi-48224--2050769906 https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/4800-bishop-st-detroit-m... [2]https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/5042-grayton-st-detroit-mi-48224--1001626271 https://www.trulia.com/p/mi/detroit/5042-grayton-st-detroit-...
- bluedino 8y agoWhat's with the real estate photography trend of trying to make everything look like a circa 1998 3D Render?
- jdhn 8y agoI bet that it's due to subpar lighting combined with the mindset that HDR will fix all visual flaws.
- captain_perl 8y agoWell, those are inflated prices from being listed on Trulia. You can buy thousands of houses in Detroit at auction for $5,000 plus back taxes. They all will need rebuilding. However, the soil is contaminated with heavy metals (I would check where the foundries and prevailing winds were) and the water supply has issues. And if you want to raise a family, you will need to find an area with a credible school and police force.
- vnchr 8y agoStockX just raised the biggest VC round in Detroit history, with $44MM from GV and Battery.[1] Full disclosure: I’m on the StockX Engineering team (serverless), and we’re hiring. [1] http://detroithomecoming.com/stockx-raises-44-million-from-new-investors-with-boost-from-silicon-valley/ http://detroithomecoming.com/stockx-raises-44-million-from-n...
- nickpeterson 8y agoYou guys don't happen to use F# do you? Is it all python/SQL?
- liftbigweights 8y agoWhat's even more worrying is that years after the bailout, investment and economic stabilization, detroit's population is still declining ( although at a slower rate ). If people are leaving when times are good, what will happen during a recession?
- primrose 8y agoMoreover QL's technology is as brittle as GM's or Ford's. They happen to have an acute focus on customer service and marketing which made them number 1. But it's a matter of time before someone automates the hell out of the mortgage industry correctly. As far as I've seen, it's Shore Mortgage.
- curiouscat321 8y agoFor a company that’s trying to automate an industry (Shore), I’ve ancedotally heard nothing good about their technical stack and technical talent.
- dyeje 8y agoQL definitely has a huge focus on automation right now.
- dyeje 8y agoStockX is a Dan Gilbert company so if QL goes down, they probably do too.
- ummonk 8y agoThe main factor that prevents someone like me (and probably much of the tech talent in America) from going to a tech hub like that in Ann Arbor is cultural homogeneity. Being an Indian American with immigrant parents, my ability to fit in in the Bay Area is much higher than in most places in America.
- primrose 8y agoThere are plenty of Indian's in Ann Arbor and Metro-Detroit. I worked with a ton of them.
- brett40324 8y agoI 2nd primrose's comment. Ann Arbor is way more diverse than what you'd expect, or what you assume in your comment. Ann Arbor is thriving in tech, education, and culture.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoAlso, most people would prefer areas with warmer, less humid, sunnier weather.
- curiouscat321 8y agoAgree with all of this. The Metro Detroit area is diversifying itself better than it ever has. The biggest problem I see is recruiting talent. The University of Michigan has established itself as a west-coast feeder school. I personally left the area post-graduation and got a job at a FANG company. As much as I’d love to move back, I just can’t find a job that pays anywhere remotely near what I make on the west coast. Apparently, salaries are starting to rise, which can only be good for the area as a whole.
- forapurpose 8y agoDetroit has a large population of engineers working in the auto industry, from the Big Three to the suppliers. How well does their talent, training, skills, and experience translate into IT and startups? Based on the origin myth that I've heard (but never really looked into), defense industry engineers started SV.