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Detroit Startup List

65 points by growdetroit 15y ago

Grown in the D is an up-to-date Detroit Startup List, curated by Grow Detroit. We were inspired to create this list after seeing the efforts of NYTM (and their list of New York startups).

rick888 15y ago
This list is misleading. over half are from the Ann Arbor area and a few are in California (and other states) with a few remote offices in Ann Arbor. They really should be pushing for Ann Arbor to be a tech center, not Detroit.
- Newmind 15y ago
  There are a number of cities in the valley that all consider themselves the same community. I think this is the same sort of concept. The list appears to be based on where the companies were founded not where they currently have presence.
  - jerf 15y ago
    I live in Brighton, 15 minutes north of Ann Arbor, where I work. No, we do not consider ourselves to be "just part of the same community". Detroit's "over there". Detroit does extend out past Detroit proper and there are municipalities where one might just say for convenience "I live in Detroit" to those from out-of-town even though the mailing address isn't Detroit, but there's a lot of not-Detroit less than an hour away. And as Detroit tanks, there's a lot more not-Detroit to be found. While Detroit has been trying to resurrect itself, to take just one for-instance, Ann Arbor has just gotten on with life, and slowly but surely the rest of the region is following. Even if Detroit becomes alive again it will be a while before it culturally dominates the area again, if it ever does. In terms of the sorts of things that might be of interest to Hacker News, there's not much point to resurrecting Detroit and to be honest I don't understand the HN obsession with Detroit. Just drive an hour west. What people don't seem to get is that it really is Detroit that is dead/dying; the Greater Metropolitan Not-Really-Detroit-Anymore area is getting on with it. I will not say thriving, because that isn't true, but only Detroit and the aforementioned absorbed municipalities are dying.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
      - jerf 15y ago
        "In terms of the sorts of things that might be of interest to Hacker News, there's not much point to resurrecting Detroit..." Kindly don't chop important words off of quotes, please. It was never a startup hub, it was never a computer programming tech hub, it was full of the sort of Suits that that startup culture is in large part a reaction against, it is bizarre to insist on trying to turn Detroit into some sort of startup hub when there's one radically further along and tied to a world-class University just an hour west. If you want to resurrect it because it's your home, or because you feel for the people who live there, or because you have other interests that are relevant, go nuts. But I don't get Hacker New's obsession with the topic. A few articles about a case study of a modern city in major decline is interesting from a sociology perspective, but it gets a lot more attention than I'd expect from that.
      - philwelch 15y ago
        Cities have risen and fallen before. Part of the creative destruction of the last few decades involved wealth and power disappearing from Detroit and growing in Silicon Valley. I understand for Detroiters the sentimental value of Detroit, but there's no need for economic activity to happen in Detroit or in any other particular place so long as it happens and happens productively. In fact, it may be against this country's interests for otherwise useful and productive resources to be misdirected towards trying to rebuild failed cities like Detroit when they could be more productively invested elsewhere. People see a city like Detroit turn to ruins and think this is terrible, this needs to be a thriving city again. No, really as long as we have more prosperity elsewhere, Detroit can stay in ruins.
        joem32 15y ago
        This has got to be the most ignorant response of the day. One, have you ever been to Detroit. And two, have you ever heard of this thing called capitalism? Last I checked, as natural born Americans, we've got the right to do what we want, where we want to do it. Please, do take a moment to explain to me how it would be in anyone's best interest to just "let" Detroit die? (Assuming it was actually near death) Also, help me understand how building resources in and around Detroit would affect your resources wherever you are (in the Valley)? By the way, you might want to check the data before you go trying to throw anyone under the bus, as Detroit... the dead city that you refer to. Yeah, it's a big part of what gave Michigan the lead in technology hiring in 2010. http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/michigan_was_top_state_in_tech.html http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/michigan_was... *http://www.freep.com/article/20111006/BUSINESS06/110060525/Michigan-leads-high-tech-job-growth http://www.freep.com/article/20111006/BUSINESS06/110060525/M...
  - chaselee 15y ago
    You're first two sentences are the most right.
- hugh3 15y ago
  Makes sense! I admit I've never actually been to Detroit, but from what I've heard nobody should be pushing for Detroit to be anything other than a nice clean crater.
- chaselee 15y ago
  As one of the founders from the Ann Arbor area, I can say this list is more of a Southeast Michigan list, an area for which Detroit is often synonymous. Due to their relative proximity, there hasn't been a reason yet to push one city to be a center over the other, it's more so about the region as a whole, which is very well linked together.
  - pyre 15y ago
    Maybe people should start condensing the 'Metro Detroit Area' as the MDA (or something like that) similar to the way the 'Greater Toronto Area' is labeled the GTA.
    - mbreese 15y ago
      I don't know how many people outside of Toronto (or Canada) know what GTA means. (I know that I didn't). Abbreviations that make sense locally rarely resonate globally.
      - canadiancreed 15y ago
        As someone that grew up a few hours from Toronto, I'd be confident in saying that the GTA is in the common vernacular for most folks in Southern Ontario. I agree that those outside of that area (in Canada at least) wouldn't, since from outside it looks like it's all Toronto.
    - jordanskole 15y ago
      For people here inside the region this is actually common to say Metro area or SE MI it is just difficult for people outside or who have never been. They just say Detroit. In fact, when I am away on travel, I will tell people I am originally from Lansing and they simply say "so Detroit?" and I def wouldnt consider Lansing part of the MDA
- rmason 15y ago
  Historically Southeast Michigan has included Ann Arbor in the region. A few of the companies on that list may have an office in Silicon Valley but they were founded and still maintain offices or headquarters in SE Michigan.
- kj1210 15y ago
  Silicon Valley encompasses many cities in a "region". Here in Detroit, we don't have a name (yet?) to describe the region so we use Detroit to encompass the whole area. Ann Arbor falls within that area. It's roughly a 45 minute drive from Ann Arbor to Detroit...or 35 minutes for me ;) The Detroit "region" or sometimes known as "Detroit Urban Area" or "Metro Detroit", is actually quite large and has many beautiful communities with in it. This wikipedia page sums it up well. The "region" is actually the 9th most populated urban area in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit People also forget how large the actual city of Detroit is. If you look at the map linked below, you'll see that Boston, San Fran, and Manhattan all can fit within the city limits of Detroit. http://markmaynard.com/?p=56 http://markmaynard.com/?p=56
  - pyre 15y ago
    > It's roughly a 45 minute drive from Ann Arbor to > Detroit...or 35 minutes for me ;) But: 1. It's in a different county. 2. You're not really accounting for traffic, though my experiences were during the early 00's. 3. Ann Arbor was a completely different vibe than Detroit, or even a number of the suburbs. 4. Ann Arbor really isn't a suburb of Detroit. If you drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor, the suburbs give way to farmland before you all of the sudden end up in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.
    - skrebbel 15y ago
      True. Anyone knows that if there's farmland in-between, startups can't be on a list together.
    - ironchef 15y ago
      SF and the valley (or san jose as well) are often used interchangeably, yet: 1. They're in different counties (heck..the valley is even spread over multiple counties). 2. San Jose to SF is often over an hour (with traffic) 3. SF, Valley, San jose have very different vibes 4. Is Palo Alto (for example) a suburb of Fan Francisco or of San Jose? What I'm trying to show is that it's typically called the "detroit area" for simplicity's sake. Just like "the valley" or "sf area" is often used to encompass SF to San Jose (and the east bay as well). It's more of a moniker for the region.
- jeffheng 15y ago
  Ann Arbor is practically 35-40 minutes away from Detroit via I-94. The region as a whole is how it should be identified/branded. Fragmentation doesn't help anyone nor any community. For example; Mountain View, Cupertino and Palo Alto are all roughly 45-50 minutes away from San Francisco. Yet, it is perfectly fine to say that they are in the Bay Area, or sometimes even as San Francisco for simplicity, familiarity and recognition sake. There is really no reason to treat Detroit like a plague ..... it is 2011, let the dark history be by-gones, and give these start-ups the due respect that they deserve. They could be successful anywhere at all. Detroit and Southeast Michigan are glad to embrace them and support their goals. Great job, Alex, for putting this list together.
  - temphn 15y ago
    The only thing is that the problems with Detroit are not in the past, but very much in the present. Ann Arbor and UMich, for better or worse, have a much better reputation in 2011 as engineering centers than Detroit.
- nbashaw 15y ago
  I don't think it's misleading at all. Here's a direct quote from the page: "While we focus on the Metro Detroit area, we do include entries from throughout the entire state of Michigan. For us it’s about the cause, not about drawing lines in the sand."
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - rick888 15y ago
    They only did this because if they didn't include other areas, the list would be very small. It's misleading and dishonest.
  - growdetroit 15y ago
    Glad at least one person reads the page in it's entirety ;) But I'm also glad the thread could fuel some healthy debate.
- bilbo0s 15y ago
  Easy solution... Perhaps the founders from Ann Arbor could simply have their names removed from the list of startups grown in Detroit. They could find another method for myself, or anyone else on HN who is not from SE Michigan to discover information about them. A list of startups grown in Ann Arbor would be of equivalent interest to everyone here. Or anywhere else for that matter. Oh wait...
  - mulka 15y ago
    If you really want the list of Ann Arbor startups. It's here: http://a2geeks.org/display/geek/Companies http://a2geeks.org/display/geek/Companies
jonbischke 15y ago
Cool that someone is doing this. I was in Detroit a month ago and during my time there I met with many of the founders of these companies. I was impressed with the energy and the strong belief in turning Detroit around. I summarized my time there in this article which was published in TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/motor-city-mojo-the-startup-renaissance-in-detroit/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/motor-city-mojo-the-startup...
rmason 15y ago
These are baby steps for Detroit but they're important ones. I know it doesn't fit the template you see in the press with the pictures of wrecked buildings, but what you don't see covered in the press is the tremendous amount of talent in the city and surrounding area. It's hard to understand from the outside but these people want to be there. I know a few of the startups on that list and they're run by people that just as easily could succeed anywhere. I do hope that Alex Southern's work acts as a counterpoint to peoples view of the other Detroit.
scottmcleod 15y ago
Were looking for a founder for a college related application. Have investors, pre-beta list growing, designs done, and developers lined up. Contact me@scott-mcleod.com
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  Sounds like you've already done most of the founding. You sure you need another one?
tuebor 15y ago
Over 100 companies have presented at the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup (mostly from Ann Arbor, but we try to have some representation from the greater Detroit metro area): http://a2newtech.org http://a2newtech.org There've been several exits (AtD bought by Automattic, Mobiata bought by Expedia, GiftZip bought by SVM, etc.), many venture deals (Livio Radio, Duo Security, Benzinga, Life Magnetics, Shepard Intelligent Systems, Deep Field Networks, Scoutforce, Own, Zferral, Are You A Human, etc.), and maybe a smaller deadpool than you'd expect for the amount of activity here. Join the meetup, and check out the 2-3 events held by any of 60+ geek groups in Ann Arbor every day: http://a2geeks.org http://a2geeks.org http://www.a2techevents.com http://www.a2techevents.com Also, all are welcome to join us Oct 28 for the Halloween edition of our weekly http://TechBrewery.org http://TechBrewery.org Beer:30 startup social hour (wear a costume)! We'll have food, drinks, and music sponsored by LanguageMate, who recently arrived here. :-)
WA 15y ago
Some links in the list are broken, because they use relative paths instead of absolute paths, for instance: http://www.growdetroit.com/detroit-startup-list/www.macupdate.com http://www.growdetroit.com/detroit-startup-list/www.macupdat...
- growdetroit 15y ago
  Fixed, thanks.
joem32 15y ago
Since everyone is an expert on Detroit, I guess we might just as well put a fence up around the place, turn off the lights, and stick a fork in it. In reality, Detroit (proper) has lots of work to be done, there is no denying it. There are lots of rough neighborhoods, and places that need hard work. And yes, there are areas that you just dont travel at night, but thats a reality common with MANY big cities like Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Funny thing is, each of the aforementioned has either a strong startup community, or one that is rapidly up and coming. Facts are, there are many substantial efforts and investments currently in play that are making dramatic improvements in the overall quality of the city. Of all places, I'd think that the population that makes up HN would understand resurgence, potential, and free-market capitalism, but that's obviously not the case, as each is alive and well in the city of Detroit and the greater Detroit Region. Sure, you can argue that the political climate remains sullied. But it's better, and those who've done wrong have such a target on their head, they dare not push the limits. Here is the biggest take away that others have hit on... Detroit is a region, and Detroit is a big part of Michigan. It's our center of commerce and it was once the most innovation rich region in the world. To make a geographic comparison... When we think of Massachusetts, most just assume a person or company is from Boston. When someone says they are from the "Valley" they could be from San Jose, San Francisco, Palo Alto, or Mountain View... etc. Each represent geographic areas much larger than the actual town or city they are from. And the same goes for "Detroit, as you can be from Ann Arbor, Rochester, Downtown Detroit, Birmingham, Royal Oak, or wherever. For a very long time, each community within Michigan has become siloed with a provincial mentality, its a waste, and we've got no place for it any more. Silo us all you want from the outside looking in, but we'll do and make reference as we please from the inside out. I believe that the entire Detroit region is ripe with potential, and I'll continue to take advantage of that potential to the fullest extent that I can. And I'll say to those of you who doubt Detroit, go ahead and keep at it. Leave the great and growing resources to those of us who care to make a difference.
- BallinBige 15y ago
  Well said - I think all of these startups have clients, customers, investors, mentors "in Detroit" as well.
steiza 15y ago
For the hackers on this thread in South East Michigan, there's a Ann Arbor CoffeeHouseCoders meetup tomorrow: http://www.meetup.com/coffeehousecoders/ http://www.meetup.com/coffeehousecoders/ It's a great way to meet the other area hackers and hear what other people are working on.
oakfurniture 15y ago
As a piece of oak furniture I have no opinion whatsoever on this topic.

65 points by growdetroit 15y ago

Grown in the D is an up-to-date Detroit Startup List, curated by Grow Detroit. We were inspired to create this list after seeing the efforts of NYTM (and their list of New York startups).

rick888 15y ago

This list is misleading. over half are from the Ann Arbor area and a few are in California (and other states) with a few remote offices in Ann Arbor. They really should be pushing for Ann Arbor to be a tech center, not Detroit.

Newmind 15y ago
There are a number of cities in the valley that all consider themselves the same community. I think this is the same sort of concept. The list appears to be based on where the companies were founded not where they currently have presence.
- jerf 15y ago
  I live in Brighton, 15 minutes north of Ann Arbor, where I work. No, we do not consider ourselves to be "just part of the same community". Detroit's "over there". Detroit does extend out past Detroit proper and there are municipalities where one might just say for convenience "I live in Detroit" to those from out-of-town even though the mailing address isn't Detroit, but there's a lot of not-Detroit less than an hour away. And as Detroit tanks, there's a lot more not-Detroit to be found. While Detroit has been trying to resurrect itself, to take just one for-instance, Ann Arbor has just gotten on with life, and slowly but surely the rest of the region is following. Even if Detroit becomes alive again it will be a while before it culturally dominates the area again, if it ever does. In terms of the sorts of things that might be of interest to Hacker News, there's not much point to resurrecting Detroit and to be honest I don't understand the HN obsession with Detroit. Just drive an hour west. What people don't seem to get is that it really is Detroit that is dead/dying; the Greater Metropolitan Not-Really-Detroit-Anymore area is getting on with it. I will not say thriving, because that isn't true, but only Detroit and the aforementioned absorbed municipalities are dying.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - jerf 15y ago
      "In terms of the sorts of things that might be of interest to Hacker News, there's not much point to resurrecting Detroit..." Kindly don't chop important words off of quotes, please. It was never a startup hub, it was never a computer programming tech hub, it was full of the sort of Suits that that startup culture is in large part a reaction against, it is bizarre to insist on trying to turn Detroit into some sort of startup hub when there's one radically further along and tied to a world-class University just an hour west. If you want to resurrect it because it's your home, or because you feel for the people who live there, or because you have other interests that are relevant, go nuts. But I don't get Hacker New's obsession with the topic. A few articles about a case study of a modern city in major decline is interesting from a sociology perspective, but it gets a lot more attention than I'd expect from that.
    - philwelch 15y ago
      Cities have risen and fallen before. Part of the creative destruction of the last few decades involved wealth and power disappearing from Detroit and growing in Silicon Valley. I understand for Detroiters the sentimental value of Detroit, but there's no need for economic activity to happen in Detroit or in any other particular place so long as it happens and happens productively. In fact, it may be against this country's interests for otherwise useful and productive resources to be misdirected towards trying to rebuild failed cities like Detroit when they could be more productively invested elsewhere. People see a city like Detroit turn to ruins and think this is terrible, this needs to be a thriving city again. No, really as long as we have more prosperity elsewhere, Detroit can stay in ruins.
      - joem32 15y ago
        This has got to be the most ignorant response of the day. One, have you ever been to Detroit. And two, have you ever heard of this thing called capitalism? Last I checked, as natural born Americans, we've got the right to do what we want, where we want to do it. Please, do take a moment to explain to me how it would be in anyone's best interest to just "let" Detroit die? (Assuming it was actually near death) Also, help me understand how building resources in and around Detroit would affect your resources wherever you are (in the Valley)? By the way, you might want to check the data before you go trying to throw anyone under the bus, as Detroit... the dead city that you refer to. Yeah, it's a big part of what gave Michigan the lead in technology hiring in 2010. http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/michigan_was_top_state_in_tech.html http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/10/michigan_was... *http://www.freep.com/article/20111006/BUSINESS06/110060525/Michigan-leads-high-tech-job-growth http://www.freep.com/article/20111006/BUSINESS06/110060525/M...
- chaselee 15y ago
  You're first two sentences are the most right.
hugh3 15y ago
Makes sense! I admit I've never actually been to Detroit, but from what I've heard nobody should be pushing for Detroit to be anything other than a nice clean crater.
chaselee 15y ago
As one of the founders from the Ann Arbor area, I can say this list is more of a Southeast Michigan list, an area for which Detroit is often synonymous. Due to their relative proximity, there hasn't been a reason yet to push one city to be a center over the other, it's more so about the region as a whole, which is very well linked together.
- pyre 15y ago
  Maybe people should start condensing the 'Metro Detroit Area' as the MDA (or something like that) similar to the way the 'Greater Toronto Area' is labeled the GTA.
  - mbreese 15y ago
    I don't know how many people outside of Toronto (or Canada) know what GTA means. (I know that I didn't). Abbreviations that make sense locally rarely resonate globally.
    - canadiancreed 15y ago
      As someone that grew up a few hours from Toronto, I'd be confident in saying that the GTA is in the common vernacular for most folks in Southern Ontario. I agree that those outside of that area (in Canada at least) wouldn't, since from outside it looks like it's all Toronto.
  - jordanskole 15y ago
    For people here inside the region this is actually common to say Metro area or SE MI it is just difficult for people outside or who have never been. They just say Detroit. In fact, when I am away on travel, I will tell people I am originally from Lansing and they simply say "so Detroit?" and I def wouldnt consider Lansing part of the MDA
rmason 15y ago
Historically Southeast Michigan has included Ann Arbor in the region. A few of the companies on that list may have an office in Silicon Valley but they were founded and still maintain offices or headquarters in SE Michigan.
kj1210 15y ago
Silicon Valley encompasses many cities in a "region". Here in Detroit, we don't have a name (yet?) to describe the region so we use Detroit to encompass the whole area. Ann Arbor falls within that area. It's roughly a 45 minute drive from Ann Arbor to Detroit...or 35 minutes for me ;) The Detroit "region" or sometimes known as "Detroit Urban Area" or "Metro Detroit", is actually quite large and has many beautiful communities with in it. This wikipedia page sums it up well. The "region" is actually the 9th most populated urban area in the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit People also forget how large the actual city of Detroit is. If you look at the map linked below, you'll see that Boston, San Fran, and Manhattan all can fit within the city limits of Detroit. http://markmaynard.com/?p=56 http://markmaynard.com/?p=56
- pyre 15y ago
  > It's roughly a 45 minute drive from Ann Arbor to > Detroit...or 35 minutes for me ;) But: 1. It's in a different county. 2. You're not really accounting for traffic, though my experiences were during the early 00's. 3. Ann Arbor was a completely different vibe than Detroit, or even a number of the suburbs. 4. Ann Arbor really isn't a suburb of Detroit. If you drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor, the suburbs give way to farmland before you all of the sudden end up in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.
  - skrebbel 15y ago
    True. Anyone knows that if there's farmland in-between, startups can't be on a list together.
  - ironchef 15y ago
    SF and the valley (or san jose as well) are often used interchangeably, yet: 1. They're in different counties (heck..the valley is even spread over multiple counties). 2. San Jose to SF is often over an hour (with traffic) 3. SF, Valley, San jose have very different vibes 4. Is Palo Alto (for example) a suburb of Fan Francisco or of San Jose? What I'm trying to show is that it's typically called the "detroit area" for simplicity's sake. Just like "the valley" or "sf area" is often used to encompass SF to San Jose (and the east bay as well). It's more of a moniker for the region.
jeffheng 15y ago
Ann Arbor is practically 35-40 minutes away from Detroit via I-94. The region as a whole is how it should be identified/branded. Fragmentation doesn't help anyone nor any community. For example; Mountain View, Cupertino and Palo Alto are all roughly 45-50 minutes away from San Francisco. Yet, it is perfectly fine to say that they are in the Bay Area, or sometimes even as San Francisco for simplicity, familiarity and recognition sake. There is really no reason to treat Detroit like a plague ..... it is 2011, let the dark history be by-gones, and give these start-ups the due respect that they deserve. They could be successful anywhere at all. Detroit and Southeast Michigan are glad to embrace them and support their goals. Great job, Alex, for putting this list together.
- temphn 15y ago
  The only thing is that the problems with Detroit are not in the past, but very much in the present. Ann Arbor and UMich, for better or worse, have a much better reputation in 2011 as engineering centers than Detroit.
nbashaw 15y ago
I don't think it's misleading at all. Here's a direct quote from the page: "While we focus on the Metro Detroit area, we do include entries from throughout the entire state of Michigan. For us it’s about the cause, not about drawing lines in the sand."
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- rick888 15y ago
  They only did this because if they didn't include other areas, the list would be very small. It's misleading and dishonest.
- growdetroit 15y ago
  Glad at least one person reads the page in it's entirety ;) But I'm also glad the thread could fuel some healthy debate.
bilbo0s 15y ago
Easy solution... Perhaps the founders from Ann Arbor could simply have their names removed from the list of startups grown in Detroit. They could find another method for myself, or anyone else on HN who is not from SE Michigan to discover information about them. A list of startups grown in Ann Arbor would be of equivalent interest to everyone here. Or anywhere else for that matter. Oh wait...
- mulka 15y ago
  If you really want the list of Ann Arbor startups. It's here: http://a2geeks.org/display/geek/Companies http://a2geeks.org/display/geek/Companies

jonbischke 15y ago

Cool that someone is doing this. I was in Detroit a month ago and during my time there I met with many of the founders of these companies. I was impressed with the energy and the strong belief in turning Detroit around. I summarized my time there in this article which was published in TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/motor-city-mojo-the-startup-renaissance-in-detroit/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/motor-city-mojo-the-startup...

rmason 15y ago

These are baby steps for Detroit but they're important ones. I know it doesn't fit the template you see in the press with the pictures of wrecked buildings, but what you don't see covered in the press is the tremendous amount of talent in the city and surrounding area. It's hard to understand from the outside but these people want to be there. I know a few of the startups on that list and they're run by people that just as easily could succeed anywhere. I do hope that Alex Southern's work acts as a counterpoint to peoples view of the other Detroit.

scottmcleod 15y ago

Were looking for a founder for a college related application. Have investors, pre-beta list growing, designs done, and developers lined up. Contact me@scott-mcleod.com

SkyMarshal 15y ago
Sounds like you've already done most of the founding. You sure you need another one?

tuebor 15y ago

Over 100 companies have presented at the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup (mostly from Ann Arbor, but we try to have some representation from the greater Detroit metro area): http://a2newtech.org http://a2newtech.org There've been several exits (AtD bought by Automattic, Mobiata bought by Expedia, GiftZip bought by SVM, etc.), many venture deals (Livio Radio, Duo Security, Benzinga, Life Magnetics, Shepard Intelligent Systems, Deep Field Networks, Scoutforce, Own, Zferral, Are You A Human, etc.), and maybe a smaller deadpool than you'd expect for the amount of activity here. Join the meetup, and check out the 2-3 events held by any of 60+ geek groups in Ann Arbor every day: http://a2geeks.org http://a2geeks.org http://www.a2techevents.com http://www.a2techevents.com Also, all are welcome to join us Oct 28 for the Halloween edition of our weekly http://TechBrewery.org http://TechBrewery.org Beer:30 startup social hour (wear a costume)! We'll have food, drinks, and music sponsored by LanguageMate, who recently arrived here. :-)

WA 15y ago

Some links in the list are broken, because they use relative paths instead of absolute paths, for instance: http://www.growdetroit.com/detroit-startup-list/www.macupdate.com http://www.growdetroit.com/detroit-startup-list/www.macupdat...

growdetroit 15y ago
Fixed, thanks.

joem32 15y ago

Since everyone is an expert on Detroit, I guess we might just as well put a fence up around the place, turn off the lights, and stick a fork in it. In reality, Detroit (proper) has lots of work to be done, there is no denying it. There are lots of rough neighborhoods, and places that need hard work. And yes, there are areas that you just dont travel at night, but thats a reality common with MANY big cities like Boston, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Funny thing is, each of the aforementioned has either a strong startup community, or one that is rapidly up and coming. Facts are, there are many substantial efforts and investments currently in play that are making dramatic improvements in the overall quality of the city. Of all places, I'd think that the population that makes up HN would understand resurgence, potential, and free-market capitalism, but that's obviously not the case, as each is alive and well in the city of Detroit and the greater Detroit Region. Sure, you can argue that the political climate remains sullied. But it's better, and those who've done wrong have such a target on their head, they dare not push the limits. Here is the biggest take away that others have hit on... Detroit is a region, and Detroit is a big part of Michigan. It's our center of commerce and it was once the most innovation rich region in the world. To make a geographic comparison... When we think of Massachusetts, most just assume a person or company is from Boston. When someone says they are from the "Valley" they could be from San Jose, San Francisco, Palo Alto, or Mountain View... etc. Each represent geographic areas much larger than the actual town or city they are from. And the same goes for "Detroit, as you can be from Ann Arbor, Rochester, Downtown Detroit, Birmingham, Royal Oak, or wherever. For a very long time, each community within Michigan has become siloed with a provincial mentality, its a waste, and we've got no place for it any more. Silo us all you want from the outside looking in, but we'll do and make reference as we please from the inside out. I believe that the entire Detroit region is ripe with potential, and I'll continue to take advantage of that potential to the fullest extent that I can. And I'll say to those of you who doubt Detroit, go ahead and keep at it. Leave the great and growing resources to those of us who care to make a difference.

BallinBige 15y ago
Well said - I think all of these startups have clients, customers, investors, mentors "in Detroit" as well.

steiza 15y ago

For the hackers on this thread in South East Michigan, there's a Ann Arbor CoffeeHouseCoders meetup tomorrow: http://www.meetup.com/coffeehousecoders/ http://www.meetup.com/coffeehousecoders/ It's a great way to meet the other area hackers and hear what other people are working on.

oakfurniture 15y ago

As a piece of oak furniture I have no opinion whatsoever on this topic.