More and more business professionals from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area are staking a claim in Detroit by working with programs that are helping spread entrepreneurship and technology across the Motor City.
The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center (which is run by Eastern Michigan University Business Prof
Richard King) is launching its new statewide New Venture program from Detroit. New Venture aims to help aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs establish their business through a 10-week course, which teaches the basics about opening a business, how to make sure the venture is viable and consulting with the entrepreneurs after they are up and running. It has already graduated its first two entrepreneurs.
"It's going to be offered in a number of locations," says Wendy Thomas, associate regional director for the
Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.
Dave Koziol, founder of the downtown Ann Arbor-based mobile app firm
Arbormoon Software, is the co-founder of Develop Detroit. The new initiative looks to help expand the mobile app workforce in the Motor City through a 12-week course that teaches the participants how to build their own mobile app. Develop Detroit is modeled after a similar program in Chicago called Code Academy.
Bruce McCully, CEO of
Dynamic Edge, has been growing a technology club in the
Detroit Institute of Technology. The institute is one of four schools from Detroit Public School's inside the former Cody High School on the city's west side. The Ann Arbor-based tech start-up's employees teach the students how to use cutting edge technology and how to make it work for them, such as applying for job or colleges.
Source: Wendy Thomas, associate regional director for the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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