Business & Professional

TH

ENTREPRENEUR

Mason Levey and Jordan

Wolfe, both of Royal Oak,

with Zach Lipson of
West Bloomfield

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Three young entrepreneurs plan cutting-edge business expo.

Robin Schwartz
Special to the Jewish News

W

ith Michigan's unemployment
rate the highest in the nation,
the auto industry reeling,
home values plummeting and families
hurting, the current economic forecast
appears rather gloomy. But three young,
homegrown, Jewish entrepreneurs see a
silver lining amid the dark clouds.
Jordan Wolfe, 26, and Mason Levey, 21,
both of Royal Oak, and Zach Lipson, 23,
of West Bloomfield, all of whom own their
own Web-based enterprises, think now
is the perfect time to promote new, high-
tech businesses.
"I really think this is a blessing in dis-
guise. We can let the economy get us down
and say, `Poor Michigan, poor Detroit, or
we can work to fundamentally change the
way we do business',' said Wolfe.

The Indiana University graduate ini-
tially did what so many other young
professionals do — he moved away after
college. But Wolfe recently left a job in San
Francisco to return home to Metro Detroit.
While contemplating ways to bring other
young, Jewish 20-somethings back to
town, he hooked up with Levey and
Lipson. The trio put their heads together
to plan TechNow09, an outside-the-box
business networking event they hope will
bring more than 400 young professionals
and local business leaders together April
23 at the Royal Oak Music Theatre.
"We saw a big opportunity here; we
saw a void in the area',' explained Lipson,
a graduate of the Eli Broad School of
Business at Michigan State University.
"This is not your ordinary business
event': Lipson said. "We want to launch
this movement and promote some for-
ward thinking."

Fred Marx of Bloomfield Hills, one of
the founders of the Farmington Hills-
based marketing and public relations firm
Marx Layne, thinks the idea puts a mod-
em spin on a traditional business gather-
ing or speaker series.
"People of this generation look at this
type of event for networking opportuni-
ties; there's a sociability that goes above
and beyond a business conference:' Marx
said. "While it might not employ the num-
bers that we need, it's a terrific initiative
for keeping young talent and individuals
who can potentially build organizations
and companies. It's incumbent upon us
to find career opportunities so we don't
continue to lose our college graduates to
Chicago and other cities"

Setting The Stage
Planning the event was no small feat. The
organizers put up $15,000 of their own

money and launched a full-scale grass-
roots effort. They spent countless hours
making cold calls to various organizations,
setting up meetings, lining up sponsors
and speakers and even hiring a band to
perform.
"There are all these little pockets of
really interesting people in the business
community and creative community:'
said Lipson. "Just through putting on this
event, it's amazing the types of connec-
tions we made and what we've accom-
plished."
The "biz kids" created an impressive
lineup of featured speakers, including
Chuck Newman, founder and CEO of
ReCellular in Dexter, the country's largest
cellphone recycler; Larry Freed, CEO of
Ann Arbor-based ForeSee Results, which
provides online customer satisfaction
surveys; Jeff Bocan, managing director of
Biz Kids on page A22

April 16 a 2009

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