Business & Professional

,tFNEU

Energizing Detroit

Venture partners pitch 'a culture of innovaton.'

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

T

hree suburban Jewish entrepre-
neurs are on a mission to help
other entrepreneurs build and
grow meaningful companies in Detroit,
and, in the process, help rebuild the city
and the region.
They have launched Detroit Venture
Partners (DVP), "focused on rebuild-
ing Detroit through entrepreneurship:'
with offices in mortgage lender Quicken
Loans' new home in downtown Detroit's
Compuware Building on Woodward Ave.
"We're creative business builders
who want to make an impact on the
city by developing new business and
significant social change through entre-
preneurship," declared Josh Linkner of
Birmingham, who is CEO and managing
partner of the new venture capital firm.
"And we already have heard from about
77 early-stage technology companies
who have expressed interest in coming
into Detroit."
Linkner, 40, also is founder and cur-
rent chairman of ePrize, a national
Internet sales promotion firm based
in Pleasant Ridge; an entrepreneur in
three previous successful businesses; a
professional-level jazz musician and the
author of two books.

Detroit 'An Incredible City'
The other two general partners of
Detroit Venture Partners are ardent
Detroit booster Dan Gilbert, 48, of
Franklin, who is founder and chair-
man of Quicken Loans and investor in
several businesses with Detroit con-
nections, and Brian Hermelin, 45, of
Bingham Farms, who is founder and
chairman of Rockbridge Growth Equity,
specializing in rebuilding older high-
tech firms, and chairman of Active Aero
Group, a Livonia-based air cargo charter
firm. He graduated from Pennsylvania
University's Wharton Business School.
Any effort to help rejuvenate Detroit
brings a ray of light to the pall hanging
over the city from recent corruption
charges leveled against five former city
officials, plus other previous corruption
cases that have resulted in prison sen-

tences for some city officials.
"We love Detroit so much that we're
devoting our careers now to rebuilding
this incredible city," the three multi-
millionaire DVP partners said in a
statement. "We're not snooty academics
or numbers-crunching CPAs. We're pas-
sionate entrepreneurs who know how
to build successful companies from the
ground up. While others may be over-
analyzing, we're busy doing!"
Linkner said the 77 potential Detroit
tenants learned about DVP through
other venture firms, area universities
and some news media coverage. "The
word is spreading and people are excit-
ed about our efforts; the entrepreneurs
are finding us," he added.
They include an iphone/pad app
developer, an E-Bay-like marketplace
for non-traditional marketing assets, a
digital media company, and an Internet
security and fraud prevention company.
"And we're in active discussions with
a hot Internet company in California
that's considering relocating to Detroit
to grow their business with our help,"
Linkner noted.

Companies Eye Downtown
Linker said DVP also is looking in
general for investment opportunities
in marketing technology, direct-to-con-
sumer organizations, sports and enter-
tainment, social media, e-commerce,
software, biotech firms and others.
He said DVP plans to fund its first
couple of companies in January or
February. "Most of the companies we've
spoken with have agreed to relocate
specifically to downtown Detroit in con-
junction with an investment from us,"
he said. "We believe Detroit's geographic
location is a huge advantage.
Linkner explained DVP's system:
"We invest money in a business and
take equity; we buy stock and become
part owners. We don't typically loan
the company money. Instead, we invest
our capital, time, resources, experience
and effort in exchange for a stake in the
outcome."
He said, "We're building DVP on a
specific cultural framework; we want to
back entrepreneurs with shared values

Josh Linkner

Dan Gilbert

Brian Hermelin

"We're creative business builders who want to
make an impact on the city by developing new
business and significant social change through
entrepreneurship."
- Josh Linkner

... passionate entrepreneurs who can
both dream and execute. Great thinking
trumps fancy diplomas; imagination
beats pedigree."

Seattle Success Cited
Linkner points out that companies like
Groupon, Google, Facebook, Zynga,
Zappos and Detroit's own Quicken
Loans have enjoyed meteoric growth
and profits despite a global recession
and financial meltdown.
"The common threads of their suc-
cess are hyper-growth cultures; a shared
philosophy of business that enables
breakaway results," he said. "Think of
what Microsoft and Starbucks did for
Seattle. Not just taxes, but the countless
spinoff businesses created and overall
impact on the region. We're ready to do
the same right here in Detroit?'
Other DVP employees are Jake Cohen
of Ann Arbor, who graduated from the
University of Michigan's law school and
had accepted a job at a top Boston law
firm. But he decided to join DVP instead
and even live downtown. The company's
business manager is Kathy Hoffman of
Huntington Woods.
Forming of DVP is in keeping with

Dan Gilbert's promise to help attract
other high-tech businesses to the city
when he moved 1,700 of his Quicken
Loans employees downtown from
Livonia in October. "We have to create
a culture of innovation, ideas and risk
in Detroit:' he said at the time, "and we
have to think big."
About 150 additional employees of
Quicken Loans or other Gilbert busi-
nesses will move soon from suburban
locations into newly leased space
in downtown's Madison Building at
Woodward and Grand Circus Park.
The exuberant Gilbert, Linkner and
Hermelin concluded their statement:
"We believe entrepreneurship can drive
meaningful social change in Detroit,
creating jobs, wealth and hope. Where
others see the remains of a time gone
by, we see enormous opportunity. Our
best days are ahead of us, not behind.
Detroit can once again become a vortex
of energy; a center of digital technology,
commerce and opportunity.
"It's time for us all to stop pointing
fingers and start rebuilding this city one
step at a time. We're completely com-
mitted to making Detroit a city to be
reckoned with." II

January 6 . 2011

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