business & professional
Got A Challenge?
Here's To from page 52
Danny Samson has built a career on solving tough problems.
Allan Nahajewski
Contributing Writer
F
Council and co-chair of the Steering
Committee of the Energizing
Connections for Healthier Oakland. In
addition, she is a member of the
Strategic Leadership Team Great Start
Collaborative-Oakland.
Andrew B. Wachler
was profiled in the July/
August 2014 edition of
or fewer than four months, Danny Samson, 43, has
been CEO of Digerati, a Detroit-based company dedi-
cated to solving complex problems. The job is a good
fit.
"I enjoy a challenge he says. "I am a determined individu-
al. I truly believe if you focus and work hard, you can accom-
plish and overcome the challenges that are put in front of you:'
For Samson, life's challenges have included fighting wild-
fires out west and spending a year in Israel after college.
"I've been very fortunate to be put in uncomfortable places
where you have to overcome. You figure your way through it.
Building upon those, you feel you can take it all on."
One challenge that Digerati was asked to tackle was to help
students find internships and to help employers find interns.
"Finding and retaining talent is a big issue in Michigan:'
Samson says. "We researched the problem as it exists today.
It's a complex issue with a thousand variables. That's the
fun of these challenges. We then developed a website called
InternlnMichigan.com using a sophisticated matching tech-
nology, which is just now hitting the marketplace. It was ini-
tially funded by the New Economy Initiative."
The Detroit Pistons also have tapped Digerati to develop a
system to analyze data about their fans to better serve their
customers and market to them.
"We use the same methodology to solve each challenge
Samson says. "It's really a matter of understanding the prob-
lem and the processes that are involved, then breaking down
every single step of any process to understand how best to
attack it."
Samson grew up in Southfield, attended Southfield-Lathrup
High School, before earning a degree in English and litera-
ture at Michigan State and a master's degree in urban studies
at Wayne State. Samson and his wife have five children —
daughters aged 11, 9 and 7, and twin 5-year-old sons. They
live in Huntington Woods and belong to Temple Emanu-El in
Oak Park.
Samson's first full-time job after college was as a sales assis-
tant for the Jewish News. "I had good mentors there. I learned
that if you work hard and keep going, the benefits will present
themselves. That may sound corny, but I used to make sales
calls and deal with rejection. I just kept forging ahead, and
ultimately understood that it's all about hard work, building
relationships and being able to communicate with people. If
you can do those things, you're going to be successful:'
For 10 years, Samson worked for the Sterling Group, a real
estate and investment company. One of the firm's investments
was in Digerati, a company started 13 years ago by two engi-
neers from the University of Michigan. Samson worked with
Digerati for eight years through the Sterling Group before the
opportunity arose to become Digerati's CEO.
Digerati's offices are on the 34th floor of the Guardian
Building in Detroit.
"I'm passionate about Detroit:' Samson says. "I've been
working here for 20 years. How can we attack problems in our
community? There are a hundred different ways, and when
you start to talk about them all, interesting solutions can
arise:'
Samson says Digerati's approach sets it apart from other
companies. At our core, we're made up of engineers who
approach a problem differently from how a software developer
might. When you marry those two things, that's when it gets
54 September 11 • 2014
JN
Ambassador Magazine,
a Detroit-based maga-
zine focused on local
personalities and life-
All 14
style. Wachler has been
Wachler
practicing health care
law for more than 25
years. He counsels health care providers
and organizations nationwide in a vari-
ety of health care legal matters.
1111
Danny Samson
interesting. You're coming up with unique ideas to solve age-
old problems:'
Digerati is a private company with 25 employees. "We tend
to take on spot projects, then develop software around those
projects:' says Samson. "We own the intellectual property
around those projects,and even spin off different companies
from those projects.
"The technology we develop typically has a variety of
applications. For example, matching technology can work in
a million different ways — from helping someone find a job
to helping someone select a wine. Those types of technolo-
gies are limitless. We're in conversations regularly with people
from all over the country who come up with any number of
ways to use technology that we've developed, then give us
ideas for new technology:'
An odd career path for an English major? Samson doesn't
think so.
"It may not seem like it, but it's been a logical path:' he says.
"Everything I've done — from the real estate side to urban
planning to the technology that we're working with now — all
centers around economic development in some form:'
Samson says Digerati is regularly in a hiring mode. "We're
frequently on the prowl for engineers, developers and library
scientists:'
Even English majors.
"I don't view English majors as a box for teachers:' he says.
"For me, it's developing skills around communication, which
has a thousand different iterations — from sales to problem-
solving and everything in between. How do you get your mes-
sage across? You could have the greatest product in the world,
but if you're not communicating what it is and how it solves
someone's problems, you're not going to see the success you
deserve:'
❑
For more on Digerati, visit www.digerati.co .
On behalf of Shuman
Chrysler Dodge Jeep
RAM in Walled Lake,
Bob Shuman, dealer,
past president of the
Detroit Auto Dealers
Association and past
chair of the 2014 North
Shuman
American Auto Show,
donated $50,000 to the Foundation for
Excellence (FFE) —Walled Lake Schools.
The Foundation will fulfill Shuman's
goal of reaching out to students who
want to be involved in Walled Lake
Schools' performing arts programs, but
need assistance.
co
Daniel Cooper
Adam Cooper
Daniel and Adam Cooper, founders of
Cooperbrothersfilmsinc, had exciting
news with their most recent movie, The
Fourth Wall. It recently came in first
place at two different film festivals. At
the Hollyshorts film festival, sponsored
by Latino Art Beat, in Hollywood, Calif.,
their movie won "Best in Show" for the
youth (under 21) category. They were
awarded a $40,000 scholarship to the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston.