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Sharing Ideas

Local entrepreneurs find support, camaraderie at Bamboo Detroit.

Eli Natinsky | Special to the Jewish News

Y

12 January 7 • 2016

outside of Silicon Valley,” he said. “To cre-
ate a great technology product in Detroit
would attract positive attention and has
the potential to bring a lot of high-skilled
jobs. I believe that’s how you lay the foun-
dation for revitalization.”

Meghan Kindsvater

ou can’t keep me away now,” said
Dave Altschul, 30, of his return to
his hometown five years ago. The
young tech entrepreneur made his way
back after living in other cities and abroad.
“I’m very passionate about Detroit,”
he said. “There’s this energy. Things are
changing. I feel like I’m part of something.
When I came back to Michigan, it just
clicked.”
Altschul grew up in Farmington and
attended Farmington Public Schools.
During his younger years, his family
belonged to Temple Shir Shalom in West
Bloomfield. More recently, he provided
tech support to the Detroit JCC Maccabi
Games in 2014.
He now lives in Detroit’s historic West
Village, which attracts fellow entrepre-
neurs.
“There’s something happening here,”
he said. “We’re not the only ones who feel
it. Anyone who comes here from outside
understands and respects what’s going on.”
Altshul’s own entrepreneurial spirit is
hard at work on Tutrunk, a website he is
set to launch with his business partner,
Nick Sarafa.
“We’re a scrappy little Internet startup,”
Altschul said. The duo is involved in all
aspects of the operation, including admin-
istration, coding, design and marketing.
Tutrunk will allow artists to connect
with their fans and receive fair financial
compensation for use of their work. A
musician, for example, will no longer need
a record label or a third-party distributor
such as iTunes to get their work out to a
large audience. According to Altschul, the
site has the potential to grow quickly and
to attract customers on a large scale.
“We believe artists should get paid for
their work and that the model is seriously
broken,” he said. “Artists are not business
people and that’s OK because there’s a ton of
value in what they’re great at. They’ve been
forced into deals that have not been favor-
able to them, and we can change that.”
Altschul would like to create a successful
company that will be able to hire others
and keep talent in the area. He’s amazed by
the number of experts emerging from area
colleges and universities, and he feels it
is unfortunate Detroit often loses them to
places such as New York, Los Angeles and
San Francisco.
“It’s an opportunity to use what we do
to attract positive attention to the city, to
show that digital products can be created

Happy collaborators: Nick Sarafa, Amanda Lewan and David Altschul.

Chabad of Greater Downtown Detroit’s first launched at Bamboo.

I

t was the spring and summer of 2013
and Rabbi Yisrael Pinson worked out of
Downtown coffee shops as he prepared
to launch the Chabad
of Greater Downtown
Detroit at 278 Mack Ave.
in Detroit.
Pinson knew he need-
ed office space, and he
had met Amanda Lewan,
one of Bamboo Detroit’s
co-founders, through a
Rabbi Yisrael
mutual friend. Pinson
Pinson
came by to look at the
loft and saw it offered
room to hold his weekly Torah study classes.
Memberships start at $99 per month, so
Bamboo was also an affordable option.
“I was literally one of the first Bamboo
members,” Pinson said. “Bamboo was the
first official Chabad location before the
Chabad house opened in January 2014.”
The rabbi held classes at Bamboo for
six months before the house was ready.
Several Bamboo members — nicknamed

“Bamboozlers” — were on hand for the
grand opening of the facility that serves as
a source Downtown for Jewish education,
spirituality and community.
While Pinson is no longer a member, he
maintains strong ties to Bamboo. He attends
networking events regularly and is still
friends with Lewan and the other founders.
In addition, every year, many
Bamboozlers attend Menorah in the D, a
community-wide menorah lighting cer-
emony co-hosted by Chabad of Greater
Downtown Detroit. Lewan advised on
the event website, and she also helped
garner local media attention for another
Chabad-backed venture — The Spot by
Chef Cari, a kosher falafel stand operated
by Cari Herskovitz Rosenbloom, which is
open a few weeks every summer at Campus
Martius Park in Detroit.
“I’m forever grateful to Bamboo for host-
ing me at the beginning and for being such
a caring and welcoming community while I
was there,” Pinson said.

BAMBOO DETROIT
The opportunity was made possible, in
part, by Bamboo Detroit, 1442 Brush St.,
where Tutrunk is located. Bamboo, with
100 members, is the largest co-working
community in the city.
Amanda Lewan, co-founder and part-
ner, attributes Bamboo’s success to the
unique make up of its membership, as well
as a spirit of camaraderie.
“We’re a very diverse mix of entre-
preneurs, across ages, backgrounds and
industries,” she said. “This diversity can
create fresh and innovative perspectives.
Our culture is very collaborative and com-
munity-focused, so members are always
helping one another.”
Altschul joined Bamboo in October
2014; he had been working out of cof-
fee shops. He learned of the community
through Twitter and knew right away it
was a fit. He jokes that he’s been “spoiled”
by his first co-working experience, and he
encourages others to join such a collective.
“I can definitely attribute a lot of our
success to Bamboo,” Altschul said. “We
wouldn’t exist as a company if not for it.
I’ve met everyone I’ve worked with here.
Things have come to fruition here.”
Altschul is especially grateful to
Bamboo’s founders and partners: Dave
Anderson, Brian Davis, Mike Ferlito and
Lewan. For instance, Lewan, a writer and
digital storyteller, has offered Tutrunk cre-
ative advice as it prepares to launch.
“The partners have this mindset that
they want to help others and it’s genuine,”
Altschul said. “That’s a rare and special
thing in this world.”
Lewan is also thankful for Dave and
Nick.
“Dave and Nick’s team are an inspira-
tion to the community,” she said. “They
are always here working hard and always
willing to help out other members. As an
entrepreneur, it can be tough to start a
company or work from home. At Bamboo
Detroit, you know you essentially aren’t
alone. You have a community and a net-
work to support you along the way. We
want to see everyone succeed.”

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