metro » o n the cover

Getting
Down To
Business

Young Jewish entrepreneurs contribute
to startup growth in Detroit.

Adam Finkel | Contributing Writer

H

ave you heard of Banza, Castle,
M Vending or M Laundering? All
four companies are founded or
co-founded by young Jews who moved to
Detroit during the last four years without
having roots in Michigan.
Their businesses — all established within
the last three years and all headquartered
in the city of Detroit — collectively employ
more than 30 people. These companies,
founded by entrepreneurs in their 20s and
early 30s, are a small glimpse into the grow-
ing group of upstart companies in Detroit.
And over the last 12 months, they’ve been
accelerating at a rapid clip — with growing
teams, expanding revenue streams and a
rapidly increasing impact on the city they
all now call home.

BANZA
Back in 2014, Brian Rudolph started
making chickpea pasta in his kitchen
because he couldn’t find a pasta he liked.
Soon he realized he wasn’t the only one
seeking a better pasta. Today, Banza is on
a mission to make nutritious food more
accessible.
Rudolph, who co-founded the business
with his brother Scott, wants to “take the
food people love and make them with
even more nutritious ingredients.” Their
first product is a high-protein, lower-carb
pasta made from chickpeas.
In the last 12 months, Banza has
gone from two to 2,300 stores; it’s been
recognized by Time magazine as one of
the Top 25 Inventions of 2015; and has
been featured in the New York Times
Food section, on the Today Show and
Good Morning America, which included

Rudolph in a key segment last month.
“We believe we can change the pasta
category forever, for the better. Our long-
term vision is to extend beyond pasta
with that same core thesis,” he said.
Rudolph founded Banza from scratch
in the Detroit kitchen he shares with
eight roommates. After graduating from
Emory University, he became a Venture
for America Fellow and was placed at
Quickly, also founded by a young Jewish
entrepreneur who moved here from out-
of-state.
Banza now has revenue in the millions
and a growing team that currently stands
at 11. It has become the No. 1 selling
pasta at Fairway markets and has sold
50,000 boxes during a three-week promo
at ShopRite stores, both on the East
Coast. Within the past month, the com-
pany launched in one-fifth of all Target
locations.
The cost of living here is attractive to
Rudolph. “For a food business in particu-
lar, Eastern Market is one of the best test-
ing grounds for new concepts. You can
also find people who have built successful
businesses and are generous mentors.
Former Garden Fresh partner Dave Zilko
is a perfect example.”
Banza is also seeking to give back to
Detroit. It’s donated 3,000 pounds of pasta
to Forgotten Harvest’s food bank and has
partnered with Detroit Food Academy to
help teach young Detroiters about the food
business and to employ its students in paid
internships at Eastern Market.
Detroit Food Academy was co-founded
by Boston-native Noam Kimelman,
another member of the Detroit Jewish
community, who also co-founded
Detroit’s Fresh Corner Cafe.

TOP: Harnessing technology to help landlords manage rental home are Castle founders
Tim Dingman, Max Nussenbaum and Scott Lowe.

BOTTOM: M Laundering, M Vending teams: Chester Madding, Brett Anchill, Matt
Sendler, Shimon Levy, Dominique Gary, Katie Gibbons and John Reyer.

CASTLE
Max Nussenbaum and his co-founders
started Castle in late 2014, and have seen
massive growth ever since. After rehabbing
an abandoned mansion on Virginia Park
in the New Center area, he immediately
realized there needed to be a better way for
landlords to manage rental homes. After
learning many landlords had a similar
problem, he developed Castle to solve the
“pain point” in the market. Their software
uses automation and on-demand labor

to make the management process more
efficient.
Castle, which took on its first units in
early 2015, has doubled its business every
quarter since. The system currently man-
ages just under 600 units in Southeast
Michigan (up from 250 at the start of
2016), and they represent real estate inves-
tors on every continent except Antartica.
The team recently moved out of the
home on Virginia Park they restored
themselves into a new office space in the

continued on page 16

14 June 16 • 2016

