44 | JULY 8 • 2021 

S

hortly before COVID-
19 hit, entrepreneur 
Steven Nelick, former 
vice president and general 
manager of Enterprise 
Holdings, retired from his role.
At the time, Nelick relocated 
to Birmingham to be closer to 
his wife’s family, who originally 
hails from Metro Detroit. 
Though they were married at 
Adat Shalom Synagogue in 
Farmington Hills, they lived in 
many cities throughout the U.S. 
and Canada.
“I wasn’t really sure if I was 
going to go back to work,
” he 
recalls. “Then COVID hit, so I 
started looking for the next best 
thing because I became kind of 
bored.
”
He managed to bump into 
an old Enterprise friend in 
Birmingham, Jim Lareau, and 
the two decided to look for a 
franchise together.
“We investigated a bunch 
of franchises, and we ran 
into this company called 
M3Linked,
” Nelick says. 
M3Linked offers a unique twist 
on networking opportunities 
for business professionals with 
both virtual and in-person 
events. “We absolutely loved 
it because it was all about 
helping entrepreneurs, business 
owners and CEOS move their 
businesses forward.
”

For Nelick, 52, who was 
always passionate about 
collaboration and business 
growth, he felt that buying 
the Michigan franchise rights 
for M3Linked was the right 
move. “It felt like a really good 
extension of what I’ve done 
my whole career,
” says Nelick, 
who managed more than 2,000 
employees across 200 locations 
while at Enterprise Holdings. 
Together, Nelick and Lareau 
bought the franchise rights 
and got to know M3Linked’s 
business partners. 
 “They basically asked us 
to come in and buy half the 
company and be the managing 
partner,
” Nelick explains of the 
transition. 
 M3Linked moved its 
headquarters from Scottsdale, 
Ariz., here to Birmingham, 
where it currently stands, 
making Nelick and Laureau 
franchisors instead of 
franchisees. Nelick became 
CEO, while Laureau became 
COO.

NETWORKING 
OPPORTUNITIES
Now, M3Linked is live in nine 
markets across the country, 
including Detroit — and Nelick 
says his goal is for the company 
to grow even further. “I think 
it fixes a bunch of things,
” he 

BUSINESS

Hybrid virtual and in-person 
networking platform helps 
business professionals connect.

A New Kind of 
Collaboration

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Steven 
Nelick

S
vice president and general 

A New Kind of 
Collaboration

Steven 
Nelick

