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