12 | JUNE 29 • 2023 

Mark Davidoff, Matt Elliott and Quentin Messer Jr. unveil the chosen name “The Elevator.”

According to Davidoff, The 
Elevator’s roots reach back to 
2014, when, after returning from 
leading a mission to Israel, he 
wrote an essay for Crain’s com-
paring Detroit to the Jordan 
River. 
“The Jordan River was going 
through a reclamation process, 
and my essay compared Detroit 
post-bankruptcy and the Jordan 
River in its reclamation,
” he said. 
“The topic was: What happens 
when something of a biblical 
nature isn’t taken care of? That 
article inspired a number of 
conversations amongst the CEO 

group in Detroit, and the com-
mon theme was, to me, they 
hadn’t been to Israel and needed 
to go.
” 
In 2015, Davidoff led the 
Michigan CEO Israel Mission 
with 20 CEOs from across the 
state. They went to Israel for five 
days to study the incubator eco-
system of Israel. “That mission 
led as a catalyst to, in 2018, the 
formation of the Michigan Israel 
Business Accelerator, for which I 
was among the first board mem-
bers,
” Davidoff said.
Today, MIBA has a team of 
four professionals in Detroit 
and two in Israel. “We take a 

consistent flow of leaders from 
Michigan to Israel,
” Davidoff said. 

WHAT IS THE ELEVATOR?
“The Elevator is the only soft 
landing zone exclusively for 
Israeli startups in the United 
States. And we’re so proud it’s 
here in Detroit,
” Davidoff said.
The Elevator expands upon 
MIBA
’s existing services that 
connect Israeli innovators with 
Michigan partners to foster 
collaborative and strategic part-
nerships for mutual benefit. The 
Elevator’s added offerings include 
regular networking events that 
bring together ecosystem part-

ners and facilitate introductions 
between Israeli partners and 
Michigan businesses, as well as 
educational programs focused on 
market penetration techniques 
such as sales training and mar-
keting strategies to accelerate 
expansions.
Members of The Elevator will 
not only gain access to corporate 
enablers, experts and preferred 
resources — such as legal, mar-
keting and accounting — they 
will also have the opportunity to 
participate in regularly scheduled 
strategic events and mixers that 
align with membership interests 
and notable conferences held in 

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

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