The Destination

The rebirth of Inc.’ s No. 45 Surge City means the talent here is getting creative—and staying put.

An insider’s guide to our favorite underdog city: Detroit.

STARTUP NEIGHBORHOODS

Midtown is “one of the most welcoming areas to the startup community,” says Ted Serbinski, managing director of Techstars Detroit. At its heart sits Green Garage,

1 a 1920s auto showroom-turned-coworking space that houses 50 businesses, including FoodLab Detroit and solar design firm Strawberry Solar.

When Gwen Jimmere was ready to graduate beauty brand Naturalicious from her basement, she went to Corktown, 2 Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. “It’s where a lot of entrepreneurs congregate,” she says, noting local incubator Ponyride and the glut of great restaurants. “Brooklyn Street Local is a tiny spot with lots of vegan options, perfect for a let-it-all-hang-out meeting with founder friends.”

Dubbed Madison Block, the city’s tech corridor takes its name from the Madison Building that anchors it. You can hardly grab lunch without tripping over one of the hundreds of tech workers or coding boot campers from Grand Circus. 3

RED FLAG

The city’s post-bankruptcy rebirth hasn’t been without tension. “Here you have a city that was mostly African American, and now you have more gentrification happening. A lot of people have opinions about that,” says Meagan Ward, a Detroit native who co-founded women’s co-working space

Femology. Real estate prices are skyrocketing, putting brick-and-mortar out of reach for many entrepreneurs without resources, says Jennyfer Crawford, founder of the small-business-focused marketing and events platform AskJennyfer.

WHERE TO TALK SHOP

Those willing to bare all hit the Schvitz, 4 the city’s old-school bathhouse, founded in 1930. The former oasis for Russian Jews, gangsters, and swingers was rebooted in 2017.

Sink into one of the butter-soft sofas that flank the fireplace in the living room of the Shinola Hotel 5 —an offshoot of the Detroit-born watch brand hatched in 2011 by Fossil founder (and Texas native) Tom Kartsotis.

With views overlooking Capitol Park, Eat—ri Market offers virtually any version of a meal in any form—from habanero grilled oysters and fried mac-and-cheese slabs to happy hour absinthe cocktails.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

Resale marketplace StockX 6 specializes in rare sneakers, handbags, and streetwear. Co-founded by local Quicken billionaire Dan Gilbert, the “stock market for things” has raised more than $44 million, including from celeb Mark Wahlberg. Watch your back, Ikea: Floyd, 7 a flat-pack furniture startup, has funding from Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, along with the investment arm of La-Z-Boy. When the company debuted its first sofa in October, more than 3,700 people requested swatches.

In February, electric-truck startup (and potential Tesla rival) Rivian 8 announced a $700 million investment round, led by Amazon. The news came just months after Rivian debuted its first two all-electric products, a pickup and a sports utility vehicle, which the company has said will hit the U.S. market in 2020.

RECENT EXIT

Internet security provider Duo Security to Cisco, for $2.35 billion (2018) NOTABLE FUNDING $44 million StockX

(apparel and accessories resale platform) $22 million May Mobility (autonomous vehicles)

$20 million Guardhat

(IT security and wearable tech)

TALENT PIPELINE

The University of Michigan has a prodigious number of entrepreneurial alumni, including the founders of autonomous vehicle startup May Mobility, digital health system Fifth Eye, electric battery company Elegus Technologies, IT platform Censys, and medical tech company AIM Tech. Techstars Mobility accelerator is a font of auto-focused talent, pumping out startups like carpooling app company SPLT, smart motorcyclelight-modulator maker GearBrake, and Spatial, which marries real-time social data with location-based A.I. assistance. Historically, Detroit’s new grads would truck to the coasts, but that’s changed in the past five years as they realize there’s plenty of opportunity if they stay local. “If you’re in New York City or San Francisco or Chicago, it’s a little harder to stand out,” says Jared Stasik, a partner at Detroit Venture Partners.