--This article originally appeared on April 16, 2009
Jordan Wolfe went the way too many college graduates from Michigan go these days.
The Metro Detroit native graduated from Indiana University and took a job in investment banking/private equity in San Francisco. After two years, in 2007 he came back to Metro Detroit for family reasons and got going on his own start-up, uwemp.com, an online media company.
This year he teams up with two other local young entrepreneurs also in their 20s, Mason Levey and Zach Lipson, to start TechNow 09. The tech conference will showcase the young new economy talent in Metro Detroit and give them a place to network. They're holding it at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on April 23.
"It's going to be young but very well polished," Wolfe says. "It's not going to be let's focus on the bad things in Michigan and Metro Detroit, but what can we do?"
The idea is to help build the local new economy so people like Wolfe and his friends have a community to build their businesses on. That way they don't have to run off to places like Silicon Valley to go after dreams of start-ups and entrepreneurship.
Not to mention that Michigan has its own attributes that Wolfe and his partners will be pointing out to those attending. Those advantages include low overhead costs for tech workers and office space.
"If we end up staying, we need a reason to," Wolfe says.
Source: Jordan Wolfe, co-founder of TechNow 09
Writer: Jon Zemke
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