Guest Blogger: Carrie Jones

Carrie Jones is the executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital Association. In this role, she oversees the organization's operations, member activities and outreach to media and legislators.   Prior to joining the Michigan Venture Capital Association, she was director of the Michigan Film Office, where she worked with Michigan's film and digital media community and oversaw the successful implementation of the state's new film and digital media incentive program. Jones has also served in key leadership roles under Governor Jennifer Granholm, and worked for U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin.   Raised in Michigan, Jones received her bachelor of arts in sociology from Furman University.


Why Companies Move to Michigan

The strong eco-system of support for entrepreneurs in Michigan, including business incubators and accelerators, research universities and a business community passionate about helping others succeed, is contributing to the state's remarkable turn around story. 

The state and its regional partners are offering entrepreneurs unprecedented access to critical business incubation and acceleration services, including education and mentoring.  As a result, more and more serial entrepreneurs are calling Michigan home, creating a culture of innovation in the state where risk-taking is the norm and connections to advice and support are easily accessible.

This entrepreneurial activity leads to real, tangible economic benefit: Investors are taking note of what's happening, and are proactively seeking opportunities to be a part of Michigan's turn around.  

In the Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) annual research report, data shows that Michigan is bucking the national trend of declining VC.  In fact, in 2012, Michigan jumped from 25th to 15th in the national ranking of VC activity.  This fact is significant: Michigan is in the top tier of states where entrepreneurs are getting funded. 

Drilling down a little deeper, the research conducted by MVCA shows that there are 106 Michigan companies that are funded by national and regional venture capital firms.   A majority of these venture-backed companies are in the life science and information technology industries, and were backed by Michigan VCs.

What's more, more companies are choosing to do business in Michigan – even those that started elsewhere.  Take Stik.com, a portfolio company of Detroit Venture Partners.  Stik.com, which was founded in San Francisco, specializes in helping professionals build their businesses via "online word of mouth" by collecting and strategically publishing recommendations and reviews from past clients.  

When asked about the move from the west coast to Michigan, Stik.com's Nathan Labenz explained, "We decided to move here from San Francisco because we thought Detroit would afford us the best opportunity to build a world-class team and retain key talent as we mature into a great company. Detroit has a huge base of talented technical grads eager to work on exciting products, but still relatively few consumer Internet companies competing for that talent.   In contrast, San Francisco has so many companies and opportunities for software developers that it's become a huge challenge to build and maintain a great team long enough to achieve real success."

It's that sort of practical viewpoint that's helping entrepreneurs, and investors, get ahead in Michigan. 

You might be tempted to be dismissive of stories like these, and chalk them up to being small rocks falling in to the ocean. Venture capital only helps investors and entrepreneurs, right?  And what possible effect can these startups have on the number of Michigan's serious challenges? 

In fact, venture capital has a broad impact on our economy that reaches far beyond investors and entrepreneurs.  Thanks to the successful venture community in Michigan, more entrepreneurs are considering the state as a destination to locate and grow their business.  These businesses that commit to Michigan commit to growing here and creating jobs.  Data show that venture-backed companies have created more than 1,500 jobs in Michigan over the last five years.  

Entrepreneurs and VCs play a critical role in creating a stable, revitalized economy in Michigan.  It's exciting to see our economy grow in this way, built on innovative ideas and investors who are willing to back an investment in their future… and our state's.