Photo Credit: Techcrunchstore
To the rest of the tech world: Detroit, Michigan must appear dead.
Detroit doesn’t have any startup launch parties and we certainly don’t praise funding announcements. Venture capital investment in Michigan companies during the first six months of 2011 plunged to its lowest level in 16 years. Ouch.
Unfortunately, this means our stories are never published in TechCrunch! #wahhh
Go ahead and run a search query on TechCrunch for the keyword Detroit. Thats right, there are only 3 stories this year with Detroit in the title.
So why do so many of us view TechCrunch as the holy gospel, as if it’s something that we can relate to?
Put That Coffee TechCrunch Down.
In the famous Glengarry Glen Ross monologue, the young Alec Baldwin emphatically grabs the attention of his underperforming sales team by calling them out. With a few expletives, he successfully drives the point home and gets them focused.
I’m not a physiologist, but rabid consumption and obsessive re-tweeting of the myriad of stories, like a photo sharing app raising $41 million dollars, seem to distort ones expectations. It creates a false sense of reality and that is the last thing we need clouding our minds in Detroit.
More Production, Less Consumption.
The startup community in Michigan is alive and well. Entrepreneurs are here and when we get together we get stronger. When we share our startups, our stories, and our failures the feeling is real.
Having worked in Detroit area startups for 5 years, I can confidently tell you there is a renewed interest in the city and its surroundings. Look no further than Michigan’s own Dan Gilbert.
You wouldn’t know that by reading TechCrunch.
View Erick Bzovi’s profile
About Erick Bzovi
Erick Bzovi is the cofounder of Healpay, an Ann Arbor, Michigan startup that makes innovative applications for collecting money. Prior to Healpay, Bzovi co-founded the vertical ad network - Outside Hub Media. As COO of Outside Hub, he was responsible for growing to a network of over 350 managed publishers and 8mm unique visitors.
