Welcome to Michigan, now start a company…
I
recently read a bumper sticker which commanded, “Welcome to
America….now speak English.” Whoever came up with idea was probably
tired of bad accents. I am glad the Immigration and Naturalization
Service does not have such signs at the entry points of the country.
But if we extend the idea to attracting entrepreneurs to Michigan, what
would the tag line be?
I have noticed a very
interesting trend where entrepreneurs who have built successful
companies on the coasts are returning back to Michigan to repeat the
economic successes.
Take for example, Doug
Neal who spent several years on the West coast, built a successful
venture backed company, survived various ups and downs and eventually
had a nice exit. Now, Doug has moved to Brighton and is using his
expertise to help build start-ups in Michigan. His family ties brought
him back to Michigan.
Bob Poloskey and Tom
Bollum built a successful company in California which raised over $30mm
of venture capital. The company was sold within four years and Bob and
Tom brought back their expertise (and wealth, thank you very much) to
Michigan, where they became a part of Osiris Innovations.
Osiris is based in Auburn Hills & is focused on sales of cutting
edge supplier management software. With marquee customers like Office
Depot, TRW and Detroit Medical Centers, Bob & Tom are well on their
way to replicate the success, this time in Michigan.
Sreeram
Veeragandham was the founding member of Juniper Networks, now a public
company with $10 billion market capitalization. Sreeram was a part of
the team that helped develop and re-tool the initial product line that
led Juniper to eventually grow and compete with the likes of CISCO.
Sreeram came to Michigan to get his MBA at the University of Michigan
and decided to stay. He worked tirelessly to build Accuri Cytometers,
an Ann Arbor based University of Michigan spin-off that is selling
research instruments. Sreeram also invested capital and helped raise
initial rounds of funding for Accuri. Sreeram now spends time with
Plymouth Ventures to help build Michigan companies.
So
how can the State of Michigan attract more of the ilk… entrepreneurs
are unique beasts who are highly independent. Charlie Rothstein,
founder of Beringea,
one of the successful venture funds in Michigan shared a brilliant
idea: “Destination Michigan” where any entrepreneur in any part of the
country who can raise the first million of venture capital would get a
matching investment from state programs. A simple elegant idea which
can attract entrepreneurs, start-ups and investments to Michigan – all
without any tax incentives. You can spot a good idea whose time has not
yet come… hopefully we will see this get launched sometime soon. Till
then, some bumper stickers maybe?
Mahendra
Ramsinghani is with Plymouth Venture Partners, an “all immigrant”
venture firm with an Australian (Ian Bund) and two Indians (Mahendra
& Sreeram) working hard to build Michigan’s economy. Thank God, at
least two of the three speak English well.