Tech Leveraging Co-op looks for free solutions for entrepreneurs

The conventional wisdom is that it costs a lot of money to start a new economy-based start-up. Melinda Korenchuk doesn't buy that.

In fact, it's her job and the focus of her one-month-old start-up to show people such beliefs are more factoid than fact. She started Rochester Hills-based Technology Leveraging Cooperative earlier this summer as a way of showing small businesses there are cheaper ways to do things like use email rather than purchasing name brand products off the shelf.

"Then you find out you can use open source products and pay nothing," Korenchuk says.

The problem is the sheer number of available open source software programs. Technology Leveraging Cooperative pools the best and most cost-effective of the bunch together and gives them to its customers. Korenchuk is building some standardized packages for small businesses right now.

She has been working on this concept for the last year, and finally, along with three partners, decided to go for it after becoming an employment casualty.

"I didn't feel like I wanted to work for someone else, especially with the economy the way it is," Korenchuk says.

Source: Melinda Korenchuk, director and owner of Technology Leveraging Cooperative
Writer: Jon Zemke
Enjoy this story? Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.