The eyes of the world are on the Motor City and how we are driving into the future. Tomorrow’s technology, mobility and entrepreneurship requires taking bold risks. Wisely, Detroit businessmen Dan Gilbert and Bill Ford, Jr. are doing that with their companies and partnership startups. Their announcements at the recent Crain’s Detroit Homecoming and streamed wxyz.com were visionary and inspiring!
On the one hand, we have Ford’s $740 million to create a new high-tech campus in Corktown. On the other, there’s Gilbert and Josh Luber’s StockX fundraising partnership spearheaded by Google Ventures and Battery Ventures. Both are big business boosts for this region in an effort to create the jobs of tomorrow and keep them in our town.
Gilbert and Ford’s risk-taking is also creating friendly competition from other startup investors who want to make their mark on our next generation economy. The global battle for talent will get increasingly fierce. But now is the time to plant the seeds for growth.
Doing so will take support from local leaders and tax structuring that is creative but sensible for the long haul?
But what we see happening now is very promising and the type of forward-thinking that Detroit must do to build a solid foundation the Motor City of the future. The town that put the world on wheels in the last century can lead the world in talent and mobility this century through ingenuity and smart risk-taking.
I’m Mike Murri, Vice President & General Manager
Broadcast: September 20 - 23, 2018
