Isaac Gilman: project manager, bike ambassador, fútbol fan, and raging bull. Today, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Isaac Gilman, project manager of Junction 440 – TechTown’s co-working space for local startup businesses. A New Jersey native, Isaac moved to Detroit 4 years ago after graduating from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in urban planning. After graduating, he worked for Billhighway, a software services company geared towards non-profit organizations.

At TechTown, Isaac enjoys helping others start their own businesses, pioneering new technologies, and engaging with the Detroit startup culture. In particular, he enjoys the “ebbs and flows” of each day at TechTown – he enjoys “waking up early, sleeping late, grinding it out one day, and relaxing the next.” After all, he says, “Variety is the spice of life.” Isaac enjoys the anticipation of not knowing exactly what the next day will bring, and tapping into the passionate energy of young entrepreneurs turning their ideas into reality.

Isaac defines social entrepreneurship as “anybody passionate about improving whatever they are interested in and doing good,” whether in “health care, transportation, or something else.” However, he does think that it is important to make clear distinctions between companies that are social enterprises and companies that are not. For example, he considers someone developing a better method to access hockey tickets to be a social entrepreneur, and not a self-interested hockey owner only interested in providing the sport to make a buck. Another example he gives is GM, who has a social enterprise arm, though as a whole is not a social enterprise. Before working for any company, he believes that defining what type of company that you are working at is crucial for a mutually successful relationship between employee and employer.

Isaac has been most satisfied with his life after graduating from school and moving Detroit, because he has had more time to focus on his own passions, which including launching a local bike shop and brewing his own beers. Also, he has had more time to take advantage of the many opportunities that Detroit and TechTown has to offer, as well as connecting other people with the same opportunities. Both Billhighway and TechTown, he says, have allowed him to be “elevated a little bit above ground zero.” In other words, both companies have equipped him with resources, skills, and people that have helped himself pursue social entrepreneurship. It helps, he adds, that being the manager of a co-working space gives him a free co-working space.

Isaac has several role models. He appreciates his father and mother for being smart, hard working, and providing an incredible array of opportunities that has allowed him to thrive. Also, he admires Vince Thomas, the founder of Billhighway, for his influential vision, attitude, and motivation that has allowed his company to flourish for the past 14 years. Isaac also values his Billhighway supervisors for being flexible by assigning him multifaceted projects that move the business forward, maximize his own skill set, and develop professionally.

            I have no doubt that Isaac has a bright future ahead of him, and I look forward to see what the next few years bring for him. I'll leave you with a fun fact that I know you were dying to know about Isaac: his favorite restaurants are Mudgie’s, a sandwich restaurant in Corktown, and Nuestra Familia, a Mexican joint in Southwestern Detroit.

Blight. Poverty. Crimes. Poverty. Blight. Crime. Blight. Poverty. Crime. Poverty. Blight. Crime. Blight. Poverty. Crimes. Poverty. Blight. Crime. Blight. Poverty. Crime. Poverty. Blight. Crime. Blight. Poverty. Crimes. Poverty. Blight. Crime. Blight.

I can’t even recall how many times I’ve encountered these words during my past three weeks in Detroit. Five decades of transformation simply captured in three words. Like most outsiders, I was content with this mere simplification. I never questioned anything. In fact, there wasn’t much to explain. A few people really understand what has happened to this industrial colossus; some are simply tired of explaining. To make things easier, people simply adopt these three words as the “go-to” explanation, and others, like myself, pretend to understand.

The main reason I chose my current project is because it presents the opportunity for me to go into Detroit’s neighborhoods. After months of chasing after explanations in words, I’ve decided to experience it myself. The entrepreneurial scene in Midtown and Downtown is enticing, but I wanted to see the impact of entrepreneurship in Detroit’s neighborhoods and to experience what it means to live in Detroit.

I am currently working on the SWOT City Team at TechTown. The goal of SWOT Team is to accelerate neighborhood business development. For my project, I am exploring ways TechTown can most efficiently bring high-demand brick-and-mortar businesses into Detroit’s neighborhoods. One of the most common problems new business owners encounter is finding a location to start their business. At first, I couldn’t comprehend why this would be a problem. Rows of empty storefronts line the commercial corridors the once bustling streets. “For Sale” and “For Rent” signs are plastered everywhere – on dusty windows, cracked doors, chipping walls. However, the problem is not this simple. The phone numbers listed as the seller’s number are often outdated. Sometimes, the ownership of the property is not even clear. The neogiation process may take up to months. It is not unusual for it to take over half a year for a new business owner to finalize a storefront. Once the location is settled, undergoing city zoning applications and built-out presents another tedious, and often costly, process. All of these combined leads to a high barrier of entry for new business owners lacking the expertise and financial capability to successfully navigate through this complex process.

But they are the people the neighborhoods need. In a city where the government is bankrupt, where the police force is undersized, where people are afraid to walk around alone – even in daylight, where people don’t even have access to fresh produce, small businesses are the key to revitalizing the commercial corridors of the neighborhoods, to not only fill in the demand of neighborhoods residents, but also to re-establish the once lively and walkable city Detroit had been. Small businesses are the anchor that brings people together to form communities - with more small and local businesses along the commercial corridors, people will start to stroll along the long-abandoned sidewalks, chat with their neighbors, and hangout in neighborhood parks on the weekends.  These are the changes they will erase the drug trafficking, gang activites, and gun violence that has pestered this beautiful city for way too long. It is time to change this. 

    For my Duke Engage experience, I am interning with TechTown in Midtown Detroit. Techtown is a non-profit business incubator and accelerator that offers a huge network of resources to entrepreneurs to help build businesses of retail and technology. TechTown also goes into the communities to find ways to stimulate the local economy and reinvent Detroit. TechTown offers several programs and funding to help entrepreneurs within Detroit pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

    TechTown plans to hold a market on Saturday, July 26th, 2014. This market will be similar to the Eastern Market that is held weekly in Detroit. The market will offer free food and music, while also allowing people from the community to come together and socialize. The market is supposed to increase the foot traffic within the Brightmoor community, especially on Fenkell Street. Only 10 percent of the store fronts on Fenkell Street are occupied. Tech Town hopes to bring people into the neighborhood and inspire them to want to create their own business. The process would be to bring in entrepreneurs to the market and offer them vendor space for the monthly market. Then they would hopefully progress into a real estate property that Tech Town has acquired. My project is to contact vendors and try and contact as many businesses as possible to bring into the market. I will be working on marketing component of the market as well. This entails building the website, managing Facebook and Twitter and creating flyers for the market. I will be working with the marketing team and some members from the SWOT team to make sure everything goes smoothly July 26th. The more people that come out the better! With the help of others, the outcome of my project would be to make sure the market is a success. This would ensure that Tech Town could hold more markets in the future. As for what I am doing for the city, I am working to bring foot traffic to the Brightmoor community as I stated before. This would hopefully eliminate the blight that is seen within the neighborhood. This could ultimately help with eliminating crime and violence while bringing resources to the area. This is so important for the area because without this the community will not prosper in the way that it has the potential to. I am really excited for the market coming up and hope everything does work out in order to help the community!

Before coming to Detroit, I have always thought “social entrepreneur” as an exclusive title. To me, the title “entrepreneur” implies someone who has the audacity to take upon risks, someone who relentlessly exercises initiatives, someone who is quick to adapt to changing environments, someone who has an unprecedented talent in a field, someone who always learns from failures … An entrepreneur is someone who embodies every quality our society venerates … a flawless individual.  If this is not selective enough, the word “social” adds another circle of exclusivity to the title.  So I stepped out of the plane at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, expecting to meet exceptionally impeccable individuals with the audacity to impact the world.

I met Angela Foster, the owner of Coffee and (_____) on a visit with the SWOT City team – Regina, Phillip, and Jimmy – to the East Jefferson neighborhood, a once striving manufacturing community now dotted with vacant storefronts and abandoned buildings. As I strolled down the empty streets under the lethargic afternoon sun, I couldn’t help but to question why anyone would decide to open a coffee shop here ...

As we approached Coffee and (_____), two bright red sun umbrellas juxtaposed by a bright neon sign entered my sight. This is the undoubtedly the most colorful storefront along the entire stretch of East Jefferson corridor. As I pulled the doors open, the aroma of newly brewed coffee and freshly baked apple pie poured out. In contrast to the barrenness outside, the interior of Coffee and (______) has a different milieu. Paintings from local artists, overhead lights made from used bike wheels, and a cozy couch built from refurbished wooden planks added a signature “Detroit vibe” to the cozy dwelling.

Angela greeted us with a welcoming smile and introduced us to the pastry of the day – a gluten-free apple pie. I couldn’t resist the smell but was too full to ask for a slice. While Regina and Phillip savored their slices, I let my eyes wander at the people here. Some sat along the bar, quietly sipping a jar of ice-brewed coffee, some indulged themselves in pastries and conversations, some simply sat in the corner, browsing magazines while enjoying a warm cup of latte. Suddenly, I realized, what Angela created is not simply a coffee shop, but a hub for the community to come together in their own neighborhood.

Angela, a classically trained bakery chief, first moved to Detroit with nothing but an idea of the potential Detroit has. When she first started as a pop-up shop last year, she named her coffee shop “Coffee and (_____)” – coffee and (whatever she decides to make). In the beginning, Angela didn’t have the capital to start her own business. However, neighborhood residents, excited about the idea of finally having a coffee shop in the community, poured in to help. Many donated furniture, others stayed until the wee hours of the night to help clean up the space. Some people brought in plants to brighten up the space – one person even brought in an espresso maker.  Coffee and (_____) became not only Angela’s coffee shop, but a coffee shop created by the community, for the community.

Many small businesses are spurring up across the city of Detroit, revitalizing the city, one neighborhood at a time. Over the past two weeks in Detroit, I had the privilege of meeting a handful of business owners that the SWOT City team works with in the neighborhoods of Detroit. Of course, many qualities of the title “entrepreneur” apply to them, but they are far from flawless. Some are struggling with finding a permanent storefront; others are tirelessly navigating through the legal documents of starting a new enterprise, some have never learned how to read a financial statement. They are owners of bakeries, restaurants, boutique shops, grocery deliveries, bookstores, and car repair shops. But they all share one thing in common – they are deeply rooted in the communities they serve. No social entrepreneur embarks the journey solo. They all share the realization that their businesses do not only create a sense of ownership for themselves, but also a sense of ownership for the communities they are a part of.

I am certain Detroit is not going to change through the works of the extraordinary few, but through the determination of many ordinary people who are committed to their communities.

“[I want] To show the world what is possible with nothing” – Tyree Guyton, the Heidelberg Project

I have never witnessed love for a place until I stepped onto Heidelberg Street on the east side of Detroit. Unlike its adjacent neighborhood, the Indian Villages, an affluent community with meticulously kept lawns and architectural masterpieces, Heidelberg Street had a different charm. The once-abandoned houses are painted with colorful polka dots, empty lots are filled with debris-sculptures, aged eastern cotton trees are dressed in painted-clock faces, and rusty benches are filled with stuffed animals. In a neighborhood struggling with blight, poverty, and crimes, this vibrant enclave is a magical oasis for the people who have called this place home for generations.

This is the Heidelberg Project, a two block open art installation created from salvaged items. Founded in 1986 by a long time resident of the east side of Detroit, Tyree Guyton, the Heidelberg Project brought together Detroit residents to transform the once deteriorating neighborhood into a vibrant community of energy and hope. Despite of over five arsons that sought to burn the Heidelberg Project down to its roots and city urban planning projects that bulldozed its artworks, it stands firmly today as a living display of an unbending love for a place, a love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres … a love that never fails.

Tyree Guyton is not standing alone. To the people here, Detroit’s recent bankruptcy is not a symbol of decline, but a pivot point. In face of a giant leviathan, thousands of people are coming forward with ideas - here, ideas spring forward like lichens after a wild fire. But people in Detroit don’t just talk about ideas; inspired by their historical industrial roots, they are eager to roll up their sleeves to build and to create. Even though I’ve only been in Detroit for one week, I can already feel the unbreakable belief that Detroiters share for their city to rise from the ashes.

This summer, I will be working on the SWOT City team at TechTown Detroit, a team that seeks to support small business owners in the neighborhoods of Detroit, with the goal of revitalizing those neighborhoods with one business at a time. For my project, I am working with Jimmy, a fellow DukeEngage participant, to develop a set of recommendations that will provide insight into how TechTown Detroit can accelerate neighborhood business development through acquiring commercial real estate. Although we are lucky to receive a concrete project, the scope of this project spans everything from gaining a thorough understanding of the neighborhoods by visiting local communities, to analyzing the most appropriate ownership model through researching best practices, to exploring different fundraising strategies by interviewing other organizations involved in similar works. This is undoubtedly a challenging project, but I am very excited to fully engage myself in the project and immerse myself in the city of Detroit.