Duo Security (in Ann Arbor) and Plex Systems (Troy) are the two 'Metro Detroit' anchors - pure software companies doing over $100 million+ in recurring SaaS revenue.
I was thinking to myself - who is #3-5 for SaaS in Detroit?
Here in Jacksonville, FL we've seen 2-3 different attempts to create innovation districts downtown in the last five years, always led by entrepreneurial activists leveraging tax grants and "if you build it they will come" mentality. One collapsed after building an incubator and funding only small consumer products instead of the startups they promised and wasting a huge amount of money on overhead. One never got off the ground. Another launched to much fanfare and then went silent. I've been told political leadership are pretty sick and tired of hearing how entrepreneurship is going to save everyone.
You get these excited people wanting to make a difference so they follow the playbook but without the key players and it fails. But I get shade for being the one saying not to do it because its wasting goodwill for when a real opportunity comes along, everyone who could act has already been burned by false promises based on little more than hope.
Dan Gilbert set the Madison building as ground zero for a startup neighborhood. He even wanted that stretch of Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main street, renamed there as Webward Avenue. He filled the Madison with startups that he funded. When they outgrew it they moved to other building he owned nearby.
Now that zone extends for ten or fifteen blocks, I know because I visit my friends down there regularly. One guys vision is all it took.