Even as the Detroit Red Wings seek to battle back in their NHL playoff series against the Phoenix Coyotes, entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan are working overtime to help the state meet an economic challenge far more imposing than the Coyotes are on ice. That’s how we see it here at Xconomy, and that’s why it is with special pleasure and excitement that we announce today that Xconomy is bringing its hyperlocal coverage of key innovation clusters to Michigan with the launch of Xconomy Detroit. The Motor City (with our coverage including much of the rest of Michigan and northern Ohio) is now the fourth region in Xconomy’s network, joining Boston, Seattle, and San Diego.
Regular readers of Xconomy will recognize right away that Detroit doesn’t outwardly have the hallmarks of the other innovation clusters we cover, all of which are leaders in key areas of information technology and life sciences, and boast vibrant venture capital and entrepreneurial cultures.
But the innovation story playing out in Michigan is just as important, and in fact, the stakes may be far higher. To compete globally and thrive far into the future, the American auto industry will need to continue to reinvent itself. At the same time, entrepreneurs and government leaders recognize that the region needs a much broader economic base. That has led to a profusion of investments in areas outside (or peripherally related to) the automotive industry, such as biotechnology, biofuels, batteries, medical devices, software, and homeland security.
In each of these areas, scores of creative businesspeople and entrepreneurs are waiting to tell their stories and share their insights. And because we believe in the power of innovation and entrepreneurship to transform regional economies, we want to be on the ground in Detroit to hear what they have to say and watch the progress of their incredibly important efforts.
We have a personal stake as well. Xconomy is in many ways a Michigan and Big Ten publication. Executive editor Rebecca Zacks and chief correspondent Wade Roush are both Michigan natives, as is our business development manager in San Diego, Michele Gerus, who graduated from Wayne State University. National biotech editor Luke Timmerman grew up near Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin (he’s pressing hard for a Wisconsin bureau); and Seattle editor Greg Huang was largely raised in Urbana, IL, and did his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois.
With three highly talented Michiganders on our team, all of whom have left the state, we recognize that we also embody part of the problem: the best and the brightest must be retained in greater numbers if Michigan is going to succeed in transforming its economy. But we think that by better telling the stories of entrepreneurs and innovators—be they at startups or automakers and other public companies, and be they stories of success or failure—we can help cultivate a culture of innovation that
