[Corrected 7/12/11, 4:05 pm.See below.]Margarita Barry is throwing a party.
Who: Entrepreneurial, creative people in their 20s or 30s
Where: Detroit
When: Now
RSVP: www.iamyoungdetroit.com
Barry, 26, is the founder of I am Young Detroit, a web site [An earlier version mistakenly described the website as a social networking site. We regret the error.]that offers news, blogs, and videos about local professionals and artists under the age of 40 in the Motor City.
What began as a blog to counter negative media coverage of Detroit has morphed into a rallying cry for twenty and thirty-somethings across the country to revitalize the city. Launched in 2010, the site has attracted the notice of national media publications like the New York Times.
“The original goal with the site is to attract and retain young talent here,” she says.
“The second goal is wanting people to look from outside the region, and discover the opportunities that the city has to has to offer,” she says. “We have a lot of great talent and resources here.”
Barry certainly practices what she preaches. A graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, Barry launched her first venture, a multicultural print and web magazine called Tint, when she was 18. She’s been hooked ever since.
“In the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘how can I positively impact the community and also create something that is potentially profitable?'” she says. “Being an entrepreneur, that’s something that’s always been a part of me.”
“Margarita always had lots of really good ideas,” says Delphia Simmons, a friend and former business partner.
The two met a few years ago when they both attended the same class at Bizdom U, a Detroit-based program that trains and assists entrepreneurs so they can launch successful businesses in the city. The two were working on creating an eBay-like site designed for children when Barry told Simmons about an idea she had for a blog geared to young Detroiters.
“The problem was that in the incubator they want you to come up with something scalable that can make