us,” he says. “Even if we can’t directly help, we can direct the entrepreneur to a plethora of resources.”
Before moving to the Motor City, Moret spent 13 years at Connecticut Innovations, a quasi-public/private organization that nurtures and invests in startups. Moret also ran a $20 million pre-seed fund for startups and ran several incubators in partnership with Yale and the University of Connecticut.
When Moret took over the TechTown job in December , he had only been to Detroit once, for a conference in 2008, and he admits he hardly left the hotel. He’s an unapologetic fan of the city now, though.
“Detroit is such an attractive place,” he says. “There’s a robustness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem—there are so many players working hard to make startups successful, and the state programs are extremely well designed. Coming here, there’s so much more to work with [than in Connecticut].”
If anything, Moret thinks Detroiters are too hard on themselves. “People are so self-critical here, yet I saw so much to praise,” he notes. “It’s far exceeded my expectations.”
