| I grew up in Metro Detroit. Moved to California in 2015, and while it's been fun... I'm moving back to Michigan (Downtown Detroit/Brush Park) next week. I certainly used to feel the lack of VC activity in Detroit, but that is also what made the startup scene so ridiculously scrappy. I truly believe constraint breeds innovation, and I miss that aspect of the companies I worked with and helped start in Detroit. Theres a lot to love and hate about California, but for me the dealbreaker was the price of housing. You shouldn't need to be a Founder with a phat exit or Senior Engineer at FAANG to afford a house... While I myself could probably swing it, why would I want to live there long term if that's the case? I miss having friends and neighbors from different walks of life. Theres a perspective you get from being connected to the greater ecosystem of humans, and that is increasingly evaporating in the Bay. Pretty soon it may only be tech people left. Most of my friends who weren't in tech left long ago. On a different note, what really excites me about Detroit at this moment is the vast opportunity to build and shape a city rising from the ashes. A friend of mine is starting an eVTOL company and getting a 12k sqft hangar at Detroit City Airport (class charlie, international airport) and it's going to cost less than my SF apartment. Theres actually another eVTOL startup already there that has some hangars in the same building. It's ~10 minutes from Downtown. Ford is building their EV/Self driving HQ in Corktown. GM is going to be manufacturing their EV's (including the Cruise Origin) at the Factory Zero 10 mins from downtown.
Theres a ton of VC moving into the area, and an unbelievable amount of housing developments (~$200 million in brush park alone). The momentum in Detroit is astounding and exciting, and when I'm ready to start another company it'll absolutely be there. |
You need but look at Miami to find a polar opposite of advantage, opportunity, and excitement with longevity.