[silentbicycle]

I'm from the Grand Rapids, MI area, and develop for a small-ish company involved with the furniture industry (which is big, locally). There are a couple tech startups that have come out of here (but I don't particularly care about startups at the moment, so I can't name them offhand). The area seems to be culturally favorable toward startups in a way that e.g. the twin cities area supposedly isn't, though; there are some local businesses such as Amway that gently encourage an entrepreneurial outlook, and there has been a lot of money lately going into medical research / biotech stuff here. There are also several colleges in the area. The Ann Arbor area (East side of the state, by Detroit) might be good for startups, too.

This ask.metafilter post is about the Kalamazoo, MI area, which is about 50 miles South of here: http://ask.metafilter.com/105668/Growing-up-no-one-thinks-th... Much of it applies to Southwest Michigan in general. Not the greatest area tech-wise, but it's quite pretty if you're outdoorsy (particularly for fishing and kayaking - there are lakes and rivers all over), the farmer's markets are nice, housing / office space is is not terribly expensive, etc.

It's also an easy (and cheap!) train ride to Chicago from here, FWIW.