I Just Moved to Detroit! Here’s why:

I am a born and bred New York City kid, but I’ve always had some Michigan coursing through my veins. Practically born with the Block M on, and raised by a father of midwestern roots (actually born in Detroit), Michigan has always been part of who I am. From many fall days in Ann Arbor throughout my childhood throwing the football in the Diag, idolizing Wolverine icons such as Braylon Edwards and Denard Robinson, to accomplishing my lifelong dream of attending the University — it has always been part of me. Though my Detroit story begins far later than my father’s (which he wrote so beautifully about), mine planted seeds in my mind that have germinated into a passion and excitement that brings together several aspects of the journey that brought me here. The journey is nonlinear and much of it has nothing to do with Detroit, but looking back on it, being here makes all the sense in the world.

At its core, I believe Detroit is a city of makers and builders. Even as pieces of the automotive industry moved overseas/the suburbs/elsewhere in the US and the local job market dramatically shifted, the City always maintained its industrious culture and commitment to craftsmanship. Its art deco skyscrapers and apartment buildings (many of which our real estate firm Greatwater Opportunity Capital has rehabilitated over the last 6 years) are a reminder of this. The longstanding iconic art collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a reminder of this. The mural-lined streets of Eastern Market, which stands as one of the oldest operating food processing districts in the United States, is most certainly a reminder of this. Those who have stayed and weathered the storm and those who have come to rebuild have the scar tissue to prove it, and understand what it takes to stay alive at all costs. This has created a culture of grit and determination that pervades the City and its native population. The incredible work of The Gilbert Family/Bedrock, The Ford Family, The Illitch Family, Mayor Mike Duggan and others have been instrumental in providing the spark plug the city needed, but it is truly the people of Detroit who are, and will continue to be, the agents of positive change.

This is why we are starting Brand:Detroit — a venture capital fund and venture studio that will partner with existing, and incubate new, brands that seek to build and maintain their foundations in Detroit, with ambitions to export their products — and the great city of Detroit — to the world. With capital to invest in growth and resources (i.e. marketing/sales services, back office functions, etc.) to scale, we believe we can unlock latent potential in the incredible community of founders here in Detroit to take their businesses to the next level. This is the mission that ties together all of the experiences that got me here — working inside startups, investing in them, and building communities — these are the things that get me up in the morning. And that is what I am going to get the opportunity to pursue every day here. What I love is that this work intersects passion and impact, in a place I deeply care about. I feel so blessed to be able to partner with two incredible entrepreneurs and changemakers in my father, Roger Ehrenberg, and successful founder and mentor, Jon Opdyke, in launching this new venture.

This was your Tl;dr, but if you want to understand more about how we got here, keep reading.

Going to the University of Michigan was always my dream, but I thought I would work in sports (which I do via Eberg Capital, but not the point). During my freshman year, I met my now longtime friend David Silverman, who helped expose me to all of the amazing programming University of Michigan had around entrepreneurship. This led us both to the Entrepreneurs’ Leadership Program (ELP), a program designed to provide coursework, networking opportunities, internships, and resources to students across disciplines — particularly those interested in starting, investing, and/or working with early stage startups. As part of ELP, the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) would bring us to Detroit roughly once a semester so we could learn about the burgeoning community there. From the Gilbert Family of Companies tours to visiting the Detroit Venture Partners offices to startup demo days, we got a chance to see a new ecosystem developing — and picking up speed. This was 2016, so the bounce-back had already begun — and everyone who was a part of it could feel it. This experience profoundly moved me and became emblazoned in my mind, but I ultimately decided to start my career on the East coast.

My career started in technology, working for an AI startup based in Boston as a data product manager. I learned a lot there — including that even mature data-oriented companies lack basic data governance practices (avoiding this is a service I plan to offer to Brand:Detroit companies). Then my dad, my brother, and I started Eberg Capital and began investing at the intersection of sports and digital ownership (now we just do sports). During that time, I sharpened my venture capital knowledge working with Mike and Kass Lazerow at Velvet Sea Ventures and took a 6 month detour helping to build a unique blockchain-focused coworking community in New York City, formerly known as EmpireDAO. EmpireDAO was short lived and financially unsustainable, but it showed me how vital a diverse physical community can be to innovation. In a short time, EmpireDAO drew in technologists, artists, traditional finance professionals, local politicians, funders, and founders all under one roof. Companies started there. Artists sold their first digital artworks there. Blockchain experts got to talk policy with decision makers with open ears. It was amazing to me what happened when you brought the disparate silos of an interconnected ecosystem into one room. It is shocking what those silos, and breaking them down, can do to both productivity and, to get a bit more meta, the human experience in general.

As I wrote the first few chapters of my career journey, my intrepid father and our partner Jon Opdyke co-founded a real estate firm called Greatwater Opportunity Capital focused on rehabilitating neighborhoods surrounding Downtown Detroit. They sought to focus on the neighborhoods to provide affordable places for the workforce to live. In the past 6 years, Greatwater, led by the efforts of our incredible operating partners Justin Golden and Matt Temkin, has rehabilitated over 2,000 affordable apartment units in neighborhoods surrounding Downtown Detroit. This made Greatwater the largest multifamily owner in Detroit and has uplifted communities and neighborhoods in unprecedented ways. They later started a new division of the firm called Greatwater Homes, led by Matt, who moved his family from New York to Detroit years ago to be in it, and has since become a true community-builder and resource in the East Village neighborhood. Greatwater Homes is laser focused on developing new affordable homes in the East Village. This ambitious project focuses on rebuilding the neighborhood and working with the community to convert Detroit natives into homeowners and building a more accessible path to building home equity. It also focuses on fostering community among new and long time residents.

We also invested in a restaurant in this same neighborhood called Marrow, an ethically-sourced farm-to-table meat restaurant that has a commitment to supporting local Michigan farmers — led by the brilliant Ping Ho. Ping is a former Warner Music Group executive in NYC who decided she wanted to take a leap of faith to open a restaurant group in Detroit and more recently launched an affiliated packaged meat business out of Marrow’s butcher shop called Marrow Detroit Provisions. Ping was so passionate about the food business and Detroit that she wanted to leave her life in NYC behind and do it here — and partnered with local celebrity chef Sarah Welch (James Beard Award winner featured on Top Chef) to bring the vision to life. This is the kind of energy we need. Detroit/Michigan natives and transplants working together to build great things and push the boundaries.

To state the obvious, building a restaurant is hard. Building any kind of food business is hard (packaged food included). The margins pale in comparison to software/tech and brand competition (on the CPG side in particular) is fiercer than ever. But these are the kinds of businesses that are the backbone of our communities, and our economies. From the small business owner to the franchise owner, these businesses touch the everyday lives of our communities in ways that no other business does. They become fixtures of our neighborhoods and watering holes where people come together — these are the kinds of businesses that remind us of ‘home’. Given this dichotomy — the challenge of building sustainable, ethical, viable food businesses and their essential-ness to our local cultures and communities — herein lies a question, and we believe an opportunity, especially in Detroit.

As I mentioned earlier, Eastern Market is one of the oldest functioning food processing districts in the country, and is home to local meatpacking giants including Wolverine Packing, as well as a number smaller family-owned operations, many of which have been operating there for decades. As a state, Michigan also has a vibrant agricultural economy, producing a rich ecosystem of agricultural products and ranking top 10 in most major food categories (and in some cases 1 or 2). With such strong foundations in the agriculture and processing businesses — it would make logical sense that Michigan, and therefore Detroit, should have a structural advantage in building great food brands? I think this can be especially true as we move towards farm to table / farm to package and attempt to recreate a more agrarian food system, which is an idea that has been working its way back into mainstream consciousness. Bottom line is, Detroit — and Michigan as a whole — is uniquely positioned to be a bastion for food entrepreneurs.

Taking this a step further, and coming back to the ‘maker’ culture that has underpinned the city’s history. As one of the focal cities of the Industrial Revolution, Detroit knows how to make things, and make them at scale. As one of the parent cities of the revolution, Detroit also understands the challenges and pitfalls of mass industrialization, much of which was eventually shipped overseas. This chapter of Detroit’s industrial future needs to be underpinned by brands, and this goes far beyond Ford, GM, and Stellantis. I’m talking food brands, jewelry brands, furniture brands, and cosmetics brands (and yes, tech companies too). Maybe this sounds crazy, but these are the kinds of companies that will galvanize cultural momentum and attract outsiders to the city. There are big infrastructural questions that need to be addressed, such as the Detroit schools, public transit, new job creation, and alternative robust tax revenue sources beyond high property taxes — and these are things we will need to work on in tandem as we work to foster a diverse culture of entrepreneurship, but there is no cart-before-the-horse here — we can’t sit around and wait, we just need to start building.

This is where my passions for community building and entrepreneurship came to life and all of the lessons I learned at EmpireDAO came to the forefront. In order to understand how to spur consumer product innovation in Detroit, I had to dive headfirst into mapping out the ecosystem. Over the last year, we have spent time scouring the City and meeting with dozens of incredible entrepreneurs who have started brands here over the last 5–10 years. Throughout this process, we have encountered some of the most thoughtful, creative, and hard-working people we have ever met. The problem we have consistently encountered is that these people lack access to the capital and resources that coastal founders do. Detroit has started doing the legwork to bridge the gap in tech, but we see an opportunity to do the same thing in CPG and hospitality. By helping these founders gain access to capital and other enterprise resources to help them thrive and scale, we believe we can not only build an ecosystem of successful companies, but also build a vibrant community that people don’t just want to visit voyeuristically, but one that people want to join and put roots down in. And a lot of it is already here — it just needs the investment, time, and love to take the next step. This is why Brand:Detroit needs to exist.

To consummate the launch of this venture, I officially moved to Detroit October 1st and am living in the Islandview neighborhood, just a short walk from the bridge to Belle Isle. Now I get to wake up to the view of the stunning newly renovated Riverwalk and charm of the Detroit River every morning, filled with excitement and determination in the future I see here and want to be a part of. I have lived in New York, LA, Boston, and Miami, but all roads are now leading me to Detroit. It’s been an exhilarating week, launching directly into Michigan Tech Week and getting to hear from Michigan legends such as Duo Security founder (acq. Cisco 2.35B) Dug Song and three term Mayor Mike Duggan, as well as dozens of amazing entrepreneurs who are working to make Detroit’s future a reality. I am so proud to be here and can’t wait to get to know all of the amazing builders and makers who are paving the path to greatness here. If you are on team Detroit, you are a friend of mine. Let’s Go Blue, Let’s Go Lions, Let’s Go Tigers (next year!), and Let’s Go Detroit!