Fostering entrepreneurship happens on many levels. Certainly, not everyone with an idea is ready to jump onto a crowdfunding website and do a raise. In fact, LocalStake and Fundrise do not allow individuals and companies to go up on their platforms if they don’t meet their own thresholds of development readiness. Instead, if they can’t do the assistance themselves, they suggest alternative organizations and consultants which can help them get from the initial stages of entrepreneurship to a more concrete sustainable business plan. One of the organizations that is on the ground with local entrepreneurs in Detroit is D:Hive. While D:Hive provides a variety of programs pertaining to living, working and visiting Detroit, one of them pertaining to entrepreneurs is Build. BUILD is a business and project planning class designed for aspiring and established entrepreneurs. To this day they have graduated over 300 entrepreneurs, many of whom have gone on to start successful businesses in Detroit, including Detroit Vegan Soul, Good Cakes and Bakes, and Flash Delivery, just to name a few. Their graduates come from all corners of the city, representing 65 zipcodes. Jeff Aronoff is the Executive Director of D:Hive and talks about what they do and how they see crowdfunding helping create more vibrant communities through here:
D:Hive Executive Director Sees Crowdfunding As Exciting Opportunity for Entrepreneurs