Meet Ingrid Macon, Detroit Teachers’ Store CEO

Retail Bootcamp Graduate and Kickstart Award winner Ingrid Macon, owns the only pre-K through 12 educational retail center in the city of Detroit. After traveling to surrounding cities for years to purchase supplies for her classroom, this teacher turned CEO decided to attend Retail Boot Camp and open a store to fill the need. Click the link below to watch a video of Ingrid discuss her motivation behind Detroit Teachers’ Store and experience in Retail Boot Camp.

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Design Guide: Neighborhood Business

Design directly impacts the bottom line of the business, which directly connects to its ability to serve the community long-term. A business is rooted in its brand design, and each of the other design mediums speaks to each other – from the digital voice on social media, to the colors on the wall to the size of the table and the tabs on the website – to all directly to serve the customer. Which is why TechTown (has been or was) proud to collaborate with Design Core Detroit and its network of design professionals on creating the Design Guide for Neighborhood Business to help brick-and-mortar businesses, from pop-up to permanent, think about design for their business in an intentional way.

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Micro Buoy: Erie Hack Providing Platform for Lake Erie Solutions

In 2017, a group of doctoral students from Wayne State University’s College of Engineering came together to create a nanosensor designed to detect contaminants in water. The company, Micro Buoy, was born during Erie Hack — a tech-driven international water innovation competition and accelerator program created by the Cleveland Water Alliance, in conjunction with numerous partners, including TechTown Detroit.

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Meet Our Diversity and Inclusion Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Marlo Rencher, the first Managing Director of TechTown, is returning with an important task ahead of her: to establish dedicated resources and more intentional strategies to increase engagement of women and minority tech entrepreneurs at TechTown, and throughout the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Detroit. With over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship and marketing, Rencher has served as vice president for innovation, entrepreneurship and diversity at Cleary University and created their Founders Farm student incubator.

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Joy Community Receives First Sit-down Restaurant in 20 Years

Fusion Flare Kitchen & Cocktails is the first full-service restaurant to open in the Joy community in almost 20 years. Located at located at 16801 Plymouth Rd., the restaurant features a fusion menu of cuisine from many cultures, including American and soul food. The lunch and dinner menu will offer a variety of meals including chicken Fusion Flare Chicken & Waffles, Catfish, and vegan and vegetarian options.

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