This year, we have so much to celebrate as we look back at TechTown’s first 20 years.  

In two decades, we’ve helped launch and grow more than 6,430 small businesses in and around Detroit. These businesses are part of the communities where we shop, dine, drink, relax, raise our families and the list goes on. Through these businesses, we’ve helped create more than 2,346 new jobs, putting money back into the hands of local Detroiters.  

And in our first 20 years, we’ve raised more than $408 million in startup and growth capital right here in the city.  

We know the importance of our place in the ecosystem and that becomes even more clear when you look at the individuals we serve. Our entrepreneurs are largely people of color (80% in 2023), Black or African American (63% in 2023), identify with the pronouns she/her/hers (65% in 2023) and immigrants (11% in 2023). We firmly believe that providing equitable access to resources, capital and knowledge sets us apart from any other incubator in the country. 

And our scope is so much larger than TechTown’s small business and tech programs. We’re also celebrating 517 coworking members and 653 tenants who are a central part of our community, day-in and day-out.  

This year marks 10 years of Toast of the Town, our biggest event of the year, coming up on Sept. 25. We’ll Toast to TechTown’s impact and to our role as Wayne State University’s entrepreneurship hub. Through our alignment with Wayne State, we’ve ensured important connections for entrepreneurs – whether it’s graduating from a Retail Boot Camp into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program (with 835 alumni seeing a 67% increase in revenue after six months) or boosting economic development through the talent and leadership of Detroit Revitalization Fellows (with 80 alumni, many of whom are now leading organizations across the City). 

We’re also celebrating 5 years of Co.act Detroit, whose support of Southeast Michigan’s nonprofit ecosystem has impacted over 15,000 501c3 organizations since 2019.  

And it all started with a single idea from former Wayne State University President Irvin D. Reid. In 2004, President Reid founded Wayne State University Research and Technology Park (DBA “TechTown Detroit”) to incubate and support tech-based spinoffs and talent from the university as a means of economic development for the city and the region.  

We quickly realized that this model of incubating tech could be — and should be — used for local small businesses and tech-founders outside of the university’s scope.  

Today, we’re clear on our “why” and it’s in lock step with Wayne State, the 11th largest employer in Detroit with $2.75 billion in annual economic impact.  From TechTown’s very inception, our north star has always been equitable access to opportunity. We aim to create equitable community wealth and break intergenerational cycles of poverty through entrepreneurship.  

Undoubtedly, TechTown’s continued growth and scaling of services has taken many different shapes and forms. It is, after all, the entrepreneurial way. And while we continue to grow, test, measure data, and assess results and impact, our mission and who we serve remain our constants. 

While I’m beyond proud of our first 20 years, I can’t fully begin to describe the hope and energy I’m filled with when I look ahead to our next 20 years. In our very own TechTown way, we’ll continue to pivot, scale and collaborate in full commitment to our mission, the city and to the great people who we have the honor of serving.