Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: How many companies have you incubated to date?

Ross: Right now we have 11 companies that we are working with. There are a few more that we have launched. They have not recorded funding yet, but we have 11 that have gotten funding.

Irina: What is the process for those who are accepted to the program?

Ross: People come into the program, and they come in at no cost to them. We provide the cost of the training. We provide a living stipend. We really provide everything associated with the program. We cover all the expenses and they come in for months full time.

Then, they come into these brainstorming exercises and we develop their businesses. They are putting the plan together, and that business needs to be headquartered in the City of Detroit.

When they complete the program, they can get funding for the plan, and they get a certain percentage of ownership in the plan and, as I indicated earlier, we share in the ownership of the businesses. We will use our share of proceeds to seed future business grants.

So, these sessions are at four-month periods. We do one session a year here, in Detroit, and we are also opening up in Cleveland, Ohio, this year.

Irina: What happens after four months? Are they on their own?

Ross: Yes. They are running their own business, but we stay very connected with them. We have one person whose job is to oversee those businesses and lead them, because once they launch they need a ton of assistance.

We assist them as much as possible during the training, but we are also very involved after they launch, because they just need a ton of help and learning what works, what doesn’t work, making adjustments.

We have people in place to help them to do that. So we don’t disconnect with them once they launch the business. We stay very involved and try and develop a collaborative environment between Bizdom U and businesses that launched and also a collaborative environment between the entrepreneurs within these businesses.

Irina: So, your last session was in the fall of 2010 in Detroit. When is your next session?

Ross: My next session will be in the fall of 2011 in Detroit, and we are also doing a session in Cleveland in the fall of 2011.

Irina: How many entrepreneurs did you have in the program last year?

Ross: I believe we had 15 in the program in the fall, and we are going to launch about four businesses. Out of those businesses, I think we got some partnerships, so we are going to have probably about five or six entrepreneurs involved in those businesses. Maybe six or seven.

Irina: So, you had 15 entrepreneurs in the program, 15 ideas and, as a result, there were four businesses created, right? The rest of the entrepreneurs didn’t create a business but receive a lot of eduction?

Ross: Yes. The way that works is they get a certificate when they complete the program. They can always come back and pitch a business once they complete the program, but they have to complete the program to pitch a business.

They may not pitch right away, they may come back and pitch later. They may not pitch at all, but if they complete the program, then that allows them to pitch a business [even if they chose to do it later].

Irina: Would you list the benefits of being in your program one more time?

Ross: Yes. First of all, they get a tone of training and guidance in setting up a business. We rely on real-world folks who are doing this on a regular basis.

We get a ton of assistance from Dan Gilbert’s family of companies, which come to our training sessions. For example, the head of marketing of Quicken Loans will come in and do a session on social media, or someone will do a session on search engine optimization.

So, entrepreneurs get a ton of training and guidance in launching and developing their business idea. Plus, they get a lot of mentorship once those businesses are launched.

The mentors are going to stay connected with them. They get connected to resources within the Dan Gilbert family of companies. We will sit on the meetings that they are having. Sometimes, we will have a team of Quicken Loans come over and help them with site development.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U - Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio
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