Detroit Dreaming

This week we took the covers off Assembler Labs, Detroit’s startup studio that Patrick Haig and myself founded just a few weeks ago.

Rather than tell you about the intricacies of the model, I’m writing a whole series on startup studios that will do a better job than this post would do.

Plus, the “why” around Assembler Labs is far more interesting (and important!) than the “what.” So let’s focus on that. (If you want to learn more about the “what,” check out this Crain’s article or this DBusiness article or this Xconomy article.)

Thesis and Mission

I fell in love with Detroit a long time ago. Maybe it was when I turned 9 and was a ball boy for the Bad Boys, but it was probably earlier. Maybe it was when I was still too young to walk, when the Tigers won their last World Series. 

In any case, in the past year, I fell in love with the people working in technology in Detroit, too. Over and over again, I’ve met incredibly talented individuals from all walks of life that could make successful startup founders. Assembler Labs gives us an outlet to bet on these individuals in a meaningful way.

Which leads us to our mission: We partner with talent to build venture-scale startups in Detroit.

To buy into our mission, you only need to believe in two things:

1. Detroit – and Michigan as a whole – has an incredible amount of talent that could make great startup founders and operators. 
2. Venture-scale startups can be built in Detroit (not just in the Bay Area or on the coasts).

If you believe both of those things, like we do, you should have no trouble believing in our mission.

Talent + Experience = Success

Of course, it’s a little bit more nuanced than that. In particular, the talent we have in Detroit is incredibly good at engineering and advertising. And they have all the right traits of a great startup founder: grit, huge work ethic, a blue collar get-shit-done attitude, and relentless resourcefulness. 

But we don’t have a lot of startup experience. There’s very little pattern recognition for high-growth early stage companies. And, unfortunately, talent on its own usually isn’t a recipe for success.

So, without that startup experience, a lot of would-be-great startup founders end up stuck. They’re stuck in BigCos, or in research institutions, or in other jobs. They’re unable or simply don’t know how to take the leap into startups.

Assembler Labs gives them a platform to do so. By generating ideas and validating them quickly, we can get the best ideas off the ground and then pair ourselves with founders who have intimate domain knowledge and all the great traits you’d hope for from a startup founder. We’ll help with product, engineering, growth, and fundraising. And a whole lot of emotional support to work through the ups and downs that come with the territory.

This foundation, plus our experience, mentorship, and support, gives founders the ability to take the leap and bring a new generation of venture-scale, high growth companies to Detroit. 

Another central anchor

With Assembler Labs, we’re building another central anchor in the Detroit startup ecosystem. There’s already some great anchors like TechStars Mobility for mobility startups, Bamboo for space and creatives, Gener8tor for all sorts of startups (not just tech/software), re:purpose for talent, and a few others. We hope to build on the great work they’ve been doing and continue to do, and add our own style, ambition, and passion to it. 

We believe Assembler Labs will be an anchor in a completely new way and to a new set of potential startup founders. 

Diversity

One of my favorite things about Detroit is our diversity. We have a majority African American city, a large Arab American population, and a growing Hispanic and Asian American population.

Combine our diversity with our blank slate for startups and we have an opportunity to create the startup community we want to see in the world: one that is representative of the population.

Patrick

My co-founder, Patrick was one of the first hires we made at MobileDevHQ. At the time, Patrick was in law school but knew he didn’t want to practice law. I didn’t know what the hell Patrick was going to do for us, but we brought him on as an intern for the summer and essentially just said, “figure it out.” And he did. He filled pretty much every role in a startup over the last 6 years of working together, but he’s really found his calling in product. The thing that makes him so good at product? He gets the hell out of the building and talks to customers. 

Patrick and I know we work well together. We joke that we bicker like 80 year old men, but we always have the best interest of the customer and the business at heart, which means our egos never get in the way and debates are resolved quickly. Patrick loves criticism (oddly so, actually), like I do, which means we can follow the rule of “brutal honesty delivered kindly” and get shit done remarkably well.

Assembler Labs is all about the people. The talent we can recruit to be part of our core team, the talent we work with to be a founder for our spinouts, and us. For me personally, having Patrick as a co-founder now that we’re a bit wiser, a bit more ambitious, and a lot more comfortable working together is one of the best things about Assembler Labs.

Help us out

By no means are we under any illusion that this will be easy or that success is guaranteed. We have a large ambition, and the odds are stacked against us. We live for that. Plus, swinging for home runs is so much more fun than bunting to get on base.

That’s why we need your help. We’d love your support, your ideas, your network, and your encouragement. If you’re interested in helping out in any way, shoot me an email, I’d love to chat. And if you need help with anything, I’m always open to chatting about that, too. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Thanks for everything you’ve already done. It’s so appreciated.

Here we go!