Ned Staebler.

Ned Staebler, the new president and CEO of TechTown Detroit, wants to accelerate the working relationship between the business incubator/innovation hub and Wayne State University, which cofounded TechTown 15 years ago.

A better collaboration between the two organizations will put TechTown on a stronger financial footing and help it expand its mission of helping create and grow Detroit businesses, he said.

While TechTown received initial funding from Wayne State, it has operated largely independent of the university.

“TechTown has helped new businesses create 1,100 jobs in recent years and Wayne State has a $2.6 billion impact on Southeast Michigan,” said Staebler, who assumed his new role on March 9. “Those two engines together will really fire on all cylinders.”

Staebler has a head start in linking the two organizations, having come to TechTown from Wayne State, where he is vice president of economic development. He is planning to do both jobs for the time being.

Staebler succeeds Leslie Smith, who left to become president of the new Entrepreneurship-Powered Innovation Center in Memphis, Tenn.

“Ned has worked closely with TechTown for years and has a clear understanding of the unique role it has in the revitalization of Detroit,” Chris Rizik, chair of the TechTown Executive Committee, said. “He is really the ideal person to lead TechTown going forward, and I’m looking forward to working with him in his new role.”

TechTown and Wayne State receive funding from Knight Foundation.

Working better—together

Under Staebler’s direction, TechTown and Wayne State already are discussing how the two organizations can integrate administrative functions and grow TechTown’s services.

Between 2007 and 2014, TechTown helped create 1,026 companies, which have raised over $107 million in startup capital, according to its website. Those companies have created 1,190 new jobs.

Staebler said by combining back-office functions of Wayne State and TechTown, the incubator will have more financial resources to aid new businesses.

And some economic development programs, such as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses assistance initiative, which Wayne State administers, could be extended to TechTown.

“We’re looking for ways the university’s size and scale can help TechTown,” Staebler said. “We’re analyzing everything TechTown does.”

“Collaboration” is a word Staebler uses repeatedly in explaining his vision. He said he wants to form stronger relationships with other organizations in Detroit that are focused on expanding entrepreneurial activity in the city.

“I want to make sure TechTown is the hub for everything that is happening here,” he said. “Let’s get everyone helping businesses to collaborate and leverage more investment.”

Staebler said he also wants TechTown’s SWOT City program to serve more neighborhoods. While there is a lot of entrepreneurial activity in Detroit’s downtown and midtown business districts, the neighborhoods are perceived as lagging. SWOT stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats” in neighborhood development

SWOT City, as described by TechTown’s website, “combines economic development and startup acceleration strategies to transform historically underserved neighborhoods into vibrant and dense communities.”

It currently operates in Detroit’s Brightmoor, East Jefferson, Grandmont, Rosedale, Hope Village, Osborn and University District neighborhoods.

“I think Detroit won’t be successful unless we can generate more economic vitality in the neighborhoods,” he said.

A background in entrepreneurship

Staebler seems to have entrepreneurship in his genes. Prior to working at Wayne State, he was vice president for capital access and business acceleration at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration.

His grandfather, Neil Staebler, was a member of Congress and started Michigan’s first venture capital firm, Michigan Capital and Service, in 1968.

Ned’s father, Mike Staebler, is a lawyer who represents venture capital firms and helps entrepreneurs form small business investment companies that are licensed by the Small Business Administration.

Staebler said it’s an exciting time to be in Detroit, which gave birth to the U.S. auto industry and was considered the Silicon Valley of the early 20th century.

“There’s no place I’d rather be,” he said. “You don’t often get to see the rebirth of a great American city.”

Rick Haglund is a freelance writer in Southeast Michigan.