This is the second attempt Detroit is making to capture the drone manufacturing business. Three mayors ago around 2006 the city made a major push to attract drone manufacturers. At the old City Airport there had been a school for training airplane mechanics. The city at the time was hemorrhaging money and kept cutting the budget for the school until it collapsed.
So they took those same buildings and offered cheap rent to drone companies. They attracted a half dozen drone startups. There were no longer any commercial flights at the airport, just the occasional private jet so there was plenty of room for drone test flights. I attended a meeting there and was pleasantly surprised both at the tech and the enthusiasm. Unfortunately the Chinese also had their eye on the drone market and crushed American manufacturers.
Now the city has re-launched the airplane mechanics school in the old airport buildings. The focus for drone manufacturing is now downtown and they're aiming at defense and commercial delivery markets. Detroit has to advantages: low cost and its the manufacturing capital of the United States with lots of resources to offer a startup.
I've got an older Kindle and this annoys me greatly. I don't use it a lot, maybe read one or two books a year on it. It works fine and the fact Amazon expects me to retire my perfectly good working device and hand them money for a new one is ridiculous. They are likely to lose me as a buyer of books on Kindle I will make the effort to buy more books elsewhere.
Does anyone know of a Kindle equivalent? Or has Amazon locked down the format to prevent that?
You can still use it, you just cannot browse the store from the device anymore, afaik. I never did that anyway, I always sent books from my browser to the kindle, which should still work.
I posted on here yesterday they are offering entrepreneurs $15,000 to start a company there. While that might not be like getting into yCombinator or Techstars its what they can afford to offer. It is a pretty low cost place to build however with a strong entrepreneur culture and some excellent coworking centers such as Bamboo.
There was a mass shooting event at MSU back in 2023 and campus administrators made a lot of changes as a result so they are still very sensitive to the issue.
Had he required a signup process with student ID that might have muted the concern somewhat. But I totally understand his excitement at creating something and wanting to share it with his friends. It got way too popular which is a testament to the fact he had built something better than what existed. In the end I hope that university officials are understanding.
I have both graduated and worked for Michigan State. I truly feel sorry for this poor developer. He was trying to scratch that itch and make things better. If I was that department I'd hire him not try to get him thrown out of school. When I worked there we had some truly amazing student interns who went on to jobs in Silicon Valley.
If I had a way of reaching this kid (or he reads HN) I will buy him lunch and try to convince him he's really a born entrepreneur but he just doesn't know it yet.
You might not be able to live in Detroit quite as cheaply while building your startup at say Thailand but you can go a pretty long time on $15K. Plus there is a very strong entrepreneur community and great coworking centers like Bamboo.
Detroit doesn't have a Barbary Street. Unless that is a reference to staying away from the rougher parts of the city. Course that is true in any city. In general if you ask the locals will point out to you the places to avoid.
So they took those same buildings and offered cheap rent to drone companies. They attracted a half dozen drone startups. There were no longer any commercial flights at the airport, just the occasional private jet so there was plenty of room for drone test flights. I attended a meeting there and was pleasantly surprised both at the tech and the enthusiasm. Unfortunately the Chinese also had their eye on the drone market and crushed American manufacturers.
Now the city has re-launched the airplane mechanics school in the old airport buildings. The focus for drone manufacturing is now downtown and they're aiming at defense and commercial delivery markets. Detroit has to advantages: low cost and its the manufacturing capital of the United States with lots of resources to offer a startup.
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