http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/CoolhouseFtrForWeb.mp3
For those who summer in Northern Michigan resort towns, or who choose to make their lives in them year round, the allure is clear. But that's not always the case for the kids who grow up in them. Jordan Breighner wants to change that in Harbor Springs. And that's part of the reason he started a company called Coolhouse Labs.
Lofty Beginnings
In what was once a Hallmark store, Breighner shows off his recently renovated, main street office space.
"It's this really cool loft space with skylights," he says. "When I looked at it, it was really grungy and dirty and kind of terrible. But then I was like, 'Oh there's so much potential in this space to have this beautiful open space with lots of natural light.'"
Breighner says it had sat empty for three years until they began renovations in May. Mostly white, it's accented with wood details: pine, oak, and cedar that came from Breighner's family's backyard. His parent's have an office two blocks away. His grandmother has a store in town.
Harbor Springs is where Breighner grew up. But at age 14 he left to be a ski racer in Utah. Later he lived in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and most recently New York.
"Growing up here you always want to leave. You're like, 'When can I get out?' And when you leave you're just trying to get back," says Breighner. "I was living in New York and coming back here a lot and saying, 'Why am I not here?' And I looked around and there weren't a lot of young talented people in the community. And I said, 'Well we can do something about that. We have the resources, why don't we do it?"
Breighner started something that's trendy right now in the entrepreneurial world. It's something called a business accelerator. And August 23rd was kind of like graduation day.
Growing Businesses
Ten weeks prior, five web-based, start-ups arrived in Harbor Springs. They came from Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Taiwan. They received professional mentorship, time to grow their businesses, and money. In exchange Coolhouse now owns a small percentage of their company.
Now, after a summer spent in Harbor Springs, these companies explain their businesses to a crowd of community members, business people, and a couple investors.
"Every Last Morsel" is one of them. The start-up aims to help vegetable gardeners sell their surplus harvest to their neighbors - without having to go to the farmer's market. Todd Jones is the founder.
He says having Coolhouse invest in his idea has been validating. The mentorship helped him solidify his business model. And, of course, he got to spend the summer here in Harbor Springs, MI.
"Harbor Springs is a lot like Pleasantville. It's absolutely... I'd say absurdly quaint," says Jones. He's from Chicago. "You come to town and there is a main street - and that's about it. And there are adorable shops on either side and right at the end of the road is this church with a huge steeple. Everybody smiles and says hello when you walk down the street."
'Pleasantville' With Perks
Jones says participating in the program here in Harbor Springs has made it easier for him and his two colleagues to focus.
"There aren't a lot of distractions... There's not much to do other than build your business or enjoy the outdoors," he says.
Harbor Springs might be the smallest town in the world to host a model like this. That's according to the Global Accelerator Network, a group made up of organizations like Coolhouse. Most of the time, you just find this type of thing in cities. But Andy Hayes, the President of a regional group, the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance, reminds us Harbor Springs is no typical small town. There are potential investors and mentors from multinational companies.
"I'm not sure this model would go in just about any other small town but it will go here because you do have access to that expertise from all over the world because they all have summer homes here or they've resorted here for years and years," says Hayes.
It's well known that some of the families that spend their time here include the people behind Wrigley, Procter & Gamble and the Busch's of Budweiser fame. So at least in the summer - which is the only time of year Coolhouse plans to run their accelerator program - there are some advantages to it being here in Harbor Springs.
The 'Entrepreneurial Stack'
The Coolhouse staff will work out of their main street office year-round, but as the program ends each fall, the entrepreneurs can go back to where they came from. If they decide to stay in Harbor Springs for a year after the program ends, Coolhouse will invest up to $100,000 dollars in that company. But none of this years' five start-ups will be taking them up on the offer.
Yet Jordan Breighner, the Coolhouse founder, says that's okay. These companies have to do what's best for them. And he realizes right now that might not be relocating to Harbor Springs.
"You have to look at this from a 20 year perspective," says Breighner. "We're trying to build what's called the entrepreneurial stack from scratch. There's nothing really here. So, we're trying to use the accelerator to accelerate the growth of our own community."
Breighner says one of his goals is to help create an environment in Harbor Springs where an ambitious kid like himself won't feel like he or she needs to leave town in the first place.