Traverse City has a tech sector, but Mike Groleau says it's somewhat hidden.
“There are a surprising number of software companies in our area that you may not even think of as being active in software,” Groleau says.
Groleau is co-owner of R J G Incorporated, which helps plastics molders improve their manufacturing methods.
He employs nine software developers, jobs that get classified under the less sexy heading “manufacturing.”
He’d like to hire a few more but he can’t find any. Groleau says programmers like to know there are other options in an area, in case the job that brings them here doesn’t work out. He says Traverse City isn’t known as a big tech town, and it’s a problem.
“We as a region could do more to actively develop a technology sector,” he says. “Other communities are doing this Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Midland, all have very active incubator sites where they’re trying to recruit and build new companies; new technology businesses.”
Techies sometimes relocate here for different reasons.
Mike Goulas came here from Farmington Hills this year - where he employs about 70 software programmers at Mango Languages.
“It’s so cool that I can have chickens in my backyard,” Goulas says. “The city allows four chickens, so that appealed to me.”
While that sweetened the pot for him, he actually came here to be with his fiancee.
Mike’s company makes language training software, and is currently learning Farsi, his fourth language, from one of their apps.
But he didn’t bring his company or even one employee to Traverse City when he moved.
He works long distance and he’s not sure if there is much of a tech community here.
“The art and design community up here is top notch and
so getting connected with the design and programming community is something I’m looking forward to doing,” says Goulas.
But so far, that hasn’t happened.
Erin Monigold also had trouble finding the tech community four years ago. Erin is a social-network marketing consultant who works from her home.
“A friend of mine used to live in Nashville and he attended a few of the geek breakfasts there,” she says. “And he just thought it would be a welcome addition to Traverse City so he came to me and we decided to start it.”
Bobbie Rathjens found the breakfast pretty quickly after moving up here from Ann Arbor. She left a health tech startup there and joined a marketing software company here.
“I think of Traverse City as a mini-Ann Arbor,” says Bobbie. “But all of the good things that Ann Arbor has to offer in a bit of a smaller package, where you know people, you can meet people and see people. And we’re on the water.”
So little by little, the geeks, or techies, are finding each other. Their hope is that eventually people far away, will be able to find them on the tech map too.