Global Detroit, a nonprofit that develops and implements immigrant-inclusive strategies, has released an impact evaluation of its Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence (Global EIR) program.
The effort places foreign-born startup founders at universities to teach and mentor students while launching and expanding their own companies.
Growing from an initial 2019 pilot launched in partnership with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and funded by the William Davidson Foundation, the program has expanded to five new university partners and attracted funding from the state of Michigan and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
The evaluation documents that Global Detroit has supported 12 immigrant founders from 11 companies who have created 174 jobs and attracted $28.1 million in venture capital investment since entering the program.
These diverse founders hail from five continents, were placed at five Michigan universities, and are playing a “critical role” in Michigan’s innovation economy in electric vehicles, outdoor recreation, and logistics.
In addition, the businesses are using artificial intelligence and solving Michigan-focused challenges such as providing fresh produce in Detroit’s food deserts and providing early and more accurate detection of micro-organisms in Michigan fresh water lakers, rivers, and streams.
Chening Duker, founder of Goodpluck and Veggie Express, was one of the first founders supported by the Global EIR program in 2019.
Duker graduated from the University of Michigan in computer science as an international student from the U.K. with roots growing up in Ghana and Cameroon. He spent three years working at Ann Arbor’s Duo Security as a software engineer before applying to the Global EIR program.
“Global EIR gave me the opportunity to pursue my American Dream,” Duker says. “I am passionate about food access and equity — issues critical to Detroit, our farms, residents, and neighborhoods — and I wanted to prove that technology could help affordably and efficiently connect Detroit residents with all the sustainable, affordable food being grown around them.”
Goodpluck provides more than 100 customers in Detroit the opportunity to get fresh, Detroit-grown produce delivered directly to their doorsteps bypassing the added expense, waste, and energy loss of a grocery store.
Duker’s second endeavor, Veggie Express — launched after he successfully exited the Global EIR program on a longer-term visa — is a collaboration of Goodpluck, local Black-owned farms, food distributors, and a solar powered electric vehicle startup to create a sustainable, cost-effective model for the farmers to distribute produce while improving fresh food access in Detroit.
“Simply put, Global EIR provides international and immigrant startup founders with the opportunity to launch their businesses here in Detroit and across the state of Michigan,” says Alaina Jackson, managing director of Global Detroit. “If we are serious about being a leader in the innovation economy, Michigan needs to take advantage of every opportunity it can.
“Global EIR is opening doors to diverse startup founders of color and women that have been historically marginalized and excluded from startup programs,” Jackson continues, noting that four of the last five founders accepted in the Global EIR program are Latinx or Middle Eastern, with 40 percent of them being women.
Global EIR programs provide a pathway for foreign-born entrepreneurs to launch their companies not only in Michigan, but throughout the United States, offering a blend of academic and practical support. By placing immigrant founders in part-time university jobs, these programs allow entrepreneurs to work on their startups while benefiting from uncapped H-1B visa employment.
Launched at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2014, Global EIR programs have expanded to nearly a dozen U.S. universities, with more than 100 founders participating. Global Detroit’s program, launched in 2019, is the second largest in the nation. Since 2021, Global Detroit has led a Global EIR National Peer Network, which has seen the number of participating states and universities operating Global EIR programs expand from four operating programs in 2021 to over 13 in three short years.
The state of Michigan appropriated nearly $1 million to the Global EIR program as part of the Michigan Global Talent Initiative in its Fiscal Year 2023 budget with a second appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
With support from the William Davidson Foundation, Global Detroit first launched the program at the University of Michigan, but with support from the National League of Cities and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation was able to add programs at Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies, and Lawrence Technological University.
State funding has enabled Michigan Technological University and Grand Valley State University to also offer Global EIR programs in partnership with Global Detroit.
New Global EIR participants are encouraged to apply to the program. Those interested can learn more and fill out an application by visiting globaldetroitmi.org/geir/.
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