Entrepreneur Spotlight: Jeremiah Staes of Downtown-based Portage Media

Jeremiah Staes' calls himself "Guru of Making Wow! Happen" on his business card. The 28-year-old Detroit resident runs downtown-based Portage Media Solutions out of the Beal Building in Harmonie Park. The online/social media company does everything from designing web sites to teaching people how to Tweet. The company has two partners, a business acceleration engineer, an intern and 10 contractors/specialists. They hope to hire two more people this year. We caught up with him recently to talk about his business.

Describe your business in two sentences or less:

We make our clients money and accomplish their objectives in the online media and marketing space through designing and executing digital strategies (social media, communities, email, video, audio, blogging, etc).

Why did you decide to set up shop in Detroit?

If it wasn't in Detroit it wouldn't be in Michigan - our company's DNA is made up of urbanist threads and there is no better place to be that than Detroit. The local community is supportive; there's tons of creative inspiration, and we want to be part of the solution, not the problem.

What are some of the advantages to doing business here?

It's strong local community. The businesses do support each other. The attraction for new and young talent; the people who work with us want to be near the action of stadiums, coffeeshops, bars -- in short, the urbanist lifestyle that is a magnet to the creative thinkers and doers we need.

What do you see in Detroit that other people who live outside the city don't?

That it's a community made up of real people, not some theory in a planning textbook or cartoon of destruction on the evening news. So many people look at Detroit as a "them" or a "they" or even worse, like there's no people here. And that's false. Detroit is made up of so many wonderful people who have a great community that is working hard to survive and in some areas, even in this down economy, thrive.

What advice would you give to someone who was thinking about opening a business in the Motor City?

Be persistent and don't get caught up in the hysteria. We as a region have this horrid habit of knocking ourselves down; of living in the "can't" or "shouldn't." Instead of complaining about the problems, do something.

If you could change one thing about Detroit, what would it be?

The government needs to focus on the core city services, and forget about everything else for now. It's a city, not a state, not a country, and keep the main thing the main thing. The public and private sectors both have important roles to play, but too often I see the city doing what private folks should do and the private sector doing things the city (public sector) should be doing.

Source: Jeremiah Staes, guru of making wow! happen at Portage Media.
Writer: Jon Zemke