In the Zone | MTEC SmartZone
Kathleen Achtenberg
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation (MTEC) SmartZone CEO, Daniel Jamison, provides an inside look of Houghton’s Powerhouse facility.
As the northernmost facility of all 21 Michigan SmartZones, MTEC SmartZone is the leader of entrepreneurship and high-tech acceleration in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
MTEC SmartZone has three different facilities in two cities—Houghton and Hancock—and offers approximately 30,000 square feet of accelerator space. Built in the late 1800s, the Powerhouse facility in Houghton was designed to create electricity and supply power to the local area. Much like the original purpose of the Powerhouse facility, MTEC is powering high-tech entrepreneurs and startups in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In the last five years, the SmartZone has supported 45 new companies and helped to create over 300 jobs. Client companies have received more than $14 million in venture capital and Angel funding and have reported $79 million in sales.
Michigan SmartZones offer low-cost working spaces, business development resources and mentorship to entrepreneurs, researchers and startups in 21 locations across the state. With funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, business accelerators and incubators like MTEC SmartZone help tenants fast-track their business concepts from ideation into commercialization by providing them the resources and expertise they need to grow.
If you have a high-tech startup idea you’d like to explore further and don’t know where to start, contact the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation initiative at
888-522-0103 or visit https://www.michiganbusiness.org/entrepreneurship.
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