Detroit Entrepreneurs Meet With Rep. Gary Peters On 'Startup Day' (VIDEO)

By Edward Cardenas

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - U.S. Rep. Gary Peters (D, MI-14) toured two locations Tuesday in Detroit where high-tech entrepreneurship is thriving on "Startup Day Across America."

Startup Day is a national event created by the bipartisan House Caucus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which Peters co-chairs.

Across the country, members of Congress met with local startups and entrepreneurs to see firsthand entrepreneurship has on their community. Peters toured the M@dison Building, an incubator for tech startups, and Ponyride, a coworking space, and held roundtable discussions with business owners and entrepreneurs.

"Startups and small businesses are the engines of job creation and economic growth in Michigan, and when they thrive, so does our economy" said Rep. Peters. "Based on the companies represented here today, we have what it takes to make Michigan the startup capital of the Midwest. Various business leaders shared with Peter why they chose to establish and grow their business in Detroit.

"I would be one of thousands if I was on either coast," said Paul Glomski, co-founder of mobile app developer Detroit Labs. "But not here in Detroit."

They also shared some of their challenges of operating in Detroit and Michigan including the lack of services for families, and the need for immigration reform to attract "talented, smart people" from around the world, said Itai Ben-Gal, co-founder of iRule.