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DETROIT—Formed a decade ago to connect Detroit businesses with University of Michigan expertise, the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project is leveraging AI to augment its human help. Since its launch in 2016, the University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project has connected hundreds of Detroit small business owners with students and faculty who provide expertise in marketing, accounting, technology, law and business strategy. DNEP was created to help neighborhood-based businesses access resources that can be difficult to obtain in the early stages of growth. At the same time, it gives students the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to real-world business challenges….

Best wishes & many thanks to DNEP’s “Fairy Godmother” Cathy Shakespeare, who left U-M to become a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. (It’s like the Supreme Court, but for accounting.) Prof. Shakespeare joined DNEP in its first cohort in January of 2017, where she recruited and supervised University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business accounting students. Students analyzed entrepreneurs’ business models and worked with them to create break-even analyses and start-up cost analyses so the business owners could REALLY understand their business finances. A key success? An entrepreneur who decided NOT to pursue a venture when…

Need funding but not sure where to start? You’re not alone—and there’s a group working behind the scenes to make it easier. DNEP’s Siobhan Barrett, a former loan officer, co-chairs a monthly meeting with Frederick Paul II from the New Economy Initiative called the Small Business Success Summit. Together, they bring together lenders and business support organizations across Detroit for one reason: to help you find the right funding and support faster. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you apply for a loan, but that lender can’t help—maybe you need $150,000 for an expansion into a new market, but they only…