Forbes Under 30 Hackathoners Use Free WiFi — And A Neighborhood Bus — To Help Detroit’s Supply Chain Jobs Crunch

The city of Detroit has been hit hard by Covid-19, the shutdowns and tragedies of the coronavirus slowing the progress of a metro area that has faced its share of recent challenges — but also hope. In a weekend-long sprint, a group of Forbes Under 30 alumni have worked around the clock to provide more support to the latter, looking at how technology and community organizing can work together to provide key skills to Detroit’s evolving and iconic auto manufacturing workforce.

The kickoff to a monthlong program called the Forbes Under 30 Detroit Hackathon: Accelerating Change, in partnership with the City of Detroit, Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans and Major League Hacking, the weekend’s four teams studied challenges — and raced to build solutions — for Detroit stakeholders in food, auto manufacturing, recycling and healthcare.

The auto group’s challenge was a weighty one. Capitalizing on existing production and capacity, how could Detroit automakers account for the drop in purchasing of traditional motor vehicles?

Speaking to experts like Tingting Yan, an associate professor of supply chain management at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, and Jessica Robinson, chairwoman of the Michigan Mobility Institute, as well as managers and employees from throughout the local auto industry’s supply chain, the team determined that the auto industry’s gradual shift to electric and autonomous cars would require retraining and new strategies for employing its workers. They went to work on a solution that would combine education technology-style resources with community outreach and accessibility to help retrain and place workers in that future, so that innovation doesn’t come at the cost of jobs.

Called #DriveAmericasFuture, their solution combines the digital and physical to provide a job and skills resource hub to auto manufacturing workers. On the digital side, the group’s website can provide links and how-tos on emerging technology and skills in mobility, local resources in Detroit, re-training and job openings and fairs.

The team realized quickly through its expert calls that any solution in such a large, established industry would need to be simple and accessible. That was the message impressed on them by mentor Neil Parikh, cofounder and chief strategy officer of Casper, the publicly-traded sleep company, on a Saturday Zoom call. When it comes to supply chains, Parikh said: “volatility in the enemy.” “Simple is better,” Parikh told the group. “The simplest answer is usually the right one.”

To ensure their solution could prove accessible to more furloughed, laid-off or at-need potential workers, even in areas without reliable Internet or mobile usage, the group turned to a twist on advice they received from Cities Reimagined founder Alex Johnston: be the neighborhood ice cream truck, not the delivery app. The #DriveAmericasFuture team’s solution: a fleet of sponsored buses that could visit and set up shop in the most vulnerable neighborhoods, providing mobile work stations at which local furloughed or laid-off people could train and get tested on new skills in mobility or apply for jobs. Advertised by local partners and in local stores and libraries, the buses would direct attention back to the initiative’s online hub by offering free open WiFi with the site set as its lander page.

“When we talk about the future, it’s often those communities that are left behind,” says Erica Tsypin, cofounder of Washington, D.C.-based electric car subscription startup Steer. “And we do not have a level playing field, period. I think Detroit being the heart of America, the heart of the car, it’s important not to leave those communities behind, and create equity now.”

Read the full executive summary here.

The #DriveAmericasFuture group received immediate interest from attendees representing local stakeholders including Michigan Mobility Institute and DTE Energy, and its participants have expressed interest in continuing on with the project alongside local partners in the months to come.

“It was interesting to see a bunch of leaders be teammates together,” says Ana Sophia Mifsud, a senior associate at New York-based non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute. Adds Anjelo Austria, a senior analyst at Center Lake Capital: “You kind of know of Detroit as the Motor City, you know of Henry Ford, but after you speak to these folks, you realize just how important the automobile is to the community, to them, their family. It feels like keeping Detroit auto jobs within Detroit has some purpose.”

Team Members: Anjelo Austria, Senior Analyst, Center Lake Capital; Arye Barnehama, Founder, Elementary Robotics; Anthony Giordano, Head of Marketing, OurBus; Kristin Kagetsu, Cofounder, Saathi; Ana Sophia Mifsud, Senior Analyst, Rocky Mountain Institute; Nima Esmaili Mokaram, Product Owner, Quicken Loans; Dillon Morgan, CEO, UNUM; Greg Skloot, Cofounder, Crystal Knows; Erica Tsypin, Cofounder, Steer.