Wanted: Silicon Valley talent to help rebuild Detroit

Detroit has an interesting value proposition to tech professionals who may have lost their jobs or are looking for another kind of opportunity: join one of our startups.

Some say Detroit is evolving into the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. For the economically battered city, there's nowhere to go but up, of course. But Detroit also offers an infrastructure of skilled workers, low rents, and hungry entrepreneurs.

TechCrunch's Frederic Lardinois reports that Detroit-based Quicken is now reaching out to former Yahoo! employees (2,000 were recently laid off) a chance to join one of Detroit's startups or existing tech companies. Quicken, Detroit Venture Partners, Rockbridge Growth Equity and Fathead.com have teamed up in an effort, dubbed ValleytoDetroit.com, to attract Silicon Valley talent to come Back East.

Currently, Detroit has 12 start-ups that “would be attractive to those looking to regain the excitement of working in a creative, collaborative and entrepreneurial environment,” according to Detroit Venture Partners’ CEO and managing partner Josh Linkner.

Twitter, one of today's global social business stars, recently announced they set up an office in downtown Detroit, suggesting they already are on to something. Of course, it takes talent to build innovative new companies.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com