Remora is a Detroit-area climate-tech company that bolts carbon capture onto the things already burning fuel - semi-trucks and freight locomotives - instead of building giant plants to pull CO2 back out of the sky. Its zero-backpressure device threads exhaust through proprietary adsorbents, captures up to 90% of the CO2, reduces soot and NOx to Tier 4 levels, then liquefies the gas to be sold into a supply-constrained industrial CO2 market. Operators share the revenue, so cutting emissions becomes a line item that pays rather than one that costs.
Grant Drzyzga is the founder and CEO of Revela, a Detroit-based property management software company he started in 2014 with $50,000 and no real estate experience. After bootstrapping for roughly nine and a half years, he raised a $9 million Series A led by FirstMark Capital in November 2023. Revela now serves more than 200,000 units and has become one of the largest lenders to property managers in cities like Detroit, St. Louis, and Gary. Drzyzga's pitch is that real estate software should be built 'from the books out' - accounting first - and that embedded financial services can bring liquidity to a market that has long been low-margin and illiquid.
Nutshell is an all-in-one CRM and growth platform built for B2B small and mid-sized businesses that are tired of overpaying for software they barely use. Founded in 2009 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nutshell combines sales pipeline management, email marketing, and customer engagement tools into a single subscription — with free live support on every plan. Acquired by digital marketing agency WebFX in 2022, Nutshell now serves over 5,000 companies across 50 countries, competing against industry giants like Salesforce and HubSpot by doing less, but doing it better.
Rashida Tlaib is a groundbreaking American politician and lawyer serving as the U.S. Representative for Michigan's 12th Congressional District since 2019. Born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents as the eldest of 14 children, she made history as the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress and one of the first two Muslim women in the House. A founding member of 'The Squad' progressive coalition, Tlaib champions working-class issues, economic justice, and human rights with authentic grassroots energy. From raising her 13 siblings while her parents worked Ford assembly lines to fighting for the unhoused, higher wages, and accountability, she brings Detroit grit and moral clarity to Washington.
Turner Novak is the founder and solo General Partner of Banana Capital, a seed-stage venture fund investing in internet-first founders. He grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, in a single-parent household with intermittent internet access, then built a career path from CFA studies and endowment investing to VC entirely through Twitter presence and a viral fantasy portfolio. He hosts The Peel podcast, writes The Split newsletter, and operates from Ann Arbor, Michigan - proving that Midwest contrarianism and relentless online engagement can be a genuine edge in consumer tech investing.