Did you start a business in metro Detroit? Tell your story

Build a business? Now might be the time to tell your story to a wider audience.

Southeast Michigan Startup and the New Economy Initiative is seeking submissions for Startup Story Night, a first-ever storytelling event for metro Detroit entrepreneurs to take place next year. The event Jan. 19 will be emceed by National Public Radio personality Glynn Washington, whose "Snap Judgment" program can be heard weekly on more than 400 NPR stations nationwide and is downloaded more than 2 million times every month.

Storytelling is popular in clubs and on the radio through programs including "Moth Radio Hour" on NPR. Last week, University of Michigan students, faculty and community members recounted their most memorable brush with failure in a public venting event at the Ann Arbor campus' art museum.

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The latest effort from the business community is designed to convince local entrepreneurs to submit their stories about challenges they have overcome or breakthroughs that signaled their start-up's success. All southeast Michigan-based entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply. Then five entrepreneurs will be selected by a committee to participate in a private half-day workshop with Washington followed by a public performance of their stories at a venue to be determined.

"Storytelling is such an important part of being an entrepreneur,” said Pam Lewis, director of the New Economy Initiative, which is a special project of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan. “We’re really excited to help local entrepreneurs polish their skills with a renowned storyteller like Glynn and give them a platform to share with one another and the public.”

The effort could be a shot in the arm locally for young people interested in start-ups. From 2009 through '14, some unexpected cities, including some in the Rust Belt, showed high-tech venture capital investment growth and activity, or "dynamism"  (albeit on a much smaller scale than traditional venture capital strongholds such as San Francisco and New York). But entrepreneurship overall among millennials is actually lower than among prior generations, according to a 2016 report out of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy.

Submissions for the metro Detroit efforts are being accepted through Dec. 9 at www.startupstorynight.com/submissionform.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan.