When people talk about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it's usually the sandstone cliffs and dunes of the Lake Superior Shore, the beautiful Tahquamenon Falls, or simply the romanticization of the rural heartlands and small-town America. There are more than 300,000 residents who call the Upper Peninsula home (a pinch over 3% of Michigan's total population). And the reality is that the food supply, economic disparities, and inadequate infrastructure are all issues for these residents.
Alger County, a rural municipality that is home to the cities of Munising, Grand Marais, and Chatham, has one in six of its 8,813 residents
experiencing food insecurity (including 1,560 children). There are few grocery stores, and the communities lean on mobile food pantries. Alger County has been categorized as a "low-income and low-access community" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because residents have to travel at least 10 miles to reach an adequate grocery store.
The challenges also extend to some of the surrounding rivers and lakes in the Upper Peninsula. Menominee River, St. Marys River, Deer Lake, and Torch Lake have been designated as A.O.C.s (Areas of Concern) due to contaminated sediments from past mining and industrial waste that have impacted water quality.
“The sanctity of fresh water, the protection of fresh water, is critical to the tourism and fishing economy that we have in the Upper Peninsula," says Steve Tobocman, executive director of the economic development organization Global Detroit.
Enter Dr. Rehab (Ruby) Alhajjar, the founder of
FlowShield-Nano. She holds a doctorate in biological sciences, specializing in water microbiology and nanotechnology, from Michigan Technological University. FlowShield-Nano specializes in detecting contamination in drinking water and beverages. Its biosensors detect contaminants in manufacturing, including bacteria and heavy metals. The company is working to reduce waterborne diseases and enhance the overall quality of life.
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Courtesy Global DetroitDr. Rehab (Ruby) Alhajjar’s company is working to reduce waterborne diseases and enhance the overall quality of life.“We created a pathway for her to continue her work on her startup while being able to stay in the U.S.,” says Tobocman. She is one of four startup founders in the Upper Peninsula working with Global Detroit.
Courtesy Global DetroitDr. Rehab (Ruby) Alhajjar’s company is working to reduce waterborne diseases and enhance the overall quality of life.“You get an entrepreneur who’s coming from an area that's recently been deserted because of climate change, or other challenges, and they will come in with some new technologies that no one has thought of,” adds Nigel Sharp, one of the first founders and participants in Global Entrepreneur In Residence program, which is designed to address challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs in acquiring visas and to support their entrepreneurial ventures.
The U.P. economy depends heavily on tourism, public employment, outdoor recreation, and natural resources like fishing and mining. A company like FlowShield-Nano addresses not only environmental hazards in the Upper Peninsula, it also has the potential to create jobs in multiple sectors and help diversify the economy. Those are among the goals Dr. Alhajja has for the company.
“In the coming years, I aim to expand FlowShield-Nano while focusing on creating job opportunities in rural regions," Dr. Alhajja says in
a previous interview. "I believe that sustainable technologies can be a catalyst for economic growth, especially in underserved areas. My goal is to empower these communities by creating jobs and fostering innovation. Additionally, I am committed to advocating for greater diversity in STEM and business leadership, as well as promoting authentic mentorship."
Entrepreneurs from fields such as advanced manufacturing, skilled and technology-based trades, and sustainable energy are also the kinds of founders Global EIR are willing to back.
Dr. Alhajjaa appreciates the support,
saying it has been essential to the growth of FlowShield-Nano, providing access to valuable resources and networks. “Through the Global EIR program, I’ve significantly expanded my professional connections and gained the support necessary to accelerate my startup’s progress. These programs have not only helped with business development but have also underscored the importance of fostering inclusivity and diversity within the tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems.”
Tobocman says that Global EIR's relationship with Michigan Tech, located in Houghton County, has been essential to their program. All four of their founders in the U.P. have come by way of Michigan Tech.
“We wouldn't be there without Invest U.P. and Michigan Tech,” says Tobocman. “The reality is that most of our founders work for the local university. And we’re screening them, we’re working to get the founders, we’re vetting them, but we’re covering the cost the university incurred to house that founder.”
Connecting Detroit farmers and consumers
Due to a lack of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods, many Detroiters live in areas that have been defined as “food deserts.” According to a
2017 report from the Detroit Food Policy Council, nearly 30% of Detroit’s residents lacked access to fully stocked grocery stores. Between 2017 and 2022,
Detroit lost 10 full-line grocery stores, leaving fewer than 70.
Chening Duker, a Global EIR program participant and graduate, started Pluck.eco and Goodpluck to connect local Detroit farmers directly with consumers, thereby increasing food access for Detroiters.
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Chening Duker, a Global EIR program participant and graduate, started companies to connect local Detroit farmers directly with consumers, thereby increasing food access for Detroiters.“Residents of Detroit could get a fresh box of produce every week or every other week that would be grown in Detroit,” says Tobocman. “Chening’s program uses his digital program so the customer can customize the product they get.”
Courtesy Global DetroitChening Duker, a Global EIR program participant and graduate, started companies to connect local Detroit farmers directly with consumers, thereby increasing food access for Detroiters.Duker graduated from the University of Michigan in computer science as an international student from the U.K. with a lineage that ties back to Ghana and Cameroon. He spent three years working at Ann Arbor’s Duo Security as a software engineer before applying to the Global EIR program.
Duker’s company will also help enhance Detroit's agricultural economy by bringing together the produce of multiple Detroit farms so Detroit restaurants can seamlessly order produce and broker deals with multiple farmers.
He explains
in a previous interview that the goal of his company is to make small food entrepreneurs and small farms more competitive.
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Goodpluck is a local produce delivery service," Duker says. "People order during the week based on what we see growing on the fields, and then we send those orders to the farms and say, 'Hey, you know, on the weekend I want 20 pounds of spicy greens,' let's say. I think it's really important to have really good food that has a strong sense of place. It ties me back to my culture and that's really what drove me to start working with farms in the first place.
He goes on to say, "I wanted to turn the tables in favor of small farms and small food entrepreneurs and make their business more competitive. And once they can deliver directly to you, they don't have to go through a ladder of middlemen that basically all take a percentage. Because we can order in advance, minimize waste, order larger quantities, and also bundle people together, we have a really efficient model for getting this produce out to the community. And so every time I apply technology in some way to making this problem easier, that means more small farms can participate in this economy."
Duker’s story of going from an immigrant student to a business owner illustrates the importance of the Global EIR Program, and how some of the most innovative ideas exist outside the country. "When I found out I was getting the visa, there was so much emotion. I was almost bawling," Duker says. "It was just nice to have people who genuinely cared about making it easier for people who had an idea, who wanted to take a risk, who wanted to put the work in."
“We’re very proud to have supported Chenning on his journey; he couldn’t have stayed in the United States in this business without the visa that's provided through our program,” says Tobocman.
Sharp says, “People are trying to solve different problems in a developing country. You come to the U.S, and they’re like, ‘We can put money into that,’ because they have that forward-thinking risk tolerance to try and take bigger bets on bigger ideas.”
Global EIR's other collegiate partners include Detroit's College for Creative Studies, Grand Valley State University, Lawrence Tech, and Wayne State University. One of Global EIR’s goals is to get more universities to understand the importance of entrepreneurship.
“A university is focused on student enrollment, so why aren't we as a university focused on entrepreneurship?” asks Sharp. “So I think you have some more professional institutions in more progressive areas who have been like, ‘Hey, let's make some changes and find a way to do this because we see what it does for the economy. ’”
Global EIR’s 2024 Impact Report shows that 174 jobs had been created from the program and $28.1 million in venture capital had been raised. Moving forward, Tobocman wants to see the progress increase and the universities take on a bigger role in propelling that.
“We have a vision that Global Detroit will pass on leadership of the Global EIR program so Michigan Tech and Grand Valley will thrive on their own without needing any support from Global Detroit,” says Tobocman.
“Some of the best ideas don’t exist locally, some of the best ideas come from other parts of the world from people who see things differently,” adds Sharp.
The Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program was founded by Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital and Brad Feld of Foundry Group in April 2015 in Massachusetts. The initiative aimed to address the challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs in acquiring visas and to support their entrepreneurial ventures.
“He ran into lots of international students at the MBA program who wanted to launch companies but couldn’t because of the visa issues,” says Craig Montuori, who previously served as Executive Director for Global EIR.
“Global Detroit started in 2010 as a strategy to grow the Southeast Michigan economy through creating opportunity and inclusion for immigrants,” says Tobocman, executive director of Global Detroit, a regional community and economic development organization. Global Detroit is among the 25 members of the Michigan Global Talent Coalition.
The Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence program seeks to retain entrepreneurial talent in the US by providing a pathway for immigrant founders who are seeking to build innovative and highly scalable companies.
By offering a blend of academic and practical support to immigrant founders and placing them in part-time university jobs eligible for uncapped H-1B employment, these programs allow foreign-born entrepreneurs to engage in pre-launch activities and pursue additional visa support, enabling them to launch and work on their startups.
“The bigger American challenge is, where does economic development come from and how do we drive it?” asks Sharp. “Job growth is when you've got a company that starts off, ‘Hey, I want to sell books online,’ and then becomes Amazon.”
This story is part of a series underwritten by Global Detroit, a regional economic and community development organization. With a focus on immigrants and global talent, Global Detroit develops and implements inclusive strategies to drive the growth, revitalization, and broadly shared prosperity of Detroit and across Michigan. Global Detroit works to make Michigan a national leader in attracting, retaining and placing international graduates and other foreign-born professionals.