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Urban Entrepreneurship is about addressing important problems and pursuing opportunities so that people who live in cities and towns can experience a higher quality of life. An innovator or entrepreneur who aims to create a business to pursue urban opportunities should be asking two key questions…
What if we could point to any city and instantly surface its most pressing challenges? That is the challenge we put to some very talented University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) students.
Join us for an engaging and interactive event designed for entrepreneurs and aspiring changemakers committed to improving quality of life in Detroit and other urban communities.
We need to have a difficult conversation about the word “good.” Somewhere along the way, between the rise of the robber barons…
We are proud to share that UEI U-M Research Associate Felipé Furtado, MD, will begin work as an associate at McKinsey Consulting…
Lisa Prasad, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Henry Ford Health, has joined the UEI Board of Directors as of December 1, 2025. At Henry Ford, Lisa has been responsible for driving an enterprise-wide innovation and commercialization strategies.
UEI is developing a “problem miner” that uses data analytic techniques to determine the key problems people are experiencing in a given community. This tool may help urban innovators identify problems that lead to new business opportunities.
Sometimes it can be hard to see through the haze of hype, to read between the lines and understand just what an organization does.
Bangkok, Thailand is an amazing city, but much of the on-the-street communications infrastructure I saw looked like an absolute mess. Opportunity?
New UEI team member Anshiqa Agrawal is already hard at work helping to build out the Urban Innovator Platform and bring on new users. Her education and work experience position Anshiqa uniquely for her UEI role.
Onsite visit and interview with Brinda Devine, founder of Kornr Store, a concept she hopes to replicate in many other places.
Our Urban Innovator Platform (UIP – pronounced “whip”) is now open for business. The beta release of the platform is now available…
UEI representatives attended the Global Entrepreneurship Network conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 2-5. UEI reprentatives included president W. David Tarver, board member Reggie Barnett, and UEI research associate Felipe Furtado, M.D. The conference was a real eye-opener in two ways.
Earlier this week, McKinsey & Company’s Institute for Economic Mobility published an article and accompanying video entitled “Accelerating economic mobility and quality…
On Friday, May 16, UEI president David Tarver and research associates on the UEI/U-M team presented the UEI Urban Innovator Platform (UIP) at U-M College of Engineering (CoE).The presenters described the purpose and objectives of the Urban Innovator Platform and gave a demostration of some of its most salient features.
This morning I attended a session entitled “Educated Development: How Higher Education is Advancing Communities.The event featured a panel with U-M president Santa Ono, MSU president Kevin Guskiewicz, and Wayne State president Kimberly Andrews Espy.
MPods podcast hosts Nora Huang and Eric Imai “delve into the experiences and insights of financial industry leaders and entrepreneurial pioneers.” In this episode, they interview U-M alumnus David Tarver regarding his career and his current work with the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Dave Spencer of Fox 2 News Detroit interviewed Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative founder and president W. David Tarver regarding the organization’s purpose, aims, and its upcoming Urban Innovator Platform.
Michigan Matters host Carol Cain interviewed UEI president David Tarver and TechTown Detroit CEO Ned Staebler regarding providing support for Detroit entrepreneurs.
WDET “The Metro” host Tia Graham interviewed UEI president David Tarver about the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative purpose and the launch of UEI 2.0.
I was honored to speak to the BTS community on Saturday, May 4, on the subject of Urban Entrepreneurship. Here is a recap and desktop video version of the presentation.
WXYZ editorial/public affairs director Chuck Stokes interviewed W.David Tarver re new developments at the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative.
