Dancers, jugglers, acrobats and stilt walkers have nothing to do with mobile apps, but they're a flashy way of introducing downtown's latest arrival in that hot niche.
Andrew Beattie (left), Bryan Kelly and an unidentified colleague at right wear what seems like the company uniform -- untucked plaid shirts and jeans. (Facebook photos)
Matt Roush was there for WWJ's technology e-newsletter, where he reports:
The app development shop Detroit Labs has moved in to the fifth and sixth floors of the building at 1520 Woodward. The 45-employee company is yet another tech outfit calling the area between Grand Circus Park and Campus Martius home.
Detroit Labs has taken about 12,000 square feet for its new home. The offices have plenty of windows for the daytime and plenty of ceiling height, with exposed brick walls, exposed beams and mechanicals up above, and wooden floors below adding to the cool quotient. Caricatures drawn by the staff vie with big-screen TVs for wall space. And there’s a hardware shop where the staff can tinker with tech toys.
There’s also an open space in the center of the sixth floor looking down on the fifth floor below.
Among guests at Thursday night’s open house was Josh Linkner of Detroit Venture Partners, an investor in the startup that designs iOS and Android apps for GM, Domino’s Pizza, DTE Energy, Biggby Coffee and others, Roush posts.
Co-founder and CEO Paul Glomski — who started the company in 2011 with Dan Ward, a former tech director at Quicken Loans, and Nathan Hughes — said the company was formerly based at Quicken Loans and the Madison Building before moving into its new space.
Eleven photos by the WWJ journalist are here and many more are posted by Detroit Labs on Facebook.
Detroit Labs' open two-story space allows this sixth-floor overview of fifth-floor guests at Thursday night's welcoming bash. (Twitter photo)
