Building Michigan's Startup Renaissance From the Ground Up

Written By Ryan Morrison
 
 

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About Pete Martin

  • Director of Portfolio Management at MSU Research Foundation, overseeing nearly 200 portfolio companies

  • Leader of PitchMI, one of the nation's largest startup pitch competitions awarding $4 million to Michigan-based founders

  • Former Head of Connection at Michigan Founders Fund, building density across Michigan's startup ecosystem

  • Co-Founder of ALTR (2014) and Realm Security (emerged from stealth in 2024 with $5M seed round)

  • Advocate for the Tuebor Pledge, committing to invest in at least one Michigan-based business annually

Pete Martin embodies the transformation happening across Michigan's startup ecosystem. After spending over a decade building venture-backed companies in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Austin, he returned home to Michigan in 2022 expecting to find the same sleepy tech scene he'd left behind. Instead, he discovered a thriving community of founders, a pipeline of billion-dollar exits, and a state-backed infrastructure supporting innovation from Grand Rapids to Detroit. Now, as a leader at MSU Research Foundation and the driving force behind PitchMI, Pete is helping write the next chapter of Michigan's comeback story—though he'd be quick to correct you: the comeback already happened. In this conversation with Ryan Morrison, Pete shares his journey from serial founder to ecosystem builder, why distribution matters more than ever in the age of AI, and what's fueling Michigan's rise as one of the nation's most dynamic startup hubs.

 

From Brain Drain to Boomerang: Pete's Journey Home

Pete Martin's story is one that resonates with countless Michiganders who left the state to pursue opportunities elsewhere. After graduating from Michigan State University, where he met his wife, Pete left Michigan in early 2011 with a belief that was common at the time: "You had to leave the state to go build a career."

His journey took him across multiple cities and roles. He started as an early employee at DASH Financial Technologies, an electronic broker dealer that grew to become one of the top options traders on Wall Street. But Pete had bigger ambitions. In 2014, while living in Chicago, he co-founded ALTR, a data security company that would take him on a multi-year, multi-state adventure.

"We had a great angel investor that allowed us to build and experiment and get a ton of things wrong and then eventually get something right," Pete explains. The company raised a Series A after landing a significant early customer, scaled their engineering team in Florida, then raised a Series B with Pete moving to Austin to handle go-to-market efforts.

But then something unexpected happened. After walking away from what Pete describes as "a great exit opportunity" (a story he reserves for another time), he and his family made the decision to return to Michigan in August 2022. The motivation was simple and profound: they wanted to be close to family after missing years of birthdays, graduations, and those everyday moments that matter most.

What Pete didn't expect was what he would discover when he got home.

 

The Serendipitous Discovery of Michigan's Startup Scene

When Pete returned to Michigan, he had no idea that a vibrant startup ecosystem was thriving under the radar. "We came home to Michigan to be close to family, had no idea that anybody was building anything in the high growth startup space," he admits.

It was pure serendipity that changed everything. A former colleague named Neha Shah, who had worked for Pete, told him about Trista Van Tine. Neha had lived across the street from Trista in San Francisco 15 years earlier and insisted Pete needed to meet her. Two weeks after returning to Michigan, Pete and Trista had coffee, and she told him about Michigan Tech Week—an event that would happen just four weeks later.

Attending that first Michigan Tech Week was transformative. "I fell in love with Michigan's startup scene then," Pete says. He was shocked to discover companies like Duo Security—which he thought was based in Austin because they had a building there—were actually Michigan companies all along.

The revelation was eye-opening: Michigan's startup ecosystem wasn't just emerging; it was already here. It just needed more people talking about it and connecting the dots across the state.

 

Michigan Founders Fund: Building Statewide Community

Pete's coffee meeting with Trista Van Tine led to an opportunity that perfectly aligned with his newfound passion. Trista had co-founded Michigan Founders Fund with Doug Song, transforming what started as the Ann Arbor Entrepreneur Fund into a statewide organization connecting founders committed to building high-growth companies in Michigan.

"Trista had the right call," Pete emphasizes. "She said, 'Ann Arbor's not—we can't just do Ann Arbor. We have to have a statewide organization. We have to have a statewide focus.'"

When Trista asked Pete to run the member network in November 2022, his response was immediate: "You don't even need to pay me, hire me yesterday." It took Trista until February 2023 to bring him on board officially, but Pete's enthusiasm never wavered.

The organization's structure is unique and mission-driven. Members of Michigan Founders Fund make a 1% pledge—it costs zero dollars to join, but when members have an exit, 1% is donated back to Michigan. The fund then provides grants to nonprofits around the state to lift up the communities where founders live and work.

Pete served as Head of Connection for Michigan Founders Fund for a couple of years, focusing on what the organization does best: connecting founders and investors from across Michigan who are committed to building something special in the state.

 

PitchMI: One of the Nation's Largest Startup Competitions

Pete's current role as Director of Portfolio Management at MSU Research Foundation has allowed him to make an even broader impact. One of his most significant initiatives is PitchMI, which has grown into one of the largest startup pitch competitions in the United States.

The numbers tell the story: PitchMI expanded from a $100,000 single-city competition in 2024 to a $4 million statewide program in 2025-2026. The competition drew 375 applications from 108 Michigan cities in just two weeks—a testament to the entrepreneurial activity happening across the entire state.

The 2025 program featured four regional competitions, each focused on Michigan's competitive strengths:

  • Grand Rapids - Healthcare and Life Sciences

  • Traverse City - CleanTech and Outdoor Innovation

  • Detroit - Mobility, Defense, and Advanced Manufacturing

  • Ann Arbor - AI and Software

Each regional winner received $250,000 and will advance to a statewide championship in April 2026, where they'll compete for an additional $1 million investment. The total prize for the state champion: $1.25 million—among the largest startup competition awards in the nation.

The regional winners demonstrate the breadth of Michigan's innovation:

  • BedConnect (Grand Rapids) - Online system connecting hospitals with available nursing home beds

  • Electric Outdoors (Traverse City) - Portable canopy systems providing off-grid power for remote camping

  • General Orbit (Detroit) - Navigation hardware and software simplifying satellite production

  • Adrenaline Interactive (Ann Arbor) - In-game advertising platform for titles like Fortnite and Roblox

Beyond the capital, Pete emphasizes that the MSU Research Foundation's portfolio management approach focuses on connecting founders with resources, venture networks, and partnerships they need to scale. "Writing a check is easy—it's the mentoring, coaching, and sometimes tough advice that really helps startups survive and grow."

 

The Midwest Content Opportunity: Distribution Matters

In one of the most forward-thinking moments of the conversation, Pete and Ryan discussed the critical importance of distribution and storytelling for the Midwest startup ecosystem. Pete points to Andreessen Horowitz's recent acquisition of Turpentine, a centralized podcast network, as a signal of where things are headed.

"Building the thing is easier than ever," Pete explains, referencing how AI has changed the software development landscape. "If everyone can build a product in a weekend, then it becomes about distribution."

This is where Pete sees both a challenge and an opportunity for Michigan. "Marketing becomes extremely important, which I will say is an Achilles heel in Michigan," he admits candidly. "You need to have extremely good marketing. You have to have great distribution."

The solution? A centralized content network for the Midwest—similar to what Turpentine does for tech generally, but focused on showcasing the innovation happening in flyover country. Pete notes that even Eric Torenberg, the founder of Turpentine who became a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is a University of Michigan graduate.

"If we can be coming together to do that and concentrate this into this massive laser beam that blasts through all of the noise out there, and all of a sudden everybody around the country can say, 'Oh my goodness, look at what's happening there.' That is extremely important," Pete emphasizes.

The key insight: "Build it and talk about it at the same time. And people will come."

 

The Data Behind Michigan's Comeback

One of the most exciting developments Pete discussed is a forthcoming data platform that will make Michigan's startup ecosystem transparent and measurable. While Pete couldn't share all the details during the recording, he hinted at a comprehensive system launching soon.

"You're going to get to see rounds of funding that are going into Michigan companies, the stage that they're at, how quickly they're raising, how big the rounds are, who's involved," Pete explains. This data transparency will serve multiple purposes:

For Founders: The ability to see comparable companies, understand market rates, and identify potential investors becomes invaluable. Pete gives the example of a founder raising $3 million who can now see 15 other companies that raised similar amounts, along with their valuations and investor participants.

For Policymakers: With state budget constraints and competing priorities, showing concrete data on return on investment becomes critical. "If you can see that the work that we've been doing for 20 years on smart zones and these state-backed funds is actually paying off—if you invest a dollar, it turns into 10, or it turns into all of these jobs—that's great to see."

For the Ecosystem: Transparency builds trust and attracts more capital. When investors can see clear data on Michigan's startup performance, it becomes easier to make the case for deploying capital in the state.

 

What's Next for Michigan's Ecosystem

Throughout the conversation, Pete maintained an infectious optimism about Michigan's trajectory. He was careful to push back on the narrative of Michigan making a "comeback," arguing instead that the comeback already happened—we just need more people to know about it.

"It's not that we can be everything that we were. It's happened," Pete insists, rattling off recent Michigan success stories:

  • Duo Security - Multi-billion dollar exit

  • LamaSoft - $1.5 billion exit

  • OneStream - Successful IPO

  • Lineage Logistics - Largest IPO in the world in 2024, based in Novi

  • Our Next Energy - Raised $300 million, another Michigan unicorn, just announced expansion into grid battery technology with a $1.6 billion battery manufacturing plant in Southeast Michigan

"There's so much stuff that is already happening here," Pete says. "It's not the comeback. It happened. It happened over the last 15 years. Now it's, 'My God, we're changing the world again.'"

Pete teased several upcoming announcements from MSU Research Foundation and other state initiatives, while specifically highlighting the new job board they launched. He sees it as the first of many tools to connect talent, companies, and opportunities across Michigan's ecosystem.

The message is clear: Michigan's startup renaissance isn't coming—it's already here. The next phase is about amplifying that story, connecting the people building the future, and ensuring that both Michiganders and people across the country know what's happening in the Great Lakes State.

 

Memorable Quotes from the Episode

"You don't even need to pay me, hire me yesterday. This is in November of 2022. It took her until February of 2023 for her to actually bring me on board." - Pete Martin on joining Michigan Founders Fund

"It's not the comeback. It happened. It happened over the last 15 years. Now it's, 'My God, we're changing the world again.'" - Pete Martin on Michigan's startup ecosystem

"If everyone can build a product in a weekend, then it becomes about distribution." - Pete Martin on why content and marketing matter more than ever

"Build it and talk about it at the same time. And people will come." - Pete Martin on the modern startup playbook

"Michigan's not about taking from Silicon Valley. Michigan's about being the best version of Michigan." - Pete Martin on Michigan's unique identity

 
 

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