When Duo Security sold to Cisco for $2.35 billion it was basically like the moon landing for the Ann Arbor startup community.

Most of us had nothing to do with it, but we all remember where we were when we heard about it and still feel extremely felt proud of and connected to their success. Everybody does.

It’s not just the money though, it’s how they did it. Everybody employee had equity. They stayed in Ann Arbor when it must have been tempting to move to the Valley. They always stayed present and accessible.

It reminds me of the Pistons winning championships with hard work and toughness. For some reason it’s extra satisfying when the values of the team reflect the values of the community.

And that’s really what this episode is about. Dug Song is going to explain how Duo didn’t succeed in spite of their midwest values and ties to the community – they succeeded because of those things.

You should know about two things Dug started that you can get involved in:

• The first is the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund (A2EF). A2EF is essentially a club for startup founders. Here’s what it is and why Dug and his wife invested a million dollars to get it off the ground.
• The second is a monthly meetup called A2 New Tech, which is basically the friendly front door for the Ann Arbor startup community. I get value from it every single time I go.

This is the last episode of Finding Your Venture for 2020.

The podcast is funded by the University of Michigan Center for Academic Innovation for two more years so we’ll be back next spring with more lessons and stories.

The podcast is designed like a Wikipedia page. You can scan the episode titles and get the gist of the message, and if you see something interesting you can click and go deeper.

This year we made an effort to feature a more diverse set of storytellers and we’ll continue to do better in the years ahead. I learn so much from the diverse and interesting students in our course and building those relationships is far and away the #1 reason we teach. Teaching and creating has been an antidote to the gusher of bad news and fear spewing from my phone.

People are good. You’ll never regret investing time and resources into relationships with the people around you. Thanks for spending this time listening to the stories I love.