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In honor of National Startup Day, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) and Ann Arbor SPARK hosted a conversation with local companies on the current climate for startups in Ann Arbor.

Speaking to the non-profit economic development organization Wednesday, Dingell highlighted what she described as an increasingly open atmosphere for new businesses.

“The world has changed,” Dingell said. “I am not old, but I will admit that I am seasoned. It was far more difficult a couple of decades ago if you had an idea to start a business to have anybody take you seriously.”

She said National Startup Day aimed to discuss the kinds of government mechanisms that help foster economic development and those that hinder the success of new businesses.

The Ann Arbor-based SPARK organization, funded in part by several municipalities, as well as local universities and companies, aids companies by providing them with resources and funds to get their businesses off the ground.

“I have been a supporter of SPARK, a watcher of SPARK and SPARK is a very effective organization,” Dingell said.

Representatives from the companies in attendance on Wednesday identified several factors as important to success in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area, namely the combination of resources like SPARK and proximity to several colleges.

Both Danny Ellis, CEO and co-founder of SkySpecs, a commercial drone company, and Grace Hsai, CEO and co-Founder of Warmilu, a non-electric warming technology company for reducing infant death from hypothermia, said they would not have started their projects without those resources.

“Being able to walk into this ecosystem and getting tons of information dumped on us as to what it even means to be a startup — all the terminology, everything you need to know to raise money, everything you need to know to attract the right talent,” Ellis said. “I’ve met a lot of people in other smaller towns— other college towns — and they don’t have that.”

Hsai added that the combination provides an important pairing of both resources and opportunity.

“This ecosystem sparked in all of us not only the motivation and the catalyst to go and dive into entrepreneurship, but a recognition that there was this wealth of resources here and mentors and advisers as well as opportunities to see companies of many different stages,” she said.

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