Christina Fair on Midwest Startup Challenges – IT in the D 549

Christina Fair has lots of titles: Founder of Reconnect, Co-founder of Hum, Entrepreneur in Residence at Ann Arbor SPARK, Executive Director of Detroit Executives Association, and board member of Bees in the D. She joins us this week to talk about her work across Detroit’s startup and community ecosystem, including Ann Arbor Spark, Michigan Founders Fund, and the Detroit Executives Association. Christina explains Bees in the D’s urban rooftop hives, Meijer honey distribution, and Detroit City Distillery collaborations. She describes common startup challenges—especially people and leadership gaps—contrasting Midwest “nice” with Silicon Valley’s fail-fast culture, and emphasizes finding complementary co-founders. They cover revenue vs exit-focused business models, AI-driven process automation in real estate, Hum’s pivot from move-event ISP strategy to an embedded internet-shopping widget, Detroit’s digital divide efforts, and the speed of AI-enabled prototyping.