Tag Archives: Paul Saginaw

Jessica Meissner on assisting non-venture capital backed companies, and expanding the role of co-ops in Michigan

By Mark | May 5, 2013

Among the people in the audience at Thursday night’s “Doing Business in Ypsilanti” panel, was a woman who has been tasked by Washtenaw County to study the needs of non-venture capital funded entrepreneurs, and make suggestions as to how we might better support them. Her name is Jessica Meissner, and what follows is our email [...]

Posted in Economics, Michigan, Ypsilanti | Also tagged access to capital, Alternative Energy, BALLE, BEC, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, co-ops, collaboration, cooperation, cooperatives, corporatocracy, Costa Rica, Dug Song, economic anthropology, Jessica Meissner, local procurement, Maker Works, Organic Valley, purchasing, sharing assets, Small and Mighty, small business, sustainably, The Shed, Tom Root, triple bottom line, underemployment, unemployment, University of Michigan, venture capital, Washtenaw County, Wisconsin, workforce development | 9 Comments

A2Awesome gives out another $3,000 in grants to brilliant people doing inspiring things in the Ypsi-Arbor area

By Mark | October 29, 2012

Yesterday, the Trustees of A2Awesome convened in the secret writing lab behind the Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair store in downtown Ann Arbor, and handed out another $3,000 in cash grants intended to make life the Ypsi-Arbor area more awesome. The cash awards were handed over in brown paper bags to artist Trevor Stone, [...]

Posted in A2Awesome, Ann Arbor, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Alice Liberson, Awesome Foundation, Dick Soble, Hans Masing, Heather MacKenzie, Jeff Meyers, Larry Grant, Linh Song, Monique Deschaine, Omari Rush, Tanya Luz | 5 Comments

Shadow Art Fair 2012 (part two)

By Mark | July 22, 2012

Sorry I only made it a few hours into my Shadow Art Fair live blog before I had to bail out. You’d think that I’d know better by now, having tried to document these things live on several occasions over the past half dozen years. I always think, “this time, it’ll be different,” but it [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Shadow Art Fair, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Barely Legal, Ben Connor Barrie, Chris Becker, coffee, conversion therapy, Corner brewery, Damn Arbor, Darth Vader, Dustin Krcatovich, Equality California, Factsheet Five, florist, FM Dust, Foraging Florist, Four Seasons, Hustler, Hustler box, Josh Steichman, Larry Flynt, Martha Bishop, Michael Woodyard, moss, Natalie Berry, Olive Garden, Patrick Dunn, porn, reparative therapy, Spontaneous Art, The Onion, Trevor Stone, Ugly Mug, VG Kids, Washtenaw County Circuity Judge | 13 Comments

Ann Arbor entrepreneurs Dug Song and Paul Saginaw exchange thoughts on employee ownership and the meaning of wealth

By Mark | June 7, 2012

A few days ago, I posted a video in which Zingerman’s co-founder, Paul Saginaw, said the following. “A business shouldn’t exist in order to create wealth. It should exist in order to give people better lives.” Well, that elicited a comment from Ann Arbor software entrepreneur Dug Song, who, among other things, had questions concerning [...]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Economics, entrepreneurism, Uncategorized | Also tagged Arbor Networks, Ari Weinzweig, Beyster Institute, Bob Beyster, business models, Chip Conley, corporate structure, Dancing Sandwich Enterprises, Dug Song, Duo Security, employee ownership, ESOPs, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Leland Stanford, liquidity, National Center for Employee Ownership, ownership, pirates, Predator UAV, revenue sharing, SAIC, servant leadership, startups, stock options, tech startups, the veneration of wealth, wealth creation, what is wealth, Zingerman's, Zingerman's Community of Businesses | 6 Comments

Zingerman’s: This is Ownership

By Mark | June 4, 2012

The following video, if I’m not mistaken, was produced to coincide with the recent BALLE conference in Grand Rapids, which, to a great degree, revolved around the subject of employee ownership. In this video, Paul Saginaw explains why, ten years after the launch of Zingerman’s Delicatessen, he and his co-founder, Ari Weinzweig, decided upon an [...]