Entrepeneur Heaven - Businesses First Created in Detroit - A New Discovery.....

...at least for me, was The Cheesecake Factory!

Were any of you aware of this? Evelyn Overton started making cheesecakes in her basement kitchen. I just knew this had to be in Detroit; how many of us remember our ma or nonna having a basement kitchen? ;)

The article [[ http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-inc-history/ ) said that they had a bakery business in the late 50s. Would anyone know where this was?

It never ceases to amaze me how many big-name businesses [[besides the auto companies) got started in Detroit. LaChoy, Delta Faucets, The Nederlander Org., are the first ones that come to mind. That entrepeneur spirit seems to have left us somehow. :[[

Less regulation way back then made it easy for folks to get a business off the ground.

It's damn hard to get something going now, because everyone expects people to use family money,
put up their house, etc. before any lending instituition will entertain lending money.
Angel investors want their money back fast, real fast, like a year or two.
It's a struggle of passion, scraping by, hoping, coping, and maybe, maybe, getting lucky

Software idea, even tougher since you have no brick/mortar building, just code in your head.
No one lends money for what is in your mind, or in a "device", computer, etc.
Most apps die a quick death, downloaded once, used once/twice, deleted, and forgotten .

Damn depressing, if you ask me, Willi. That should be something the city gov't should concentrate on, getting business back in the city. Nothing revitalizes like it.

to be fair, what is The Cheesecake Favctory is technically unrelated to their Detroit business. The Overtons retired out here & got bored, & their son decided as a project to launch a restaurant specializing in dishes that were technically hard to do in the kitchen as a challenge, for the record a friend from Grosse Pointe who did a project there says TCF's HQ in Westlake Village is amazing: https://foursquare.com/v/the-cheesec...54d13aacf3f54d

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Originally Posted by kathy2trips

...at least for me, was The Cheesecake Factory!

Were any of you aware of this? Evelyn Overton started making cheesecakes in her basement kitchen. I just knew this had to be in Detroit; how many of us remember our ma or nonna having a basement kitchen? ;)

The article [[ http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-inc-history/ ) said that they had a bakery business in the late 50s. Would anyone know where this was?

It never ceases to amaze me how many big-name businesses [[besides the auto companies) got started in Detroit. LaChoy, Delta Faucets, The Nederlander Org., are the first ones that come to mind. That entrepeneur spirit seems to have left us somehow. :[[

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