Karmanos, now chairman and co-founder of MadDog Technology, along with co-founder Mark Hillman, announced this morning they are moving three of their companies to the historic Riker Building in downtown Pontiac. Those three companies will occupy a 15,000-square-foot space now being prepared. They plan to hire more than 100 professionals over the next three years.
In interviews this morning, Karmanos said the move to Pontiac made sense.
“There is a growing base of technology companies in Pontiac, and we see Pontiac emerging as a technology center in Southeast Michigan,” he said. “Being one of the first to invest in Detroit, we saw that technology companies can be the heart of an economic renaissance. We believe Pontiac can see the same sort of explosive growth in the short term.”
Hillman echoed that. “It’s all about top talent," he said. "Software professionals are highly competed for across all industries especially with the large scale investment in self driving car technologies. Pontiac is an outstanding location helping us compete for the best of the best technical talent."
Among the advantages Pontiac offers to a tech company include its central location to major residential districts in Oakland County as well as nearness to Oakland University and multiple other technology firms in the area.
MadDog Technology was founded by Karmanos after he left Compuware in an acrimonious breakup. MadDog is designed to leverage technology, software, and business savvy in a variety of new fields.
Lenderful, a mortgage company, plans to invest over $1.75 million; with additional investments being made by DeliverMyRide and Perfect Realty with a goal of creating over 100 jobs over the coming 36 months. Lenderful has been awarded an $800,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. Michigan was chosen over a competing site in North Carolina. The city of Pontiac has offered support to the project by waiving building or other permits.
“We are grateful Lenderful chose Oakland County and in-particular the city of Pontiac with its advanced fiber optic infrastructure as the place where it wants to prosper,” County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a statement.
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