DETROIT ? Serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner has now joined the ranks of investors with his latest gig, Detroit Venture Partners. DVP’s stated goal is to reshape Detroit into what it was a century ago ? a hub for entrepreneurship.

Linkner, chairman of ePrize, the online promotions company he founded, is joined at DVP by Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, and Brian Hermelin, Founder & Chairman of Rockbridge Growth Equity, Chairman of Active Aero Group.

?We?re investing in seed and early stage technology companies,? Linkner said. ?We?re looking for companies developing apps, social media, software, cloud computing, Internet, e-Commerce, marketing tech and more. Our goal is to help rebuild the region, specifically the city of Detroit in entrepreneurship. We hope to create jobs, wealth and hope.?

DVP is more than another angel investment group (typically investing $250,000 to $500,000) and a Venture Capital firm (usually starting at several million dollars and going up.) Linkner said DVP will initially invest $250,000 to $750,000 and continue to invest in a company, in rounds, up to a total investment of $3 million. Linkner said as of end of June, DVP had made investments averaging $500,000 in seven companies.

Those investments include:

Stylecaster ? online fashion site

Sociocast ? data-driven intelligent marketing platform

Gumshoe ? Interactive live mystery game for mobile devices

Blirt ? digital shopping companion for mobile devices in retail stores.

Flud News ? an application to follow, share and discover hyper-relevant news content via mobile devices

Hired My Way ? Job seekers buy MYtokens that they use to pay to post their resumes, ensuring that they only post resumes to job listings for which their skills and interests are a strong match

Are you a Human – a game-based human authentication platform that replaces the distorted text images known as CAPTCHAs

?We expect to do a dozen deals this year and at least 15 next year and beyond,? he said. ?We?re looking to deploy several hundred million dollars in the region. We?re not dabbling in venture investments; we?re treating this very seriously and want to look like a national VC. We?d like to become the Sand Hill Road of Detroit.?

Sand Hill Road is in Menlo Park, California, and is home to many venture capital companies that have fueled the growth of Silicon Valley.

Linkner said he is no longer active in ePrize, but ?I?m heavily tied in financially and emotionally to the company.?

While he seeks to promote Detroit and rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit in the Motor City, he also is spreading his entrepreneurship message worldwide in a new book he wrote, ?Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity.? He says the book offers a five-part process that will transform organizations into non-stop creativity juggernauts.

1) Ask ? Defining the creative challenge. Awaken curiosity and awareness.

2) Prepare ? Preparing your mind set and culture, physical environment to support optimal creativity.

3) Discover ? almost like scavenger hunter looking for creativity where it hides.

4) Ignite. 8 powerful brain storming techniques that most people never heard of.

5) Launch. Where so many people fail. Don?t put them into practice well. Take dozens of ideas and narrow down to those most effective.

?What the book is about is what happened when the economy turned,? he said. ?The rules of the game changed. The financial crisis of 2008 commoditized many competitive advantages of the past. What separates companies is creativity. Most people don?t have the capacity to manage creativity. My book will help unleash the creative capacity.?

If you want to learn more, click on DetroitVenturePartners.Com

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