Business Unusual: Building and Pivoting Businesses During COVID-19

NEXTGen Detroit and JVS Present: Business Unusual: Building and Pivoting Businesses During COVID-19

Over a year into the COVID-19 crisis, and businesses both big and small are still trying to navigate what it means to succeed in these difficult times. But with a post-pandemic world on the horizon, we've invited a panel of business owners and industry experts to to share the lessons that they've learned over the last 12 months and what business trends they foresee moving into the future. This event is open to all but will be especially interesting to young business owners, consultants and entrepreneurs.

Meet the Panelists

Jared Rothberger

Jared is the co-owner of JAN-PRO Detroit, a full service cleaning business and JAN-Supply, which provides commercial cleaning, disinfecting and PPE for home or business use. Jan-Supply opened a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and saw unprecedented demand. Jared will be speaking about how he built his business, how he responded to a brand new market and will share his best advice and practical tips for current or hopeful business owners.

Nita Cohen

Nita Cohen is the senior vice president at TCF Bank and has decades of experience overseeing bank lending to small businesses. She is also the co-chair of Hebrew Free Loan’s Danto small business loan program. Nita will demystify the bank lending process, offer insight into what she has seen businesses do to succeed financially in the past year and speak about both the for-profit and non-profit options for business lending.

Brett Demarrais

Brett Demarrais is a partner at Ludlow Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Detroit. A venture capital firm makes a monetary investment in a start-up company in exchange for a percentage of their equity. Brett will share how venture capital works, what he believes makes a start-up successful, and what he sees the future of venture capital looking like.

Jess Katz, Moderator

Jess is a native Metro Detroiter and has made her way back after spending time living in Chicago and NYC. She graduated from MSU and Loyola University in Chicago, and has a background in HR, coaching and non-profit program management. Her current role is the HR Manager and Manager of Regions at Kids Kicking Cancer.

Thank you to our event co-chairs: Warren Frenkel, Stephanie Podolsky and Adam Rubin

Thank you to our generous sponsors: Dennis and Hadas Bernard

This online event is intended for young adults ages 21 to 45.

Questions? Contact Hannah at jvshumanservices.org