World,

Meet Roslyn – one of the future patrons of Ground Up. About 5 months ago, I announced via blogosphere that Alexandra and I would be opening a coffee shop and bar repurposed as a funding vehicle for Detroit’s social entrepreneurs. BUILD Social was just the beginning of a long list of local and national learning and building opportunities we’ve taken advantage of over the course of the new year, almost all of which have required us to give up some of our hard earned free time and vacation days.

However, the month of July brought a stroke of luck in that we were allowed to use our Challenge Detroit Fridays for a passion project of our choice. Naturally, Alexandra and I used the time to beef up our business plan with some new market research that plays into human-centered design. Roslyn (+9 other personas) and her interests, backstory, taste profile, and ideal coffee shop experience were the culmination of 169 survey results from coffee, tea, and booze drinkers across the nation, and just one component of a month-long dive into what Detroiters want out of a coffee shop socially and emotionally.

If you’re free tomorrow evening, storm the M@dison building for a more complete picture of this month’s work!