DETROIT ? Serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner has resigned as CEO and managing partner of Detroit Venture Partners to pursue his speaking and writing career. He was replaced by co-partner Brian Hermelin.
In an interview with Crain?s Detroit, Linkner said his split with DVP was amicable and that he would focus on his self-help business books and his speaking tour, both of which take up most of his time.
Linkner founded Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize Inc. in 1999, a web promotion company, that received a $30 million investment from Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert. ePrize was purchased in 2012 by Catterton Partners. Linkner, Hermelin and Gilbert started DVP in 2011. DVP invests in early stage social media, IT and Web companies; its first fund, Detroit Venture Partners LP, raised $55 million.
Linkner?s first book, Leaning Forward: Surviving and Winning in the Future of Interactive Marketing, was published in 2007. Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, followed in 2011. His most recent book, The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation, was published in May by the Jossey-Boss imprint of John Wiley & Sons Inc. The last two books both made the New York Times bestseller list. He?s working on another now.
Linkner said that since the last book?s release, speaking engagements have taken him to Australia, London, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Colombia.
?Since 2010, Josh Linker?s passion for entrepreneurism and the City of Detroit has helped DVP build a solid team of investment professionals and led the investment in 16 portfolio companies,? Hermelin said in a statement provided to MITechNews.Com.
?As Josh transitions out of his day-to-day involvement with DVP, we look forward to him continuing to promote Detroit startups and the endless opportunities that exist for entrepreneurs in our city.?
