The scenario is not altogether uncommon. Upon leaving the rich and plentiful social environment of a college campus, a young graduate enters the working world only to struggle for ways to meet new people or find things to do. That’s what Kerry Doman ’04 experienced after working in Chicago for a year and then returning to her native Detroit, where she found few opportunities to connect with other young professionals in the area.
So, taking a cue from social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, Dorman turned her frustration into inspiration and launched After 5 Detroit to offer the Motor City’s young professionals a way to share information and recommendations about favorite local businesses, events, and trends. Since launching the business in September 2005, Doman has seen tremendous growth and visibility, mostly due to word-of-mouth marketing and an increase in unique visitors to her website, www.After5Detroit.com.
As with any start-up business, Doman faced several challenges before achieving any amount of success. “It was very hard developing a business that wasn’t tangible. The planning and development stages have been the most difficult, mainly because at the end of the day you can’t see the finished product. For about the first five months after our launch, I ran, maintained, designed and grew the site on my own, but since taking on this new and bigger endeavor, After 5 has now expanded into a new downtown loft with six other employees!” The young founder/CEO and her staff are currently hard at work redesigning the After 5 website, which is slated to launch in February.
Doman’s positive attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit have proved After 5 Detroit is ready for the big leagues, gaining the attention of major ad agencies and media players in the Detroit area. In late December, After 5 Detroit became the exclusive provider of local entertainment content for ClickonDetroit.com, the website for Channel 4 (Fox).