John Gallagher

Detroit Free Press

Tech pioneer Pete Karmanos Jr. helped jump-start the downtown Detroit revival in 2003 by moving his Compuware headquarters from the suburbs into the gleaming, new 15-story, $450-million headquarters building at Campus Martius. Now he's hoping to do something similar for downtown Pontiac.

Karmanos, now chairman and co-founder of MadDog Technology, along with co-founder Mark Hillman, announced this morning they are moving three of their startup companies to the historic Riker Building. Those three companies will occupy a 15,000-square-foot space now being prepared. They plan to hire more than 100 professionals over the next three years.

In interviews this morning, Karmanos said the move to Pontiac made sense.

► Related: 10 biggest absurdities in life? Karmanos offers picks

► Related: The untold tale of Compuware, Karmanos and a bitter breakup

“There is a growing base of technology companies in Pontiac, and we see Pontiac emerging as a technology center in southeast Michigan,” he said. “Being one of the first to invest in Detroit, we saw that technology companies can be the heart of an economic renaissance. We believe Pontiac can see the same sort of explosive growth in the short term.”

Hillman echoed that. “It’s all about top talent," he said. "Software professionals are highly competed for across all industries, especially with the large-scale investment in self-driving car technologies. Pontiac is an outstanding location helping us compete for the best of the best technical talent."

Among the advantages Pontiac offers to a tech company include its central location to major residential districts in Oakland County as well as nearness to Oakland University and multiple other technology firms in the area.

MadDog Technology was founded in 2014 by Karmanos after he left Compuware in an acrimonious breakup. MadDog is designed to leverage technology, software and business savvy in a variety of new fields. The firm has morphed into a venture fund with investment stakes in about eight startups including the three moving to Pontiac.

"We've been busy little beavers over the two or three years," Karmanos said. "We think we're going to create multiple billion-dollar value propositions" with the various startups.

Of the three firms moving to Pontiac, Lenderful, a mortgage company, plans to invest more than $1.75 million, with additional investments being made by DeliverMyRide and PerfectRealty with a goal of creating more than 100 jobs over the next 36 months.

Lenderful has been awarded an $800,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. Michigan was chosen over a competing site in North Carolina. The City of Pontiac has offered support to the project by waiving building or other permits.

Clearly, Karmanos has high ambitions for his fledgling startups. He said he hopes that DeliverMyRide.com, an Internet-based way to shop for cars, should be handling at least 250,000 new car sales a year when successful. And he said that PerfectRealty.com, a house-selling entity, would change the way people sell their homes.

Oakland County officials hailed the moves.

“We are grateful Lenderful chose Oakland County and, in particular, the city of Pontiac with its advanced fiber-optic infrastructure as the place where it wants to prosper,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said in a statement.

► Related: Karmanos enters thriving mortgage industry

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.