The Active Entrepreneurship of JORDAN DICE

It’s always interesting when you have the opportunity to meet someone with an active mind.  Given the chance to sit down and chat with Mid-Michigan entrepreneur Jordan Dice, it did not take long to understand this was one of those situations.

Dice’s rise in the region’s business community has been fairly well documented.  Most media picked up on his story as a teenaged student at Delta College who started StarNet, a wireless internet company around 20 years ago. 

Speaking with Dice, I learned his entrepreneurial activities actually stretch back further than that, with a business reselling second hand golf balls at the Bay County Golf Course.  He would collect these from the weeds, or even dive for these at night, and sell them back to the golfers that probably sprayed them into the hazards in the first place at the 9th hole turn.

Given that story and what I already had gleaned from stories on his purchases of The State Theatre and St. Laurent Brothers candy store in Bay City and the Midland Mall I came into the interview with a couple of basic questions.

The first of these was why a guy who had done so well in high tech would suddenly buy a mall, a candy store and an old movie theater.  Seemed counter-intuitive.

He was quick to respond, “I wanted to do something more substantial for this community.  These are all historically important assets and they are complex enough to keep me interested.”

As Dice described it, these activities do call on a full range of skills.  Dice has made a career of acquiring capabilities and credentials in addition to real estate and other assets.

Aside from his degrees in Computer Science and Accounting from Delta College, he holds licenses or professional certifications in real estate, construction and insurance.

All of those really came into play with the acquisition of the Midland Mall, which is the largest privately owned building in the County.

“There was a lot to learn about the building and its technology,” said Dice.

This is where his golf ball business experience came in handy, as he tells of crawling the various crevices of the building in order to learn about its power distribution, HVAC and communications systems first hand.

This is a method he is duplicating with the State Theatre, as he is currently training himself on the audio and video equipment, in addition to the venue’s infrastructure and idiosyncrasies.  As he told it, he will feel comfortable staffing and getting it up and running once he understands all of these systems himself.  My guess is this will be accomplished pretty quickly.

My second question for him, which I ask of all people who seem to be able to successfully move between industries: What commonalities do they find in play with all businesses and what is the most important trait you think you bring to a new opportunity?

“There is always a new ‘trade skill’ to learn, but a lot is the same,” he responds.  “Accounting, legalities, dealing with employees, professionalism.”

In terms of his own contribution, he credits self confidence that he can meet these challenges, but I picked up on a couple more that probably serve him just as well - recognition of an opportunity and persistence.

Both of these are on display when he tells the story of founding StarNet when he was only 14.  The Environmental Protection Agency  had recently moved out of a building in downtown Bay City that had housed a Cray Supercomputer.  While the computer was gone, Dice realized all of the infrastructure was still there to power it and tap into its computing power.  It was perfect for an internet start-up.

The building was then owned by Jim Johnson, the late patriarch of the JE Johnson Company.  Dice pestered him with phone calls until Johnson finally gave in and took a meeting.  The young idea man found himself in the legendary office of a guy who made his money in the skilled trades, pitching an idea that seemed like Greek to Jim.  That did not stop Dice from cutting a deal, fueling a career that has been on the upswing ever since.

Another interesting trait with Dice is there seems to be a certain amount of sentimentality kicking in at this point in his career.  Despite being in his mid 30s, he has been at this now for 20 years.

When he talks about St Laurent Brothers, it’s not just an iconic Bay City business, it’s a store where his great-great grandparents went on dates.  He has his own memories of the Hampton Town Center in Essexville and what it meant to him and the community as its fortunes waned.  This informs the decisions he is making at the Midland Mall. While he plans to continue live entertainment at the State, he would like to lean into classic films, too.

When I traveled for business, there were a couple of shelves in every airport bookstore that I called the “Is This All There Is” section.  It was for executives asking existential questions about the difference between getting things done and doing things that matter. 

I got the feeling in our short chat that Dice has turned that corner.  Given the long stretch of runway his career still has in front of him, I am going to suggest this is just the beginning of his contributions to the region..

My best bet is that Dice keeps rolling.