Joyride + the Michigan Economic Development Corporation
HOME GROWN TALENT SHOWCASE
Michigan’s automotive industry is changing fast—and with that change comes a question for thousands of experienced professionals: what’s next?
To support the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Changing Lanes initiative, Joyride helped bring a founder storytelling concept to life designed to make one potential answer feel more tangible. By sharing the real journeys of automotive professionals who made the leap into Michigan’s mobility startup ecosystem, we helped turn entrepreneurship from an unfamiliar idea into something people could actually see themselves pursuing.
Joyride's Content Campaign to Support Statewide Economic Development
HOW WE HELPED ↓
+ Campaign Planning
+ Story Mining
+ Interviewee Prep and Rehearsal
+ Interviewing and Film
+ Video Production
+ Copywriting
Key Results
4
Michigan Founders Sourced & Featured
10
Content Pieces for Social Media Campaign
1
Shared Economic Development Story
2
Months Expedited
Production Time
Project Overview
Changing Lanes was created to strengthen the connection between Michigan’s experienced corporate workforce in the auto industry and its growing startup ecosystem. One of its core goals was to move professionals from “startup unaware” or skeptical to “startup curious”—while creating pathways for more people to join, support, or ultimately build emerging companies.
The foundation of a Founder Series concept was brought to Joyride and our job was to shape it into a cohesive storytelling campaign and bring it to life from beginning to end. We worked to identify the right founders, uncover their stories, develop the narrative, film and produce the content, and create a suite of assets that could support the broader Changing Lanes awareness and recruitment effort.
The Challenge
Every founder had taken a different route from the traditional automotive industry into the startup world. Different careers. Different transferable skillsets. Different motivations. Different companies. Different moments that made them decide to take the leap.
Our challenge was to preserve what made each story authentic while finding the common thread between them. The content needed to be honest about the realities of entrepreneurship without making the transition feel intimidating. It needed to be aspirational without becoming unrealistic. Most importantly, it had to connect each personal journey back to MEDC’s larger goal: showing Michigan’s experienced automotive talent that their skills could have a place in the state’s next generation of mobility companies.
Joyride’s Strategy
We started with a simple premise: the best way to convince someone that a different path is possible is to introduce them to someone who has already taken it.
Rather than leading with programs, resources, or institutional messaging, we put real people at the center of the campaign. Joyride worked with MEDC to identify four founders whose career journeys could demonstrate different ways traditional automotive experience can translate into entrepreneurship and the mobility startup ecosystem.
The campaign featured Prashant Salla of GoodHood, Crystal Brown of CircNova, Brandon Berry of Block Harbor, and Ana Healander of Airspace Link.
Each story stood on its own, but together they delivered a larger message: there isn’t one way to make the move from automotive to startup—and the expertise professionals have already built can become an asset in whatever comes next.
That strategy closely aligned with Changing Lanes’ broader use of storytelling as a catalyst for exploration: showcasing people who had already made the leap to give aspiring founders and professionals an authentic glimpse into startup life and make an unfamiliar path feel achievable.
The strategy encompassed several key elements:
Find the Story
Joyride began with individual sourcing and preparation conversations with each founder to understand their background, career trajectory, motivations, turning points, challenges, and perspective on entrepreneurship.
From those conversations, we developed customized interview strategies designed to uncover the moments that would resonate most with someone considering a similar transition. Rather than forcing every founder into the same script, we let each person’s experience shape the story while maintaining the narrative thread connecting the campaign.
Bring Each Journey to Life
Joyride conducted the on-location interviews, filmed each founder, and produced the final profile videos. Supporting photography, b-roll, career imagery, and company visuals helped show not only where each founder ended up, but the journey that brought them there.
Build a Story that Resonates
Each founder profile became a coordinated package of content rather than a single video. For every participant, Joyride developed:
A founder spotlight video
A written long-form story
A founder bio
Social media graphics and quote assets
Additional content for campaign and media-kit use
Together, the assets gave MEDC multiple ways to introduce each story across web, social, recruiting, event, and program communications.
Extend the Campaign
The content was designed to be useful to more than one organization. Featured founders and their companies also shared the assets through their own channels, expanding the reach of the stories beyond MEDC’s existing audience and into the startup and mobility communities the campaign was working to connect.
Our Results
Joyride delivered four complete founder storytelling packages, transforming four very different career journeys into a cohesive campaign supporting the broader Changing Lanes initiative.
The assets became part of the program’s ongoing awareness and recruiting funnel, giving MEDC a library of authentic stories that could show prospective participants what a transition into startup life could actually look like.
And those stories supported something much larger.
Changing Lanes officially launched in January 2025 with the mission of increasing the number of startup founders in Michigan and creating successful pathways for corporate talent to transition into startup roles. The broader program went on to provide participants with workshops, individualized career-transition plans, coaching, mentoring, networking, startup exposure, and an 80-hour practicum designed to give professionals real-world experience inside emerging companies.
The State of Michigan later described the initiative as a highly successful pilot program and began exploring opportunities to expand its reach and impact.
For Joyride, the impact of the storytelling was simpler but equally important: help make a path that once felt unfamiliar easier to imagine.
FEATURED DELIVERABLES
Our Reflections
Communicating economic development isn’t always about explaining a program. Sometimes it’s about helping someone recognize themselves in the opportunity.
By turning four founder journeys into one connected story, Joyride helped MEDC put a human face on Michigan’s startup ecosystem—and show experienced automotive professionals that the skills, knowledge, and perspective they already have could help build what comes next.
Sometimes the best way to show people what’s possible is to show them who’s already done it.
AUTHENTIC, TRUSTWORTHY STORYTELLING
And we know that the right story has the power to change everything.
A true approach to storytelling brings together narrative development with traditional PR, marketing, and thought leadership. It's about crafting a narrative that resonates with industry stakeholders, showcasing the value of innovation in tangible, relatable terms. It’s about creating excitement and captivating target audiences, conveying not just what the company does but why it matters and how it can transform lives and industries. It's a journey of authenticity, transparency, and trust, aligning the vision of businesses with the aspirations of a world ready to embrace the future of transportation.