Danny Freed comes from a long line of University of Michigan alums, but is the first to graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and an app.
Freed, 21, of West Bloomfield, is a co-founder of Companion, an app that helps your friends and family keep an eye on you while you walk home late at night.
He’s also part of a family legacy that started when his great-grandfather Clem Weitzman attended U-M in 1928, and includes grandfather Jim Weitzman (BBA ’58), father Larry Freed (Bachelor of Science ’83), mom Laini Freed (BBA ’85), and brother Josh (Bachelor of Arts ’12).
His younger brother Jake, 17, starts attending classes in Ann Arbor next fall. His father is founder of 2nd Stage Partners and former founder/CEO of ForeSee.
Freed said that while he learned a lot at U-M’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the biggest lesson was to try new things outside of classes. That’s how Companion came about.
“Startups here carry little risk because if it doesn’t work out, you’re still a student,” he said. “It’s a risk-free environment, really.”
The app, that also will help police use real-time walking data and historical walking patterns to determine how to deploy officers, won the Michigan Business Challenge and $25,000 in February.
Taking risks is one thing, but Freed also took classes outside his major — such as computer science — to build skills and credibility. Summer internships locally and in Chicago helped him with networking.
He’ll start working as a product designer at Trunk Club in Chicago, a personalized shopping website for men, in August. He’ll still work on Companion on the side.
One of the many things he will miss? “Living within a few blocks of all my friends and not being responsible for anyone but myself.”
