New (NU) Ideas: Meet Patrick McElgunn
Watch Episode 34 of
The Max Loves Midland Show
Out this Wednesday 03/11/26!
Patrick McElgunn, In His Own Words:
“I’m Patrick McElgunn, and these days I run what I like to call the Idea Center at Northwood University. My official title is the Director of the Alden B. Dow Center for Creativity and Enterprise, but the simple version is this: I help students start, run, and scale businesses while they’re still in school. When I look back on my own journey, it feels like the most natural place I could have landed, because my whole career has been shaped by seeing a need, stepping into the gap, and figuring things out as I go.
I’m from Midland, short of being born here. My dad was a career Dow guy, and my parents were living in New Jersey at the time, so I was born there. But just after I turned one, we moved to Midland, and this became our home base. I spent two years in Rhode Island during high school because of another Dow assignment, then returned and finished at Midland High. Like a lot of Midland kids, I had that classic mindset of “I’m leaving as soon as I graduate and I’m never coming back.”
My wife, Shannon, had a similar story. We met in middle school, started dating our junior year of high school, and stayed together through college. She had her path mapped out: Hope College, nursing, and the medical field. Me? I didn’t have a single dream job I could point to. What I did have was this strength that’s followed me ever since: I’m not the best at one specific thing, but I’m really good at a lot of things. I’ve always been the utility guy. In sports, a coach could plug me in wherever they needed me, and I’d find a way to contribute. My career has looked a lot like that, too.
Right out of college, I worked part-time at Home Depot because I didn’t have a job lined up. I started coaching lacrosse, first at the high school level, then at Central Michigan University, and eventually at Northwood. Along the way, I started a lacrosse equipment store because I saw a need. Lacrosse was taking off across the region, and there was nowhere local to buy equipment, so I opened wholesale accounts, ran the business out of my basement by appointment, and traveled to tournaments. It grew, but eventually I shut it down because I realized what it would take to keep scaling. I would have been on the road six months a year, and I didn’t want that life.
During that same stretch, I earned my MBA from Saginaw Valley and began consulting with the Small Business Development Center. That experience changed me. I got to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs, and I learned what makes a small business succeed, what makes it struggle, and how deeply entrepreneurship is tied to community health. That’s the lens that eventually led to Grove Tea Lounge.
Back when Grove was just an idea, many of the spaces people love today didn’t exist yet. We actually worried there were too many coffee shops, which is why we leaned into tea. The name “Grove” came from an early location conversation tied to Grove Park, and it stuck because it felt like Midland. And even though I didn’t love tea or coffee at the time, I knew what we were really building: a place. A gathering space. The kind of third place we missed from college towns and the places we’d travel. Grove became that for a lot of people, and I’m proud of the chapter it was, from opening in 2019 to closing in 2025.
That same spirit of place-making is part of what helped spark the MYPros Community Crowdfund. I remember the early conversations over coffee at Live Oak about talent attraction and retention, and the frustration that sometimes comes when people outside the “young professional” demographic try to decide what young professionals should want. We kept coming back to a simple idea: vote with your dollars. If we want something to thrive here, we have to support it. That’s why the Community Crowdfund matters. It puts power in the hands of people who live here, and it turns belief into action.
I’m connected to the Crowdfund in two ways. I’m a member of the MYPros Crowdfunding Subcommittee because I still believe in that original intent. And I’ve also lived it as a past recipient. Grove’s Crowdfund experience was exciting on the surface, but what stayed with me was its emotional impact. When people choose to support your project with their hard-earned money, it’s validating. It reminds you that the work is seen. It reminds you that what you’re building has value beyond a balance sheet. Grove funded fast, and I’m proud of that, but I’m careful not to treat speed like a measuring stick. Success is crossing the finish line, whether it takes seven hours or the full 30 days.
Today, my relationship with Midland is completely different from what it was when I was 15. I’m more engaged, more invested, and more grateful. Being a father changes your perspective. I have three kids, and I look at the amenities, the events, the resources they have access to, and I realize how much Midland has grown. I try to be intentional about bringing them into the community, showing them what’s here, letting them experience the character of this place firsthand.
That’s also why the work at the Idea Center matters so much to me. I get to pour every piece of my experience into helping students build something real, and I hope many of them will choose to stay right here. I want Midland to be a place where entrepreneurs are supported at every stage, whether they’re launching, scaling, pivoting, or even closing a chapter and figuring out what comes next. Because small businesses are what give a community its texture. They create gathering spaces. They bring life to old buildings. They give people a sense of belonging.
When I think about my hopes and dreams for Midland, it’s this: I want us to keep becoming a community where people can find opportunity here, not somewhere else. A place where young talent is supported, where families can put down roots, and where we keep investing in the spaces and ideas that make Midland feel alive.”
Do you have a Midland County story you would like to tell that aligns with our vision?