Micro Bio
Mack obtained a Bachelor and Masters of Science in Computer Science from Oakland Univ. He has worked for large Silicon Valley-based companies for most of his 20-year career, including 5 years at Sun Microsystems and 10 years at Oracle Corporation. In parallel, Mack has built companies in the restaurant and technology sector. One primary principle driving Mack is setting up a framework that allows generational wealth to grow and be passed down to his kids, grandkids, great grandkids and so on.
Current Companies and Projects
- Founder and Managing Partner, Flyball – a holding company that has two main subsidiaries, dOpenSource and DetroitPBX. dOpenSource provides commercial support for Open Source telephony projects and it sponsors an Open Source project called dSIPRouter
- Co-Founder and Managing Director, Detroit Black Tech – a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on promoting Black Tech Talent in Detroit and globally through their annual software developer conference called “Hacking With The Homies Developer Conference“
- Entrepreneur in Residence, TechTown – Mack has the privilege of mentoring up and coming early stage tech companies. He bootstrapped all of his companies, so he leans in on that experience to provide guidance to these companies. He works with them to develop their idea and a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) with the desire to find a product-market fit.
The Early Years
Around 1984 my dad came home from working the midnight shift at the Ford Rouge Steel Plant and said “Computers will be big one day”. Soon after we went to Montgomery Ward (Best Buy of it’s time) and he purchased me a Commodore Vic 20. It came with a manual that included some sample programs that I could type in and test out. I was only 10 years old and I had a bunch of questions. I remember my dad saying “Read the manual. I can’t help you”. I remember whining and crying because I was frustrated because things weren’t working and I didn’t have anyone to ask because people in my neighborhood wasn’t trying to program their computer. They were mainly using it to play games – I was never a gamer. I remember staying up all night for weeks figuring out how to make these sample programs run – it was just trial and error. It was one of the best times of my life! It really shaped the way I solve problems till this day! I’m truly grateful that my dad had the foresight about computers and sacrificed his money to give me the opportunity to learn how to program at the age of 10! (which wasn’t common back then) His name was McLevyonne Hendricks.
