David Tarver sold his company for $30 million. Now, he's giving back to entrepreneurs.

David Tarver grew up tinkering with vacuum tubes, transistors and other gadgets inside the family’s garage, alongside his dad, Fred Tarver, who was a Postal Service worker by day and neighborhood television/radio repairman by night.

Tarver learned much by watching his dad and inherited his love of electronics and technology. His family — parents and three siblings — had moved to Flint from Georgia in 1950.

Tarver, now 71, told me his late dad couldn’t get a job in the electronics field back then as not many Black people were employed in the new sector. Fixing TVs and radios was as close as he ever got.

Fueled by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and greater opportunities, Tarver told me he knew technology was where he’d spend his career. He also hoped to start a tech company.

He graduated with two electrical engineering degrees from the University of Michigan in the 1970s and went to work for AT&T Bell Laboratories. After a few years, he left to start Telecom Analysis Systems Inc. (TAS) in the early 1980s, a telecommunications instrumentation business, in Red Bank, New Jersey. The company's products were used in research and development at telecommunications equipment companies around the world.

Tarver sold the company 12 years later for $30 million and continued as group president for the buyer and helped build a telecommunications industry leader, Spirent, with a market value of more than $2 billion, according to his bio on the U-M website.

He’s been on a different journey in recent years as he is focusing on giving back and providing opportunities for urban entrepreneurs, things that would also help cities and unique challenges they face.

Tarver’s been teaching a class at the University of Michigan College of Engineering- Center for Entrepreneurship since 2012.

He launched the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative — a nonprofit tied to helping startups in urban settings in 2014. Things rolled along early on but struggled during the pandemic as cities were hit hard. Tarver hit the pause button on it and has been regrouping.

He just relaunched the organization on July 18 at an event held at the Detroit Golf Club, where other entrepreneurs were on hand. U-M is aiding with the relaunch, providing UEI with seed funding of $250,000 .

"U-M supports the UEI relaunch because it is consistent with the university’s desire to fuel economic development and quality of life improvement in Detroit and other urban communities,” Tarver said.

For his efforts, Tarver is being honored this fall as recipient of the 2024 Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Merit Award by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Michigan.

Tarver has been providing his expertise as he is or has served on nonprofits , including the Board of Education in Red Bank; the National Advisory Committee for the University of Michigan College of Engineering; the National Commission on NAEP 12th Grade Assessment and Reporting; the U-M Alumni Association board of directors, and the Flint Receivership Transition Advisory Board .

Providing opportunities for startups remains a core mission for him.

“Many people recognize the role entrepreneurship plays in ensuring urban community vitality but there remains a shortage of urban innovators capable of creating game-changing, scalable businesses that specifically target and address urban community needs,” he said.

“That’s why UEI is moving from advocacy to action, with the online urban innovator platform (we are launching) serving as a home base where urban innovators can find vital business model information, inspiration and a connection to like-minded individuals and groups,” he said.

When it started, UEI held annual symposiums in Flint, Detroit and Ann Arbor. The events brought regional and national entrepreneurs and thought leaders together to talk about helping urban entrepreneurs .

Tarver talked about how UEI is changing and how new things will be added to its portfolio of offerings.

It will now:

• Create a member-driven business model centered on access to its urban innovator platform, an online collection of urban-focused business profiles that will help innovators shape new businesses and projects by understanding the triumphs and challenges of existing urban innovation efforts from across the globe.
• Provide community profiles and needs assessments that will help direct entrepreneurial energy to the places where it is needed most.
• Convene entrepreneurial-minded professionals from startups, community organizations and government through a global, online urban entrepreneurship network.
• Create courses, seminars and reference materials that emphasize knowledge, methods and skills necessary for effective urban innovation and entrepreneurship.

I asked where he saw opportunities for startups in Detroit.

“I see lots of small business efforts in housing and retail,” he said. “At UEI, we would like to see more focus on game-changing solutions in areas like education, health, safety, mobility and more. Our long-term objective is not only to create small businesses, we aim to facilitate significant, game-changing businesses that can create profitable solutions here and in many other communities.”

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Contact Carol Cain: 248-355-7126 or clcain@cbs.com . She is senior producer/host of “Michigan Matters,” which airs 5:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS Detroit and noon Sundays on Detroit 50 WKBD. See James B. Nicholson, James M. Nicholson and John Nicholson of PVS Chemicals and Cassandra Thomas and Espy Thomas of Sweet Potato Sensations on this Sunday’s show. You can also watch the show on Fubu, Pluto TV, YouTube TV, Apple TV on those two stations listings, too.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: David Tarver sold his company for $30 million. Now, he's giving back to entrepreneurs.