Using its marketing and design skills in Brooklyn, one start-up is helping to create jobs in Detroit via local sourcing.
Holstee, an e-commerce and design studio, is partnering with Urban Ashes and Reclaim Detroit to convert the wood from thousands of abandoned homes and buildings into frames for paintings and drawings.
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The product, Reclaim Frame, was initially made possible through a campaign on Kickstarter. In August 2013, they hoped to raise $17,500 in order to start production, but the story resonated with enough buyers and within less than a week, Holstee raised $49,200.
Holstee co-founder Mike Radparvar, who helped design the frame, recently told "Power Lunch," "Rather than demolish homes and buildings, we've worked with organizations to deconstruct those buildings, salvaging that wood and putting it into products like the Reclaim Frame."
Since launching last year, the project has sold more than 1,750 frames, which are handcrafted by the production partner, Urban Ashes.
"One of our partners was able to hire eight new people, and they're continuing to hire more as they go," said Radparvar, adding that the hiring took place when people may have been laid off otherwise.
Mike and Dave Radparvar founded Holstee with their friend Fabian Pfortmüller in 2009.
—By CNBC's Uptin Saiidi. Follow him on Twitter @Uptin