Poets Beat Entrepreneurs In Contest For Small Business Idea
By admin at September 28, 2007 | 3:55 am | Print
A trio of performing poets beat entrepreneurs touting make-your-own-wallpaper, an organic beauty bar and high-end clothing rental service to win a contest for the U.S.’s best small business idea on Tuesday.
The Mayhem Poets, from New Jersey, have been touring the country for about four years performing poetry at schools, jails and corporate functions but won the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) contest with an idea to set up a themed cafe and teaching facility.
One of the founders of the Mayhem Poets, Kyle Sutton, 27, described performance poetry as a mixture of hip-hop, comedy and theater.
“But we want to make this a mainstream feature event,” said Sutton, who met fellow poets Mason Granger and Scott Tarazevits at New Jersey’s Rutgers University.
The Mayhem Poets beat about 5,000 other entrants to win a prize package of $100,000 in start-up money, a rent-free New York City storefront for a year, and a suite of Microsoft software and services.
“During the daytime we want to do workshops with schools… while weekend workshops will be held for the general public,” said Sutton. “In the evening we will have headliner poetry acts.”
The poets were chosen by a panel of three judges including Carolyn Kepcher, chief executive of Carolyn & Co. who used to help Donald Trump fire corporate wannabes on “The Apprentice” television show, fashion designer Liz Lange, and a Microsoft vice president, Chris Capossela.
“These guys have been doing this for some time now and the commitment was really strong. It’s a viable business idea,” said Capossela.
Via-Reuters
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