TBP’s June Entrepreneur Corner Brings in Hundreds of First Friday Shoppers

It’s not every day that a bunch of Kansas City’s local storefront owners can gather together to sell their homemade, one-of-a-kind items.  But thanks to the newly-formed Zaarly Bazaars (and a dynamite collaboration with Think Big Partners), we were able to bring together many of Kansas City’s coolest storefront owners during First Fridays.  The result?  Hundreds of people in and out of our parking lot buying some of the city’s most unique entrepreneurial products.   

There’s no denying it: June 7 was one of Kansas City’s most successful First Fridays.  The Crossroads was buzzing with local vendors, live entertainment (who got to see the Quixotic show?), live bands and hundreds upon thousands of excited attendees.  Snow & Co. was at one-in, one-out capacity, PizzaBella was completely full until 11:00 at night and our parking lot at 18^th & Baltimore was crammed with local shoppers from 7:30-9:30pm.

As a matter of fact, according to Zaarly, over 100 downloads of the Zaarly app occurred during this Entrepreneur Corner--in just a matter of a few hours!

If you had the chance to stop by Entrepreneur Corner and check out our Zaarly Bazaar, we hope you enjoyed your experience (and we hope you walked away with something awesome!  Maybe a Nelson-Atkins inspired Kansas City t-shirt?  Or a throw pillow in the shape of Missouri?). 

We snapped a few photos ourselves as we enjoyed chatting with new and old faces at Entrepreneur Corner.  Take a look:

Our own Think Big booth attracted budding entrepreneurs from the Kansas City area.

Zaarly storefront owners conversed and sold to First Friday attendees.

The Think Big Partners team celebrates Entrepreneur Corner, First Fridays and the Zaarly Bazaar by crowding around Think Big Accelerator's newest product--a Fully charging station/cocktail table. 

Thanks to all who made it out to Entrepreneur Corner and our first ever Zaarly Bazaar during First Fridays!  We hope you had as much fun as we did.

To learn more about Entrepreneur Corner, visit us on Facebook!

Zaarly Rolls Out New Storefront Platform for Kansas City Entrepreneurs

Where can you find the best pumpkin pie in Kansas City and get it delivered to your doorstep at any hour of the day?

Where can you buy custom furniture--from bed frames to nightstands--for under $500?

Where can you find a repair man who comes to YOUR driveway?

Believe it or not, you don't have to open the Yellow Pages, beg for a referral from a friend or research online for hours on end to find any of these Kansas City services.

All of them--and many, many more--can be found in one spot.  On Zaarly's new storefront platform.

Bo Fishback, CEO of Zaarly.

For the past few years, Zaarly has enabled users to ask for anything from people nearby.  And now, with its new storefront platform, the Kansas City startup allows entrepreneurs, store owners and talented individuals to market their services directly from the Zaarly site (in an extremely professional way!).  That means that you can find virtually anything on Zaarly--from bakers to repairmen, yogis to massage therapists, calligraphers to tutors--all at a reasonable price.  And all of them have been Zaarly-approved (many by CEO Bo Fishback himself!).

Simply log in on www.zaarly.com/in/kansas-city.  From there, you can discover all of the amazing products and services that your neighbors provide.  With over 1000 listings in the Kansas City market alone, you're bound to find something you need (or want) just by scrolling through the storefronts.  Don't have time to make dinner tonight?  Order a weekly meal plan of homemade soups from Jenn Stagner.  Frustrated when attempting to train your disobedient puppy?  Newman's Dog Training can help with that (even while you're at work!).  Looking for a creative gift for a friend?  Get some sneakers custom painted by Ken Deladurantaye.  You never know what you'll find on Zaarly.

This same Zaarly storefront platform has already launched in test markets including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City.  But Kansas City is Zaarly's first real trial of the new platform.  According to Fishback, "there is real magic that we can capture in Kansas City."

Fishback wants you to discover Zaarly storefronts for yourself (don't be shy...give it a try!).  The CEO himself encourages you to give the new platform a shot by "favoriting" a particular storefront, buying a cool product and experiencing exactly how the new Zaarly works.  Not satisfied?  Bo will personally reimburse you for anything you buy and are not satisfied with.

"This is the place in the world to go when you want to find something awesome," states Bo Fishback, quite simply. "That is Zaarly.  That is the goal."

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