PrePOPsterous Wins Spark Tank

HARRISONBURG — A city retailer has much to pop about after winning a regional business competition on Saturday.

PrePOPsterous Gourmet Popcorn claimed the top prize at the final round of the Spark Tank $20,000 Business Accelerator Giveaway at James Madison University.

The online retailer was one of eight finalists to make it to Saturday’s competition.

One hundred businesses signed up during the contest’s application process in October and November. A social media voting campaign determined the finalists.

Business owners presented their backgrounds, sales numbers and future plans to a panel of five judges, who decided the winner. The prize, a marketing package worth $20,000, includes a professional photo shoot, a 30-second television commercial, a custom-built website and a marketing strategy plan.

U Fit, a gym in Mount Crawford, also was a Spark Tank finalist. The other participants included businesses in Waynesboro, Lexington and Staunton.

Valley Inbound Marketing in Staunton and Viking Forge Design in Waynesboro organized the competition.

PrePOPsterous owner Tisha McCoy-Ntiamoah, director of MBA programs at JMU since 2004, “fell in love” with gourmet popcorn during a holiday job at a popcorn retailer in her native Chicago in 1992, she said.

“I loved the aroma of the popcorn, the way people reacted to it and the way it transcends all demographics,” she said.

McCoy-Ntiamoah started planning her own business in 2007. She participated in the What’s Cooking Concept Plan Competition held by the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center in 2015, and made her first popcorn sales that year.

She consulted a copywriter to secure a trademark of the PrePOPsterous name, and decided to make it an online-only operation instead of opening a storefront to keep costs low, she said.

“I was told that the overhead on a brick-and-mortar is not the best investment,” she said.

McCoy-Ntiamoah started out making the popcorn in her Harrisonburg home. She has a production facility in Bridgewater and a trailer to travel to events, she said. Her long-term goal involves heightening her visibility across Virginia and the U.S.

“I want to do more tailgate tubs with JMU, Virginia Tech, U.Va. and Bridgewater College,” she said, referring to her most popular product of shareable, school-themed popcorn tubs. “I’m working on doing more business-to-business sales with breweries, bed-and-breakfasts and vineyards. And I want to start fundraising to help the community.

“My vision is that we are the premier popcorn company in Virginia and a nationally recognized brand,” she said.

Her short-term plan is to hire employees to take over production so she can spend more time with her family, she said.

The competition’s judges were Kent Iberg, former chief executive officer of Vector Industries in Waynesboro; Dick Halterman of Murphy Business in Mount Sidney; Mary Ann Alger, adviser at JMU’s Center for Entrepreneurship; Elizabeth Braddy of the Lexington-Rockbridge Chamber of Commerce; and Joe Sprangel, chairman of business administration at Mary Baldwin University.

Halterman complimented McCoy-Ntiamoah’s community fundraising plan, saying “people need to give back.” He also praised all the competitors at the end of the contest.

“We loved all of you,” he said.