They made the Ultimate Connection

We like gutsy people who take chances. They remind of us of ourselves. Not all that long ago (though it seems like an eternity in Internet time) Yahoo! Inc. was two college students in a trailer. Today, it's 12,000 yodelers strong. We got where we are today in much the usual way: a lot of hard work, some tech smarts, and some business savvy. But, like every other successful business, we also got here because we were given the occasional leg up by mentors, supporters, enthusiasts, and others who wanted to see us succeed.

Now we're "paying it forward." Today, we gave a boost (literally) to three small business entrepreneurs to help them become more successful. The winners of our Ultimate Connection contest had a "power lunch in the sky" over New York Harbor, seated at a table suspended in the air with some top-ranking marketing stars after having a meeting with entrepreneur Ivanka Trump. They also won a $25,000 budget from Yahoo! Search Marketing, mentoring from a legendary marketing expert, access to a Yahoo! Search Marketing expert throughout the year and a web site makeover.

The contest began in May with small business owners submitting essays about their businesses, describing what they need to be more successful and how winning the Ultimate Connection could help. We went through the stack of entries and worked with Ivanka to choose five finalists:

Glen Halliday, who builds custom “crooked houses” that make children smile.
Chris Pratt, a start-small entrepreneur with a big sweet tooth.
Melissa Belland, who has brought the fantasy world of fairies to real life.
Elena Neitlich, who offers help for hard-working moms, provided by hard-working moms.
Mike Willner, an inventor who has taken typing to a whole new level.

Then you, the Yahoo! users, had the ultimate say and selected the three who won the Ultimate Connection. This being Yahoo!, each of the three winners is unique to the point of delightful eccentricity:

If you were a hipster or a club kid in the 1980s, the name Melissa Belland might ring a bell. It did for me, even though I was only a wannabe hipster in provincial San Francisco and not swinging London, where Melissa raged as part of the new-wave club act, Voice of the Beehive. Today, Melissa's back in Laguna Beach, California, and is still an artist, but of a different sort. She creates one-of-a-kind fairy sculptures for believers all over the world, both online via her Yahoo! store and in her booth at the annual Sawdust Art Festival.

Mark Twain typed pretty much the same way you probably do. The QWERTY keyboard, standard on all English-language keyboards today, was invented way back in 1861. Those of us who type all day for a living know what a stressful, ergonomic nightmare it can be — back straight, wrists elevated, chin up, eyes forward, yadda yadda. AlphaGrip's Mike Willner thinks its high time for typing a revolution, which is why he invented the AG-5, a lightweight compact keyboard similar to a handheld video game console. The AG-5 lets typists type in any position, even lying on the couch. Ahh! That's more like it.

When I was growing up near Sacramento, my parents used to take us kids out to Fairy Tale Town, a little theme park just for us wee ones. Among my favorite attractions was the Crooked Mile, which went with the children's rhyme about the crooked man who caught a crooked mouse who went to live with him in a crooked little house. So I was pretty thrilled to see that Glen Halliday, founder of Kids Crooked House had made it into the finals. From his workshop in Maine, Halliday builds unique playhouses for kids, each without a single 90-degree angle. These wonky little houses bring giggles to kids and their parents alike. (And if you ever visit us in Burbank, come play in the purple crooked Yahoo! house that will take up residence in our lobby.)

Well, it's all "up in the air" now as our winners enjoyed their power lunch in an unexpected place.

See our Flickr photo stream of the event.

Michael Mattis
Editor, Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Photos by Jim Larsen