LeBron’s ‘Cleveland Hustle’ TV Show Will Hold A Cool Contest For Small Businesses

Part of LeBron James’ decision to come back to Cleveland in 2014 was based on his commitment to the community in northeast Ohio. With that in mind, James has a new show on CNBC called Cleveland Hustles, and it appears to be his variation on Mark Cuban’s Shark Tank. James is encouraging small businesses to pitch him their ideas, and the best one will land him as an endorser. Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has details on the contest:

The videos, submitted via Twitter or Instagram, are to be 23-seconds long. If you don’t know why, then, well, maybe you’ve been working too hard on your small business. That’s James’ jersey number for the Cavs.

Applicants are limited to U.S. businesses with no more than 250 employees and cannot be a franchise. The winner gets a free endorsement from James on Twitter and Instagram, two social media sites where James has more than 55 million followers combined. The winner also gets a 15-second spot on CNBC.

You can watch the trailer below:

It remains to be seen what kinds of ideas will actually come out of it, but this is a cool concept, and anything encouraging small businesses to get creative is great.

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