| '93
Classmate Profiles |
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Kysha Harris, W'93
I am the owner and creator of a new food service business in New York
City called SCHOP! SCHOP! is a personalized food shopping, prepping,
and cooking service for busy urban professionals offering weekly and
small dinner party service. Our mission is to improve the quality
of life of New Yorkers, and their families and friends, by freeing
up the mental time and physical energy spent menu planning, grocery
shopping, prepping, and/or cooking to eat a variety of home-cooked
meals on a weekly basis or for home entertaining. Our motto: "SCHOP!
is you when you don't have time to be you!" Our goal: To create a
service brand that will translate into ancillary markets (television,
publishing, product development) and can be franchised across the
country.
Since graduating from Penn in '93 I spent most of my career in the
entertainment business: music, film and advertising. Upon graduating
I knew I needed a creative space and creative people to feel fulfilled
in whatever I was doing. I began my career at RAL/Def Jam working
with the manager of hip-hop pioneers like A Tribe Called Quest and
De La Soul. I then moved over to the label side in A&R to work with
LL Cool J and Warren G. It was an exciting time, but my desire to
work in film began to brew. After moving on to PolyGram (now Universal)
for two years to work in business affairs managing artist recording
funds, and traveling for a year to Southeast Asia and Europe, I moved
to Los Angeles. Utilizing the great Penn network I landed a job as
a development assistant at Universal Pictures. I worked on The Flintstones
2, The Incredible Hulk and Bowfinger. It was a great experience, but
I realized that I would rather be the creator and champion of great
ideas and projects than to manage projects that might not come to
fruition.
My entrepreneurial spirit had begun to be reborn, and the frenetic
and creative energy of New York City pulled me back. Upon my return
I landed a job at Russell Simmons and Donnie Deutsch's new joint venture
called dRush, an urban ad agency housed at Deutsch. I was a creative
manager in charge of utilizing my contacts in the entertainment industry
and knowledge of the urban culture strategically for campaigns and
promotions. I learned about brand building working on Coca Cola, HBO
and Courvoisier cognac. When the agency folded at the end of 2002,
I knew with my diverse skill set and my recent experience working
with brands that I had the ability to go anywhere, but I felt it was
time to invest in my future. I am an idea person, and one of the most
important things I learned at Wharton was that opportunities are born
from great ideas, but not all ideas are great opportunities. What
I also know is that entrepreneurial ventures are born out of one's
own need and passion. What I do for my clients is what I did for myself.
I am excited about the possibilities of developing SCHOP!, as well
as other ideas, into opportunities.
Please feel free to contact me at schop@ideas2opportunities.com
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of 1993
