Angel Investors In Texas Prisons Meet A Treasure Trove of Motivated Entrepreneurs

Angel investors in Texas prisons have gotten the surprise of their careers. Here are thousands of outstanding marketing pros, just waiting for direction in starting dynamic new businesses. Honest.

"Hello. My name is Thomas Harrell Sr., the founder and owner of Yum Yum's Mobile Catering Service." He was animated. He loved what he was presenting. And he was a prisoner with a business plan. "We make hot, on-the-spot barbeque meals."

Charles W. Colson is the founder of this type of program. He introduced Catherine Rohr to the concept, and she founded Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a nonprofit organization based in Houston.

The entrepreneurial program that Rohr puts her students through is no sweetheart. First, each prisoner must have renounced any prison gang affiliation and must fill out a 23-page questionnaire, learn 10 pages of financial terminology, take four tests and be interviewed by nearly a dozen corporate executives and course graduates.

That didn't stop nearly 150 inmates from applying for the program with angel investors in Texas prisons. Those inmates selected can look forward to a rigorous business curriculum: more than 350 hours of class time, taught by 100 business executives; exams; extensive writing assignments; and tough homework penalties for inmates who do anything from utter a curse word to fail a test. Prisoners are paired with Harvard and Texas A&M University students, online or in person, who help edit their business plans.

These folks are motivated.

The result? Well, angel investors in Texas prisons have indeed made an impact. One graduate left prison after eight years and started a general contracting business that made $1.7 million in sales in 18 months. 21 former inmates operate their own businesses. Nearly 40 graduates have completed the program's post-prison executive course offered in Houston and Dallas and are being mentored by corporate executives. The employment rate among program graduates is over 93 percent, and the recidivism rate has been less than 5 percent.

Ms. Rohr said she never worried about their marketing ability. After all, it was their marketing skills that got most of them in trouble in the first place.

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