Venables Bell Lets Three Entrepreneurs Move In for Next to Nothing

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, San Francisco's Venables Bell & Partners organized an office-space contest. The ad agency posted a listing on Craigslist offering spots in its Union Square offices to entrepreneurs for just $10 for the year. After getting hundreds of applications, VB&P narrowed it to 60, then 14, and then chose three winners: Kalon Gutierrez and Luis Garcia, founders of Schoolbags for Kids, where for every schoolbag sold, one bag with school supplies will be given to a child in need; Patricia Compas-Markman, a CalPoly engineer who invented the DayOne Waterbag, a reusable personal water treatment device used in disaster relief; and Christian Amundson, an engineer turned filmmaker, who was working out of his wife's closet before winning the contest.