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V O L . X X X N O. X X S E P T E M B E R 2 , 2 0 2 4 12 S TA R T U P S / E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P F O C U S I n a repurposed shipping container barely larger than some closets, David Kessel runs Moonday Coffee. Home to a stand-up wooden counter and icket Jewelry's display case, the 300-square-foot café-plus- store is blissfully quiet as Kessel brews a cappuccino served in a ceramic cup. "Tiny can be powerful," he says one weekday morn- ing. "I wouldn't mind a little more space, but people do gather here, and it feels good." A tenant of the Black Box business incubator on Portland's Washington Avenue since March 2022, the yoga enthusiast and former journalist launched Moonday as a mobile espresso cart on the Eastern Promenade. "e mobile game was pretty magical, but there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of toil," he says. Joining a handful of other small businesses down the hill at the Black Box "felt like a way to continue to do what we were doing, but in a more rooted, stable place." Like a growing number of small businesses in Maine, Kessel has found his sweet spot in pop-up retail. So has Kira Sangsap, a Scarborough-based designer originally from ailand. She pays $325 a month for a spot inside the Freeport Market, where she sells colorful hand-painted earrings made from lightweight polymer clay, and patterned polyester silk scarves. Her business is called Choo 11. She's one of 80 vendors under one roof who pay month to month for shelf space inside the market, whose rates start at $100 a month plus 23% of revenues. e flexible arrangement works well for the home- based entrepreneur, who's also a regular at arts and crafts fairs and neighborhood festivals. "It's a dream for me to have a store, where I also hope to bring in another product I design, like apparel," she says. While her online business is whole- sale-focused, she says she gets useful feedback from regular interactions with retail customers. "Sometimes they dress very stylishly, and I get inspired by seeing the color of their shirts and pants," she says. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R David Kessel opened Moonday Coffee at the Black Box on Portland's Washington Avenue a year after launching his business as a mobile cart. Tiny can be powerful. — David Kessel Moonday Coffee B y R e n e e C o r d e s Temporary retail gains traction in Maine Snap , crackle & POP-UP