Kickstart response to recent interviews conducted by the press:

An article was published today in Columbus Alive on our shop and had several errors or omissions which could easily mislead the reader. We will attempt to address these issues here with a 3-part approach:

1. Identify and address errors in print
2. Provide some missing information not printed
3. Provide our own Interview to the public.

1. Errors

In a very recent article in print, it was printed that we will soon be selling “casual riding shirts and shorts” and that is not true. While we plan to sell riding apparel and casual wear, I’m not sure that riding shorts are being made for motorsports of any kind. Aside from the obvious safety issues, it just doesn’t look good. That’s fashion ignorance.

Also very recently, a publication claims that our scooters have “$2,000-$2,700 price tags that cover two years of maintenance.” All the scooters we sell come with at least a 2-year warranty. None of our scooters come with 2 years of pre-paid maintenance. The distinction is an easy oversight, but no less important to someone that thinks they won’t have to pay for service for 2 years.

A large newspaper recently cited that my wife’s name is Jodi Stully. It is not. I call my wife Stully (because her maiden name was Stull) and sometimes even refer to her as Jodi, but Jodi Stully is simply wrong.

In the same brief article, I’m quoted as saying “we want to make it a good place for a grab-and-go breakfast.” I want this to be clear—never have I uttered the phrase “grab-and-go” (in any context). To close one article, one reporter printed, “Hours to be determined.” While we certainly have numerous things to determine (for example, who we’ll give interviews to in the future), our hours have been posted on both the inside and outside of the front door to our shop and on our website for quite some time before the interview was conducted.

2. Missing information

A recent business journal published 2 quotes by me—the first makes no sense out of context: “"We thought, what could be less intimidating than a coffee shop?" said owner Chris Cannon.” The issue raised was that people not familiar with scooters are often too intimidated (or not interested) to go into a motorcycle shop, but might actually ask questions in a different environment. Now I might not be the wordsmithiest orator around, but the next quote should’ve been presented differently because I’m not really sure I said such a thing as, “ ‘People may be reluctant to go to a motorcycle shop, but if you're on your way downtown, maybe you're thinking about buying a scooter and you need to get your morning coffee. They might not ask any questions your first time, but eventually they will.’ ” I often say some pretty stupid things (like wordsmithiest), but that last quote sounds too scattered even for me.

The most recently-published article on The Kickstart begins with, “It’s hard to get Chris Cannon to be serious.” This is true; very true, but there’s nothing in the article that’s not serious.

Every question the reporter asked me was prepared in a question-answer report written specifically for this individual (it was even placed into an expensive folder with a logo sticker on the front). While I asked (begged really) that my written answers be used, sadly none were.

The information prepared solely for use in this one particular newspaper and handed to the interviewer immediately after introductions and before any discussion, follows (note: both questions and answers below were written by me)—

Kickstart Interview - Q & A