They came with big ideas and bigger hopes for their businesses, with slick-looking graphics and some not so slick, balance sheets projecting future and past revenues, and often deeply personal appeals.

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       And whether they were pitching homespun catering companies, beauty product lines, janitorial services, consulting firms, car dealerships or cable installation start-ups, these would-be entrepreneurs had one thing in common: As previously incarcerated people, they had already paid a heavy personal debt to the community.

       Nearly three dozen formerly incarcerated men and women met Saturday at the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization in Northeast to present business pitches in a sort of kinder, gentler “Shark Tank” as part of the city’s Aspire program, which offers help to entrepreneurial ex-offenders.

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       At stake was a top prize of $10,000 in grant money to launch a business or take an existing one to the next level. But each of the participants, all D.C. residents who completed a 12-week course sponsored by the Department of Small and Local Business Development, received at least a $2,000 grant.

       The panel of judges included Kristi C. Whitfield, a former entrepreneur whose agency oversees the program, along with other city officials and private business people. Each hopeful entrepreneur had five minutes to close the sale.

       “Who doesn’t love a beautiful car?” Kwabena A. Nkrumah asked before launching into his pitch for a company that picks up used vehicles at government auctions and, after a little TLC, flips them for a profit. “Think Home Depot meets Midas meets ‘Pimp My Ride’ meets mega dealership,” his pitch went.

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       Nkrumah, 41, of Northeast, told how buying cars at public auctions had been a side hustle since he was 17 years old until “other hustles” — selling drugs and illegal guns — landed him in prison. Court records show that the last time was in 2007 for a five-year term.

       “I tried not to indulge in the jail and prison culture that was detrimental to a lot of people [who] ended up being murdered or killing someone,” Nkrumah said in an interview. “I tried to steer clear of it.”

       As the son of a West African immigrant, Nkrumah said he had grown up around Islam, but he didn’t fully devote himself to the religion until he was doing time.

       “I leaned on my faith a lot,” he said. “I read a lot, and I exercised.”

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       When he got out, he launched TJ Motors, using his children’s initials, and aimed for a return of around 15 percent per vehicle. His stock ranged from work vans to luxury cars, including a Lexus that netted $25,000, his biggest profit.

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       Nkrumah said he could use an infusion of capital to pay for more auto mechanics, obtain a dealer’s license — which would allow him access to private wholesale car auctions — and invest in a car lot or garage to store vehicles he must park on the street now.

       “I’m fascinated by this business,” said judge Graham McLaughlin, whose day job is vice president for social responsibility at Optum, a health-care company.

       Other contestants included Anthony Foster, whose post-construction company, CleanMyPlace Maintenance and Recycling, achieved revenue of $260,000 last year, up from $180,000 the previous year; Antonio White, 56, whose Reliable Optical Solutions Enterprise (ROSE) would offer fiber-optic installation; and Rylinda Rhodes, 50, who unveiled a line of homemade soaps and skin care products, whose packaging included inspirational sayings she had drawn from sometimes harrowing personal experiences.

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       Rhodes said she had spent time in prison for homicide after the 1994 killing of a man whom she described as her abuser. She said her nearly five years behind bars forced her to confront self-destructive aspects of her personality and learn to overcome them.

       “Even with trauma and hurt and pain, we can still overcome,” she said in an interview before making her pitch for her newly formed company, Mane Rhodes, and its line of soaps with names such as “Embracing, Not Erasing” and “Celebrate, Not Ruminate” — adages she said reflect her ability to put her sometimes turbulent past behind her.

       A few of the applicants came dressed in three-piece suits or smart business casual, and some wore working togs with their fledgling companies’ logos on them, while others made their pitches in T-shirts and jeans.

       Several brought product samples, including enough food for a midday feast laid out on the community center’s front lawn. Jamal Kelly, 49, brought his yellow food truck.

       Kelly launched Dogs on the Curb, a gourmet hot dog business featuring his homemade jerk sauce, in 2017 after spending time in prison for credit card fraud and kicking around at various hospitality jobs afterward.

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       During his pitch, he reeled off facts and figures, offered forward-looking sales estimates and explained how he was already serving the demand for meatless products by offering a vegan dog as he made the case for opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant to supplement his food truck.

       “It’s hard work,” Kelly said in an interview. “But knowing you’re doing the hard work for yourself … it’s actually been very satisfying.”

       Aspire, which has been around since 2016, has graduated about 60 people and grown bigger every year, Whitfield said. The program has also been one of her favorites as she has watched its graduates leave behind troubled pasts to start successful businesses.

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       “I’m really proud of the Aspire program,” she said, noting that not all successes lead to being a boss. Introductory classes on accounting, marketing and other subjects help some people discover that starting a business isn’t the way to go, that perhaps it might be better to enter a field through an existing company and find success that way.

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       During Saturday’s pitch contest, some of the participant’s business models seemed scant on details or overly optimistic, and more than a few admitted they had not gotten around yet to handling the basics, such as incorporating or registering their companies or launching websites. A few got sidetracked by a case of the jitters.

       But Whitfield put them at ease, in one case offering her own story of entrepreneurial perseverance before she became the city department’s director. As the co-founder of Curbside Cupcakes, which billed itself as D.C.’s first cupcake food truck, she recalled throwing out more than one trial batch of expensive butter cream frosting.

       “They think it’s all sprinkles and frosting,” she said. “It is hard. It is terrifying.”

       As she told one contestant in need of bucking up: “The only difference between entrepreneurs and the other guy is, entrepreneurs get up and do it again.”

       Christopher Honey, a spokesman for the development program, said a winner has yet to be determined.