Wayfair gets into the 'Shark Tank' with entrepreneurs

Fast-growing online furnishings retailer Wayfair.com plans to host a “Shark Tank-like” business competition for entrepreneurs.

Winners of the "Kitchen Cabinet" contest will receive a $2,500 home office makeover and a business consultation from the home furnishings and decor e-tailer.

Wayfair said the event will take place Oct. 2 and its Heart Home conference, a three-day gathering of bloggers, designers, and other entrepreneurs, at the Boston Copley Marriott. Participants must enter by Sept. 15.

Finalists will have five minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges, including Wayfair co-founder Steve Conine, general partner of Battery Ventures Neeraj Agrawal, chief executive of the Start-Up Institute Diane Hessan and journalist Scott Kirsner. Kirsner is a technology columnist for The Boston Globe and BetaBoston.

Meanwhile, the company also announced this week that it isexpanding its operations with a nearly 900,000 square-foot distribution center in Erlanger, Ky.

The new facility, on a 52-acre site near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, is expected to be up and running in April.