The Berkshire Effect
Deborah Gallant, Executive Director, EforAll Berkshire County
April 26, 2022
You’re sitting at Fuel…or Tunnel City Coffee…or Dottie’s, enjoying the coffee and atmosphere. An acquaintance walks in, and before they come over to say hi to you, they stop at three other tables to greet friends, neighbors, colleagues.
It’s the “Berkshire Effect”: our version of Six Degrees of Separation (or Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you prefer), where everyone seems to know everyone’s name. It happens on the lawn at Tanglewood, at MASS MoCA’s Solid Sound Festival, and at the sidelines of the Pittsfield 4th of July parade.
At EforAll Berkshire County, we’ve taken that Berkshire Effect and magnified and amplified it into community connections that help small businesses take root and thrive here.
PHOTO COURTESY DEBORAH GALLANT
Entrepreneurship for All, originally founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, was brought here in 2019 by a collaborative effort of business, government and philanthropic leaders who wanted to help small businesses find stable footing for their new enterprises. Our 12- week intensive Business Accelerator includes two classes per week on business fundamentals taught by experts, but the program’s big differentiator is the mentoring overlay. Every entrepreneur is matched with three experienced local volunteer mentors. They meet each week for 90 minutes, to serve as an informal advisory board, cheerleaders and to help bring the lessons home.
For a class of 12-15 new businesses, that means up to 45 volunteer mentors are being recruited every six months. The Berkshires has many amazing and talented professionals from a wide spectrum of backgrounds who sign up to be part of this important program, but we are always looking for more!
Liam Gorman (his business is now called CozQuest) was in EforAll’s Fall 2020 cohort. A relocated Californian with a background in entertainment, his idea was to use geo-caching (think treasure hunt on your phone using QR codes) to create traffic and energy for downtown shopping districts. He was in the first few weeks of classes (virtual during COVID) when he got a call out of the blue: Downtown Pittsfield Inc. (DPI) wanted him to create his first hunt for Small Business Saturday—about five weeks from then. Karen Pelto (then working at DPI and also an EforAll mentor) was looking for new ways to increase foot traffic downtown. “Liam’s model seemed like a perfect fit. Our volunteers sidewalk-tested it and gave it an enthusiastic green-light. Participants and businesses enjoyed the CozQuest experience and it helped Liam achieve proof of concept.”
It lit a fire under Liam, who had intended to have a full-featured phone app to run his game. Instead, he charged ahead with a selfbuilt mini-website with QR codes, a “minimum viable product” that moved him forward faster than he’d thought possible. Since then, CozQuest has done events for Hancock Shaker Village, 1Berkshire, Norman Rockwell Museum, multiple downtowns and Makers Markets, and has connected with and involved dozens of small makers and businesses—many of them other EforAll graduates!
During EforAll’s mentor matching process in Fall 2021, Len Light, Vice President of Lenco Armored Vehicles, met Mike Dell’Aquila, co-founder of Hot Plate Brewing, a microbrewery looking to open in downtown Pittsfield. “During the match-making process, Mike and I really connected,” says Len. “I told Mike, ‘I really hope you find success with this idea, and I hope I’m one of the people who helps you get there.’ I knew the value his business could bring to our city, the people who live and work here and really want Pittsfield to grow.”
Though a mentor’s usual role is to help entrepreneurs with class curriculum, Len stood by Mike and testified on his behalf at the Pittsfield City Council meetings where he was ultimately awarded a generous package of economic incentives to launch Hot Plate. Len says, “I kept thinking of the pledge I had made. I knew voicing my support for his business was not only following through on the commitment I made as a mentor to Mike, but following through on the broader goals the EforAll program has for economic growth in the community.”
Mike says that he can’t imagine another program that would help him get so immersed in the community so quickly. “Having arrived in the Berkshires only a month before the Accelerator, I was still trying to familiarize myself with the area. EforAll connected me with so many incredible people. From my awesome team of mentors, to program alumni, to small business owners and other professionals committed to supporting the local business community, EforAll’s impressive and growing network allowed us to make meaningful connections very quickly.”
Liam from CozQuest echoes Mike’s comments: “The Berkshire Effect is real. Anywhere I go in the county, I run into people I know, and my business progress has been accelerated by the credibility I have from my connection with EforAll and the power of local networking.”
Hot Plate Brewing plans to open this summer, hotplatebeer.com. Find CozQuest’s treasure hunts and Maker’s Markets at cozquest.com.
Upcoming EforAll Berkshire County Programs
Entrepreneurs
All Ideas Pitch Contest, July 27 application due by July 15 Fall Accelerator: begins in September, application due by August 25.
Volunteers
Welcome to mentor, read applications, interview candidates, judge presentations.
Details, applications, and sign-up for volunteering at eforall.org; call 833-336-7255, ext. 7209 or email berkshire-county@eforall.org