NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Lever Inc. has spent the last decade encouraging and guiding innovative startups, building pathways for emerging entrepreneurs and providing new enterprises with access to grants and seed money.

 

Supporters and beneficiaries celebrated the 10th anniversary of the organization's work as an economic catalyst for the region at a dinner at Studio 9 at Porches Inn on Thursday. 

 

Brittney Cappiello of My Core Floor credited Lever with helping launch her online health business through its Berkshire Health Technology Challenge Pitch Competition back in 2019. 

 

"I have been running My Core Floor as a side hustle in addition just doing physical therapy in a private practice, and I knew that if I wanted it to go to the next level, I was going to need help, and I was going to need funding," she said. "When I heard about the challenge, I applied, and I was excited to not only get in but to be a finalist in the competition. Over the course of the month leading up to the competition, I spent many hours in the Lever office and with the Lever team, and many Saturdays coming in, meeting with board members, community members and other local business owners that Lever brings in to work with all of us, to try to help us to be better business owners and entrepreneurs."

 

Cappiello said she learned a lot about creating a viable business plan, something that isn't taught in physical therapy school. 

 

"It was an incredible experience and an opportunity that I will forever be grateful for. But it was not all sunshine and roses," she said, adding that Lever's Executive Director and co-founder Jeffrey Thomas had made her cry after a practice pitch. "The one thing that no one tells you when you start a business is how vulnerable it is and how hard it is to present your baby to the world, and the fear of rejection was very real for me."

 

Thomas made her realize that she had to show what the value of My Core Floor was if she wanted to win and that was a huge turning point for her. 

 

"Jeffrey believed in me, and Lever believed in me, and they believed in what my My Core Floor could be, and I needed to believe in myself, and that really bears what the essence of Lever is to me," she told the gathering. "Yes, they provide businesses like mine with guidance and support and education, and help position you for success.

 

"But for me, most importantly, they helped me to believe in myself and what I could accomplish so that I could help thousands of other women."

 

Cappiello was one of several Lever beneficiaries who talked about how the organization had aided in their success. Williams College student George Taylor said his recent internship was welcoming and valuable for his professional education and development.

 

Lever says it has supported more than 300 entrepreneurs, helped launch 100 companies and grow another 100, and facilitated paid internships for 150. It's also raised more than $30 million in equity investment and created more than 350 jobs. 

 

Its business competitions have afforded both funding and guidance and for up-and- coming entrepreneurs, its partnered investors with innovative ideas, and its promoted collaborations with local colleges, businesses and local and state economic agencies.

 

Last year, Lever launched the Massachusetts Founders Network, a statewide one-stop source for networking, collaboration and resources for innovative entrepreneurs. It was awarded $25,000 in seed money by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to develop the hybrid program of "digital, remote and in-person" to connect entrepreneurs with like-minded peers and mentors. 

 

Board President Stephen Jenks, of managing partner of investor Candescent Partners, said he had been intrigued by Lever's concept of supporting and creating entrepreneurship in the state's far northwest corner. 

 

"Entrepreneurship, in my experience, is something that is is critical to every community. It not only builds as we all know, it builds wealth and so forth and so on. But more importantly, it really builds community. Because if you support entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs become leaders in their community, entrepreneurs impact their community," he said. "They attract other people into the community, and you raise the level of the health of the community in ways that are unforeseen when you start."

 

Andrew Fitch, community engagement manager, welcomed the gathering and read a note from Jack Wadsworth, the owner of Porches who has invested in the city's revitalization. 

 

"It's hard to believe that Lever only started 10 years ago with business plan competitions at MCLA and Williams," Wadsworth wrote. "This was a truly auspicious, modest undertaking at the time. Who would have guessed that two private equity funds later and the spearhead of the Massachusetts Founders Network, would be in the cards in such a short period of time?"

 

As the party prepared for a meal catered by Mezze, Thomas thought about that path Lever had blazed in such a short time and how it made him more a member of the community and the region. 

 

"It's been wonderful. It's been so many things, and it's been 10 years of every day being different," he said. 

 

"By orders of magnitude, it exceeded my expectations, but that's perhaps because I really didn't know what to expect when we started this. I've never done anything like this before — never running a nonprofit, was new to economic development work. So 10 years of kind of making it up as you go along is what it's been like for me. 

 

"But we had so many great people around us that things just keep continuing to work."