Sarah Beattie
Life is so unpredictable, but sometimes it circles around and completes a dream. While in college, my boyfriend (now husband) and his friends rented out Cranes Castle in Ipswich for a spring evening cocktail party. It was magical. The warm spring night, the gardens, the rolling lawn down to the ocean – and I thought, wouldn’t this be beautiful location for a wedding! Read More>>
Rachel Leone
It’s been about 14 years since I started Leone Marketing. I always wanted to be my own boss and have freedom and flexibility at work, but I never gave it the attention it deserved. I was always too busy! Read More>>
Laura Badger McGloine
I’ve always been a social butterfly with a knack for helping others. As I teen I was the organizer, the group planner and a dedicated gymnast who spent time volunteering and babysitting for family friends. I grew up in a little bubble of upstate NY, and didn’t really know in which direction I wanted to go in. Read More>>
Kelly Baldassarri
My husband Matt, originally from Topsfield, and I were living in Washington, D.C., and were wanting to move back up to New England, but had trouble finding jobs worthy enough to sell our condo and move. Matt had been Matt the Cat on XM Satellite Radio’s 50s on 5 until Sirius took over and laid him and hundreds of others off. I was working for a lobbying firm with California-based clients. So we decided to make our own jobs. We’d always stayed in B&Bs and we love old houses, so we did some research and a lot of reconnaissance and ultimately found this Inn for sale in downtown Salem, Mass. Read More>>
Rick Bertolami
The JB Sash & Door Company, Inc. was founded and incorporated in May 1940 by Joseph Bertolami, John Bertolami and John McAllister. Joseph Bertolami was the company’s first president and was the motivating force in making JB Sash & Door a specialty mill for the reproduction of custom made windows and doors. Many of JB Sash & Door’s custom products can be found in historically significant buildings in and around the City of Boston. Read More>>
Arjola Azizaj
It all started two years ago, when I moved to USA with my family from Albania (Southeastern Europe). My mom had found Gordon’s of Beverly on Craigslist and she had a job interview. She couldn’t speak any English at that time and asked me to help her with translation (at least for the first week). I remember the first daycare (general manager) interviewed my mom, showed us the facilities and made me feel really comfortable. Read More>>
Jodi Hagen
I was born and raised in the Boston area…..My parents are both music teachers…Dad was my first violin teacher and Mom was my piano teacher and accompanist. After loving watching my older sister’s violin lessons and playing “air violin”, at the age of 3 started violin lessons. Read More>>
Joe Calareso
My grandfather grew up picking olives and lemons in the hills of Sicily. Carrying the cases of fruit down to the village of Messina was grueling work which got him thinking about new opportunities in America. Around 1910 my family made the trek across the Atlantic, through Ellis Island and eventually landed in Boston. At first they made a living peddling fruit from a pushcart around North Station. Read More>>
Liz Costa
I started landscaping as a summer job in Woods Hole at 14 years old. I worked on amazing properties, primarily on Penzance Point. These were million dollar homes with professionally designed landscapes. I did this every summer during high school. After high school, I decided to go to UMass Amherst where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture. Read More>>
Douglas Burke
I have been in the restaurant industry for just over 24 years. I have worked a ton of different aspects of the industry over the years all over the country. In 2011 I joined the Tavern In The Square restaurant group as a bartender and worked several locations through 2013. I began managing at Tavern In The Square South Station and in the summer of 2015 I was approached by several of the owners with the opportunity to get in from the ground up on a new East LA inspired restaurant they were about to open. Read More>>
Joanne D’ Alessandro
When I was a child, my mother would say to me, “Jack of all trades, master of none,” since I could never be content doing just one thing. The diagnosis didn’t exist then, but I was/am a poster child for ADHD. My passions include art, music, and literature…all very emotional and all vying for my attention simultaneously. To my surprise, I became a medical researcher, a career that would last 37 years. Read More>>
Phil Castinetti and Scott Prusak
I was a collector as a child. Turned the collecting into a business in 1986. Making connections with players over the years as well as accumulating customers over the same time period. Read More>>
Roy Fournier
Started working for my Father In-law partime on Saturdays Turned into full time going on 40 years wow time flies. Trying to keep good help keeping Healthy. Fighting the weather on weekends. Read More>>
Eric Roberge
10 years ago, at age 27, I made a decision that surprised my friends and family and made a huge impact on my life. I left my comfortable job as an investment analyst at JP Morgan Chase to venture out into the unknown. I started my career as an independent financial planner in 2007, right before the economy crashed. Read More>>
Jill Surdyka
The AVON 39 event series was launched in 2003. Since its inception, the series has raised over $620 million through the dedication of nearly 235,000 participating women and men from across the country, including hundreds of Avon Associates and Representatives. My personal journey started with AVON 39 in 2005. My best friend and I both had been touched by breast cancer through family and friends and wanted to do something to make a difference. Read More>>
Cheryl Levine
I started Cheryl Walks Dogs in November of 2009, (after 20 years of being a professional photographer), because I was ready to embark on a new and different chapter, So when two different people, my father and a close friend reminded me, in two very distinct ways, of my lifelong passion for dogs, I guess you could say that I connected the dots and had an amazing Aha moment! It became crystal clear that it was the only path to take and that everything I needed, in order to work with dogs, was essentially in my own back yard! Read More>>
Greg Jordan
I had a dream to open a restaurant close to where I grew up on the South Shore. I had no idea how I would achieve it and had no experience running a restaurant or cooking for more than 10 persons. So I went to culinary school to learn. Later, I worked in the insurance business during the day and got a second job working nights and weekends at Fava in Needham, MA. Read More>>
Alexis Hill
I am a graduate of Smith College and Georgetown University Law Center, which surprises people. I spent eight years as a public interest attorney and community organizer (bringing my dogs with me to the office when possible). At the end of 2008, I decided I just didn’t want to spend the rest of my life behind a desk indoors. Read More>>
Rob Everts
Equal Exchange was started in 1986 by three young men who worked in the cooperative food distribution area in New England. They wanted to demystify for consumers where our commodities from overseas come from, products like coffee, tea, bananas, etc. The objective quickly embraced the goal of totally reforming international trade, bringing small scale farmers and consumers closer together, and injecting more equity into the system. Read More>>
Jeff Kesses
I arrived in Boston in 1986 to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts after graduating from Dean College out in Franklin, MA. (My training didn’t stop with these two schools. I’m always looking to hone my skills and improve. I’ve continued drawing and painting classes in locations like England and Italy, New Mexico, L.A. and San Francisco as well as other classes and locale’s in Boston.) Read More>>
Alex Silberstein
I started with the company in June of 2012 at our New York City location as a floor manager. I was always a craft beer fan, but I didn’t know that much about the industry or beer in general. I quickly fell in love with diversity of flavors beer can offer and ingrained myself in the community as much as possible. Read More>>
Lori Chamberland
I began my career as a journalist, actually. I was a daily newspaper editor for 12 years. That background and having to meet a daily deadline under pressure with fewer and fewer resources gave me several skills that turned out to serve me well. Read More>>
Ted Clark
I arrived in Boston from Maine four years ago, after graduating with a Bachelor’s of Arts in U.S. History from Bowdoin College, where I also worked as a student teacher in a local social studies classroom. As a lover of history, I quickly discovered the Freedom Trail and began dragging friends and roommates and coworkers along to explore every last landmark, tombstone, and minuscule plaque along the 2.5-mile brick line. Read More>>
Shawn Kim
After graduating with honors from the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in San Francisco, Dr. Kim then attended San Francisco VA Medical Center for advanced training. Dr. Kim moved to Boston 5 years ago to support his wife’s study and settled in Boston instead of going back to California because he saw New England as a great place to raise his family. Dr. Kim purchased this practice, now Ace Dental Boston, in August of 2016. Read More>>
Jim Ward and Sonja Fridell
Jim: I started BrainSell in 1994 in a one room office in Topsfield with the idea of building an innovative technology and consulting company – a sharp pivot from the family business that I had inherited. I wanted to build a business unencumbered from family expectations and restrictions. One that also didn’t follow the standards of corporate America. I had a few tenants that were important to me. Read More>>
Bill Spirito and Lorena Calderón
Lorena, Colombian, and Bill, from the States, started a Native English Center and PEPE Colombia (Programa de Español para Extranjeros) in Bogotá in 1998. In exchange for Spanish learning, room and board, English teachers taught classes (and did chores) at our center/home, as well classes around the city. Earning Colombian pesos it wasn’t feasible to pay off Bill’s college loans in dollars, and at the time there was a lot of demand for Spanish/English bilinguals throughout the marketplace in Bill’s home state of Massachusetts, so we decided to close up shop after five years and move to Boston. Read More>>
Michelle DeFronzo
The company that has represented three of the top twenty World Cargo Freighter Airlines in the New England market, ImEx Cargo, began with a born and raised Bostonian, Michelle DeFronzo. While growing up, DeFronzo was unaware of what her passion was, but what she did know is that she wanted to run a company and be her own boss. While growing up in Boston, most of the jobs at the time were based around the airport. Read More>>
Dan Donato
OctoCog was created as a boutique marketing firm focused exclusively on businesses within the Food, Beverage & Hospitality industries. I’ve been working in restaurants and sales & marketing for 20 years and we therefore have keen insight into the specific needs that restaurants experience. We understand the business. Read More>>
Willie Mandrell
As a lifelong resident of Boston, Willie is very familiar with the city’s neighborhoods and has a deep understanding of the local real estate market. He spent his early years watching his grandparents acquire and manage rental property throughout the city and was able to learn many aspects of the business early on. Now, as a current landlord and real estate investor, he prides himself on staying current with local sales and rental trends. Read More>>
Natalie Ng
I had always been interested in photography since I was young but it wasn’t until my freshman year in college did I recognize my passion. I made promotional videos for school products and club events when I was in high school, but I just took up the job thinking it was fun and I might be the only person in the grade proficient enough to do it. (Although not pro at all) Then in college freshman year I had huge identity issues, since I don’t have a tight group of friends I could always go to and hang out with, and my self-esteem dropped so low when I realized there were so many talented people out there and I’m in comparison so useless. Read More>>
Vincent Migliore
I moved to Boston from Sicily when I was 5 years old. We had family already here. We settled in Boston’s West End. I had a wonderful childhood, filled with friends and family. We didn’t have much money but we made up for it with love. Read More>>
Shirag Shemmassian
I grew up deeply entrenched in Los Angeles’ Armenian American community, which is incredibly traditional and tight-knit, to put it lightly. When I began exhibiting facial, bodily, and vocal tics around age 9, I had my first glimpse into how I wasn’t a natural fit. Before I learned about my Tourette syndrome diagnosis, my family and community demanded that I stop my “bad habits” out of fear that others would think I was “mentally retarded.” Read More>>
James Pergola
My grandfather started the business in 1938. I have been working there since I was about 12. As a kid I took a liking to it. Growing up with dyslexia made reading and writing a challenge. Read More>>
Enza Lilley
In 2005 I found myself like many women my age and in my stage of life, wanting to know that there was more to my life than cooking dinner, scrubbing pee off the back of toilets, and carpool. My youngest had just started kindergarten and I so desperately wanted to do something outside of the home. I was a medical assistant before kids and although I loved OB/GYN, I knew I would not be happy going back to medical assisting. Read More>>
Sarah Herschberger
I spent most of my childhood growing up in Minnesota. My family moved up there when I was 4, so naturally hockey was a huge part of my life, as was soccer. I honestly don’t know how my parents did it with both my older brother and I being involved in year round hockey and soccer- thanks Mom and Dad for driving us all over the Twin Cities for practices and games! Read More>>
Stephanie Kula, Licensed Acupuncturist
My passion for health and wellness started in 1999 when I started working at a holistic medical practice based in Arlington, MA. As time went on I moved into a variety of roles in the practice both administratively and clinically. The doctor that I worked for was also an acupuncturist. I felt like a sponge, I just wanted to learn more! Read More>>
Beth Kurson
I grew up in Suffern New York about 45 miles north of NYC. I’ve always had an eye for fashion and a love of the arts and design. At a young age I was putting outfits together with the perfect look and fit. I came to Boston to go to college and spent the greater part of my career in advertising for Dunkin’ Donuts and sales for WODS Oldies 103.3. Read More>>
Sachin Patel
I was born in a farming family in central India, My ease with numbers led me to pursue degrees in engineering in India and the US. I started my professional career in 1999 building conventional gas and coal fired power plants for Enron and other construction companies. After designing and constructing several of these plants, I attended the Wharton MBA Program and made a switch to energy investment banking at Merrill Lynch in New York. Read More>>
Jennifer Nickerson
I originally started out working as a lighting technician in the local film industry. After several years of ups and downs in the number of productions coming to the area, I started looking into web design as a second career and found that my background in design and film making at Mass Art was a great fit. I took a few classes and began to develop sites here and there until I had built up a number of freelance clients. Read More>>
Christopher Campbell
Our old restaurant, Troquet, was located on Boylston Street for nearly 16 years, directly across from Boston Common. We’ve celebrated 20,000 anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and theater events with our guests, and made many life-long friends. In February of 2017, we closed Troquet. We are excited to welcome our guests to our new restaurant, Troquet on South, located in the Leather District, just 5 blocks away from the theaters. Read More>>
Martin Elliott
I had the idea for Boston Pizza Tours back in 2011 when I was living in the North End and working as a Boston tour guide. A friend of mine, who’s a world traveler and big foodie, came home from NYC after a recent trip. This girl could not stop talking about a food tour that she has taken in Manhattan. She talked about this tour for days – about how good the food was, about her fantastic tour guide and how much fun that she’d had. Read More>>
Scott Cahaly
I started making art the second half of college up at the University of Vermont. Really making art, is pretty much all I did for the last two years until I got my degree. I caught the ‘inspiration bug’ big time, created in just about any medium I could get my hands on. Upon graduating I was hacking away on a piece of Carrara marble which is the stone Michelangelo worked in! Shortly after I got a job at the Vermont Marble Exhibit in Central Vermont where I purchased a five thousand pound piece of Vermont Marble. Read More>>
Arne Nordeide
We are a flight school who has been operating at the Beverly Airport for over 30 years. In 1986, Arne and his wife Carol bought the flight school and have been running it as a family business ever since. It is not always a smooth flight in aviation, there are always some “bumps” along the way. 9/11 was a huge setback with the Beverly Airport shut down for a couple of weeks. There have also been many regulation changes that happened as a result. Many winters can be tough when the New England storms get relentless and when that happens the planes (and students) don’t fly. Read More>>
Susan McLucas
I taught a few friends to ride a bike 35 years ago and enjoyed it. Eventually I taught more people, first one by one, then with adult education schools. A student offered to make me a website a few years back, and that’s when things started to really get going. Now people come from all over the country and sometimes beyond to learn how to ride. Read More>>
Brian DAmico
I started the company back in 2000 in the City of Chelsea with (1) other employee. It was a third floor location and wasn’t the ideal spot to start a business. Within a few years we moved to Saugus and now to our corporate location in Danvers, MA. We now have 52 employees with 4 locations and are looking to continually grow. Read More>>
