You don’t have to be in a city to build a successful business. In fact, sometimes being in a rural area can be an advantage, no matter what you’re trying to build.
Ask Patrick and Katie Banks, who built their business on a windy hill in Charlemont, Mass. Foolhardy Hill is a unique campground that sleeps 24 across five tiny cabins and three tent sites, with shared amenities like a fire pit and fully stocked outdoor kitchen.
“Our personal interest in outdoor recreation, paired with the growing need for more outdoor lodging in Charlemont, sparked the conversation of creating our own campground—and we just went for it,” said Katie.
Knowing the area was a huge benefit for Patrick and Katie, who love outdoor activities and even met while working as river rafting guides. In the Pioneer Valley and Berkshires, “campgrounds are inundated in the summer,” Katie said.
Since Foolhardy Hill opened in 2021, Patrick and Katie have been busy—nearly all of their summer weekends were booked their first two years, and they’re expecting another busy season.
In the Berkshires, where health care waiting lists are long, Physical Therapist Brittney Cappiello founded My Core Floor, an online platform that helps women all over the world with core strength and pelvic floor rehabilitation.
In 2016, she had a three-month waiting list for new patients, and was one of the only pelvic floor physical therapists in the area. Women sought her out for their ongoing issues, sometimes telling her they had been suffering for years before finally making an appointment.
My Core Floor offers live classes, reading material, and community support for a monthly fee. The MCF Facebook group has more than 2,500 followers. And Cappiello gets regular emails and messages from women who are using her program to work through their pelvic floor issues and improve their quality of life.
“Many women are told their symptoms are just what happens to women after childbirth or menopause. When women hear these things, they stop talking to their doctors,” Cappiello said. The virtual platform gives women access to information they need, and to a good, reliable resource from anywhere.”
A few hours north in Vermont, Sascha Mayer launched Mamava, which makes private, comfortable pods for breastfeeding parents.
The first pod launched at the Burlington, Vt., airport in 2013; now, the pods are airports, major distribution warehouses, convention centers, malls, and corporate spaces all over the country. Today, Mamava offers a wide range of products, as well as a consulting branch that can help companies assess their needs in supporting employees who are breastfeeding, all from its Vermont headquarters.
“There was an independent spirit there that we followed,” Mayer said. Since the startup community is smaller, “networking is great, because you’re one degree of separation from all these founders,” Mayer said. The first lactation pod came about on a handshake between Mayer and the airport’s business manager, who she knew through the local business community. “Amazing things can happen in rural places,” she said. “I always think, ‘if we were in a larger market, would that have happened?’”
