Page 6 - BusinessWest April 18, 2022

The Next
6 APRIL 18, 2022 FEATURE BusinessWest
Now Part of
the EDC, VVM
Continues to
Evolve and
Grow
Valley Venture Mentors has
long had a singular but multi- faceted mission — to promote entrepreneurship in the region and provide various forms of assistance to help business owners take their venture to the next stage. Through a new and broader affiliation
with the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, the agency has an opportunity to become, in the words of its director, even more of an advocate, a champion, and a “convener” within the region’s broad, and growing, entrepreneurship ecosystem.
BAy George O’Brien
s she talked about the new, broader, stronger relationship between Valley Venture Mentors and the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC), Hope Ross Gibaldi, VVM’s executive
director, used the word ‘opportunity’ early and quite often.
She said the affiliation between the two agencies, or the deeper affiliation, as the case may be, gives VVM access to a larger pool of funding sources, some of them stemming from COVID-relief efforts, and, in general, a stronger platform from which to conduct its many programs — from its weekly ‘community nights’ to its student business accelerator to its entre- preneurial roundtables — and become an even more vital component of the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“VVM has gone through a lot of evolution and many iterations, and with the course of the pan- demic, that has really provided us with a chance to do some reflection,” Ross Gibaldi explained. “I think this
Chapter
VVM Executive Director Hope Ross Gibaldi