The Rural We: Kaitlyn Pierce
The Pittsfield-based entrepreneur runs a digital marketing company and invented a product, Binka Bear.
When you have a need for an item that doesn’t exist, what do you do? If you’re Kaitlyn Pierce, you invent it yourself, and then you make a business out of it. The Pittsfield, Mass. native is what you might call a serial entrepreneur: She runs Pierce Social, designing websites and managing social media for a host of businesses. She’s also created a niche with her five-day social media focused mini course. And recently, she created Binka Bear, a novel solution to weaning young children from their pacifiers, a product that earned her a place on "The Mel Robbins Show." And just this week, Pierce won first place in the Berkshire County EforAll pitch competition and was voted fan favorite.
I don’t officially have any kind of formal degree. I got my GED at 16, then went to BCC. When I was there I was running a blog in the Berkshires and attending Berkshire Creative events. I found myself a job with Studio Two in Lenox doing web design and this new social media thing that all these businesses needed help with. From there, I went to Cranwell in the marketing department and left three years ago to go into business for myself. That’s my full-time job.
Binka Bear is something I invented because I’m a mom and I made it when I was weaning my oldest child off her pacifier. I needed to figure out how to create a place for the pacifier to go where children would know where it was but couldn’t get it out. I bought a couple of bears and ripped the paws apart to figure out how to hide the pacifier in there and lace it up. That was in late 2017. Part of the idea for Binka Bear was to pair it with a children’s book, which I wrote. It took me about a year to find an illustrator that could produce the specific aesthetic I had in mind, whimsical and sweet. It was a quite a process to write and illustrate a story while prototyping!
I’m very good at finding mentors, and we’re fortunate in the Berkshires. If you look for people to answer questions, you’ll find them. I attended local entrepreneur events, and also there are Facebook groups for basically everything. Since I had no idea how to prototype, I put in questions to a Facebook group, asking if anyone had experience with plush toys or books. The Mensch on a Bench guy responded and gave me an hour of his time, which was so helpful. He suggested a couple of names who might be able to start with prototyping and I’ve just been going from there. Sometimes just asking questions is so helpful. I’m grateful to the people who have given me answers.
A local couple was supportive and put in a small investment to get us started. I ended up raising $20,000 on Kickstarter, and that’s how we were able to finish and pay for the first run of production.
We began shipping in April of this year, and I’m still figuring it all out. I’m starting to look into wholesale accounts. I don’t have any budget to market Binka Bear, and it’s a challenge trying to get traffic to our website, which is important, because the product needs to be explained. Once people come to the website, they want a Binka Bear.
I almost got onto "Shark Tank;" made it through two rounds. But I did get on the "Mel Robbins Show" that premiered last month. She’s a well-known life coach and motivational speaker. The show put out a call for female entrepreneurs and they called me the night I responded. It was a Sunday night, and I was told to be in New York City on Tuesday for filming. They haven’t told me yet when it will air.
