Today we’d like to introduce you to Shana Berkeley.
Hi Shana, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Corner to Corner started as a front porch dream twenty years ago. Will and Tiffany Acuff, our co-founders, moved into an East Nashville neighborhood and began exploring what it looked like to love their neighbors as themselves. As they built authentic relationships with neighbors, they discovered that their neighbors were hardworking people with a desire to care for their families despite the challenges they faced. One of the major challenges is keeping up with the cost of living in a rapidly growing city! That’s why they launched The Academy, in 2016. This innovative economic intervention helps entrepreneurs plan, start and grow small businesses.
Today, The Academy, powered by Corner to Corner, has launched nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs into the ecosystem of Nashville. This 10-week program that equips neighbors with the networks, knowledge, and tools to plan, start, and grow their own small businesses. This program provides early-stage entrepreneurs an opportunity to build an economic engine for their families and communities.
One of those early-stage entrepreneurs was Shana Berkeley, now our Executive Director. Shana graduated from The Academy in 2017, then stuck around as a volunteer. She believed in the mission of Corner to Corner so much, she eventually became The Academy Director and has been our ED since 2023 when Will passed the torch on to her. Most of our staff are graduates of The Academy themselves, coming on full time to help further our mission of entrepreneurship in Nashville.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Any road worth traveling is going to have some bumps along the way. But our destination is economic stability for all our Nashville neighbors, so the bumps will always be worth it!
We have morphed and shifted as a nonprofit since our start as a grassroots project in 2011; serving neighbors through a tornado and pandemic with creative initiatives, continuously learning to pivot and be responsive to the needs of our community, running afterschool programs for kids. Through all of this, we consistently saw that Nashville was filled with creative ideas budding amongst early-start entrepreneurs, so we shifted to solely focus on our entrepreneurship program, The Academy, last year.
These struggles have made us stronger and allowed us to model resiliency for entrepreneurs.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Corner to Corner is committed to serving underestimated entrepreneurs in Nashville – whether you want to start a bakery, a barber shop, or a boudoir photo business. We are here to equip neighbors with resources to turn that business ideas into money-making realities.
Our foundational ten-week program, The Academy, equips entrepreneurs with tools to get started – they learn how to develop a business plan, understand financial documents, and pitch their business. We host the program in locations across Nashville so that classes are accessible to as many people as possible. And the class is led by program graduates who are on their own entrepreneurial journey – they understand the struggle, first hand! After ten weeks of work, we set aside time for celebration. We have a community-wide Graduation Celebration (mark your calendar for November 5th) and introduce all of the new entrepreneurs to Nashville. After they graduate, we have a range of Alumni Offerings that support entrepreneurs. From one-on-one business mentorships to workshops hosted by subject matter experts to microloans – this stage of the program meets the diverse and emerging needs of entrepreneurs as their business grows.
At the heart of all of this is our neighbors – we do all of this, from the ten weeks to the microloans, because we want all of our Nashville neighbors to flourish on their own terms. That’s why we are so grounded in the community – from drawing on community leaders to making our classes community located. We are in the weeds with the people that we serve day in and day out.
This sets Corner to Corner apart from many other business incubator programs. We know that growth is not linear. We see our students, their families, the neighborhoods they live in, the dreams they have for change – and then we walk alongside them through their business journey.
What does success mean to you?
We want all neighbors to flourish on their own terms. That means that success will look different for everyone, because success is personal. It is unique to each neighbor. For one, success could mean advancing their business to a six-figure income. For another, success could mean earning enough money to pay for her granddaughter’s ballet class.
To us at Corner to Corner, success is getting to witness our neighbors utilize their God-given talents and drive to achieve their goals and thrive on their own terms. This is at the heart of what we do. But we also understand the value in being a bit more logic-oriented when it comes to defining success.
We work with the University of Notre Dame’s LEO program to research the impact of The Academy. We partner with Vanderbilt University to provide macro-loans to select Academy Alumni and also conduct post-program surveys. We have exponentially grown our Academy cohorts, going from 12 graduates to over 350!
Success at Corner to Corner is defined by one simple statement: A Nashville where ALL neighbors flourish on their own terms!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cornertocorner.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cornertocorner/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CornerToCornerNashville/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/corner-to-corner/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW4dqbcXp3vVjyS4_n2Pt5g
