Reprinted from "Meet Dom Gervasi," 2024, CanVas Rebel Magazine
Dom, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
For sixteen years, I was a salesman employed by manufacturers of data communications and networking hardware. My customers were primarily financial institutions in Manhattan and, especially in the ’90s, it was exciting. I was an adventurer scaling the dizzying heights of skyscrapers in search of dragons’ hoards. Their lairs were hidden away in cavernous data centers lined by endless lengths of copper and glass; twinkling with amber, green and red lights. My armor was a woolen suit. My shield, a leather briefcase. My weapons, lightning fast devices. The 21st century was ushered in by the dot-com bubble’s bursting. Then came the 911 tragedy. And as the Great Recession overshadowed the entire economy, the tech hardware industry specifically was rapidly changing. Dragons took flight for cloud computing and by the end of the decade I was laid off and lost. Miserable, I adopted an attitude of curiosity and indulged in some excessive, laser focused navel gazing. I took inventory of what I wanted and what I could do. I’m fascinated with manufacturing of tech hardware and anything else really. As a born and raised Brooklynite, I know and love its history. It was once a city with walls formed by colossal factories and warehouses where everything from apparel to typewriters were produced. Whatever I did next, I wanted it to be related to Brooklyn and manufacturing. I had extensive sales experience and could present complex subject matter in an easy to understand manner. Essentially I’m a storyteller and, if the subject is interesting, a passionate one. With all this in mind, Made in Brooklyn Tours was conceptualized in 2010 during a multi-session bootcamp for entrepreneurs called FastTrac® offered by the NYC Department of Small Business Services.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Each of us had to make huge changes during the pandemic. In late 2019, just as I was expanding my business by designing custom tours for the real estate industry, the CEO of a Japanese-American sustainable lifestyle brand with a retail emporium in Park Slope reached out to me to discuss a new tour designed to familiarize Japanese visitors and prospective investors with Brooklyn. As this opportunity developed, the pandemic rapidly spread across the country. When COVID struck New York, I morphed into this brand’s program director and recruited Brooklyn artists, fashion designers and makers of beauty products with opportunities to market, sell and produce their wares. I even helped to plan, organize and promote events like exhibitions and pop-up markets in strict compliance with NYC’s and the CDC’s guidance and rules. In the fall of 2020, my advisor at the New York Small Business Development Center asked if I was interested in assisting businesses that were struggling to stay afloat and I was brought onboard soon after. So that as I recruited new members for the lifestyle brand, I was helping these small business owners get support with government programs. It wasn’t until spring 2021 that I pivoted back to Made in Brooklyn Tours. It was time to revive and improve on my own business.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
In the 1980s I worked near Union Square at the flagship store of a software retailer owned by Barnes & Noble named Software Etc. Sometimes shoppers would ask me to tutor them on how to use their computers and word processing programs, install software, and do odd jobs like bookkeeping and database entry. I became The Help Key and handed out business cards to customers. I charged between $20 and $40 an hour and my clients were an interesting mix of artists and writers, photographers and lawyers and other small business owners. This is how I paid for college. After graduating from Baruch College with a marketing degree, I was hired by a manufacturer of custom data communications cables with a factory in New Jersey. Over the years I have worked for other producers of data communications and networking hardware and forgot all about my little business. I came to believe that to be successful I needed to work for someone else. It was only after I was laid off during the Great Recession that I rediscovered my creativity, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit. Sometimes it felt like I was strapped inside a Cadillac Eldorado without brakes careening downhill in Bay Ridge and desperately trying to make a hard right turn, but, eventually, I did relearn that I am perfectly capable of running my own show. I started Made in Brooklyn Tours in 2011 and have designed “Made in Brooklyn” themed tours for Bensonhurst, Coney Island, DUMBO, Gowanus, Red Hook, South Slope, and Williamsburg. My business consistently receives stellar reviews, has been awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence multiple times and was honored this year with the Travel & Hospitality Award in recognition of “unwavering commitment to excellence and exceptional service."