Hallie Guiseppe '24
Though she was recruited by Alvernia University to fill its director of advancement operations position, Hallie Guiseppe flat-out admitted to Chief Advancement, Government and Athletics Officer Thomas Minick ’98 MBA ’10 during a lunch meeting that she didn't qualify. The reason: She didn't have a bachelor's degree.
“Well, we can fix that," Minick responded.
Guiseppe agreed, giving her notice to former employer Rodale Institute, a difficult decision as it felt like her dream job.
But, she said, “I realized that if I wanted to grow both personally and professionally, I needed to move on. It was one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve made in my life, but I did it because I knew it would be good for me, and I knew that it would empower me to do other good things.”
And that is has.
During her last course before graduating with a bachelor's in business administration and management, Guiseppe was tasked with creating a business.
“It asked you to take everything you learned and roll it up into creating a business," she said of the entrepreneurship course. "That was your assignment for the whole six- to seven-week accelerated course. Being a practical person, I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to spend all of the next seven weeks digging in and researching a business to create, why wouldn’t I just spend that effort doing something that I think could actually be a business … something I would like to do?'”
That thought lead her back to her love of farming.
In her research for the course, Guiseppe uncovered a USDA study on the organic farming industry revealing that the No. 1 production issue for farmers was not climate or water pressure, pest control or labor, but paperwork. And in Pennsylvania, 65 percent of farmers reiterated that statement.
That, you may say, was Guiseppe’s lightbulb moment and the birth of Pocket Gofer, an AI software solution that helps farmers make record-keeping as simple as sending themselves a text message.
When she presented the idea to professor Jane Booker, Ph.D., MBA, Booker asserted, “You have to do this.”
Doing it came in the form of enrolling in the Berks LaunchBox in October of 2025.
“It was intense for sure," she recalled. "Because it’s only six weeks long, there is a lot of work to do. And they take it very seriously. You sign a commitment that you’re going to show up for all of the workshops. You know, you work a full-time job and then you’re working another entire job at the same time for that six-week period. And the coaches, man, they’re tough. But they have wonderful constructive feedback. It was an incredible experience.”
The capstone of the LaunchBox was its TestLab Pitch Competition, in which Guiseppe scored second place, receiving $600 in seed funding.
Every little bit helps as she works toward her ultimate goal of saving family farms.
“Pocket Gofer is just the first step," said Guiseppe, who hopes the business will launch in the summer of 2026.