AND NOW Bettina Network Hedge Schools
as told by: Marceline Donaldson and Rev. Dr. Robert Bennet
Once upon a time, two people came together with an idea to supplement their income because their bills were overwhelming.
At the time, they lived on the campus of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in faculty housing. She, a student in the ordination process and he, a professor of Near Eastern Studies, Hebrew, Hebrew Language, Archeology.
She discovered an age old way of extra income through bed & breakfast. He went along with the idea because he wanted to please his wife and because his payments to his ex-wife were huge and they were sinking into more debt. That was 1982.
That turned out to be a life saver in more ways than one. It was highly successful; they enjoyed the company of people who stayed with them; they were exposed to people – ideas – and more they never would have been exposed to or known about without their new “hobby.”
Friends asked them to send their overflow because they liked what they saw and also needed the extra income. Marceline and Robert did that and the friends sent them lovely plants in return.
Marceline, having been a student at Harvard Business School and having been in business herself saw the opportunity and they turned their “extra money hobby” into a real business. They established Bettina’s Bed and Breakfast, inc. and continued having guests. They also continued sending their overflow guests to friends, but instead of plants they received money in return.
Realizing the business they were creating, In 1984, Marceline saw the future and they looked into purchasing a house and moving from the seminary campus and from Bettina’s Bed & Breakfast, inc to a private home of their own with a business involving not one individual home, but many and incorporated Bettina Network, inc.
Bettina Network, inc. was a corporation which took homes into the Bettina Network for which they did the marketing, advertising, collecting of funds, putting out a newsletter with stories, suggestions, etc. which went to guests and people who owned the homes where guests stayed.
It was not easy. It was the first time such a network was established and they had to work out everything. It was also doubly difficult bringing in homes of whites as well as blacks and other minorities sending people to stay in the homes of this very integrated network without telling anyone the race or ethnicity or sexual orientation of the people in the homes where they were going to stay.
It was also difficult because people who saw the network and wanted to join were put off by the fact that Marceline and Robert were African Americans – well, Marceline was from the 7th Ward in New Orleans and a Creole which is still, by society’s definition, a black woman.
As time passed, the Bettina Network grew and they had homes across the United States and were beginning to take homes into the Bettina Network from other countries. They also kept refining how to best do this until they created a structure which worked.
Marceline and Robert did all of this with only their own resources because the attempts they made to contact possible venture capitalists were not only rebuffed, their telephone calls to places like Silicon Valley in California were never returned.
In 2007, along came Brian Chesky with two friends to stay in the Bettina Network. When they arrived in Boston they knew nothing about Bettina’s. They went to the Capital Network – the city of Cambridge’s venture capital arm – where they apparently stated their purpose for being in Boston (to look for businesses and business opportunities they could copy)
The Capital Network sent Chesky, Grebbia and another friend to stay with the Donaldsons because they thought that would be an ideal business for Chesky and company to “steal.” After all, it was a black owned business and isn’t that why blacks knock themselves out and sacrifice years of their lives building these new business ideas. (so whites males could come along and step into the business taking credit for everything and not having to start from scratch making the kind of sacrifices Marceline and Robert had to make for a couple decades before the business started working beautifully and showing its future.)
Brian Chesky, Grebbia and another friend stayed three days at the Donaldson’s home. They could have stayed at any other homes in the Bettina Network, but the Capital Network called the Donaldsons and said Brian Chesky would be calling and she should put him and his friends with the Donaldsons. Apparently, the set-up for these was being put in place.
Marceline was well acquainted with the Capital Network, the venture capital arm of the city of Cambridge. She went to their Thursday afternoon sessions trying to understand how to reach venture capitalists because it was clear they were at that point where they needed substantial investment into their corporation because of its growth potential and their limited resources to fund such.
The Capital Network barely spoke to Marceline and even though she set up several appointments to talk with people about their need, that didn’t happen.
When three white men appeared, however, the story changed and the doors to the resources available to them were open wide. So wide that when Marceline went to the next Thursday afternoon session of the Capital Network her company name had been removed from the list of those attending. She had to create a stir to get someone to address the issue and put her name back where it had been before the advent of Brian Chesky.
What she did not know at the time was Chesky’s influence; his intention of putting together a copy of what she had done in California and the Capital Network opened its doors wide to help him in this quest – including blocking the person whose business he found he wanted. Not to buy, but to steal.
When Brian Chesky and his two friends stayed with Marceline and Robert they were amazed and overwhelmed by what they saw. One of Brian Chesky’s remarks was that he had no idea you could put together private homes in a network such as Bettina Network. He somehow found a copy of the business plan, read it and waxed eloquent about how fantastic it was – before Marceline took it back and was quite upset about that little scene. She told him her business plan was not open to him or anyone else and didn’t appreciate his having it.
It is easy for Marceline and Robert to prove the Chesky trio’s stay at their home because everyone who stayed at a Bettina home filled out a Guest form which gave their information – mailing address, how to pay – their credit card number if they wanted to be charged, etc. Marceline and Robert kept all of those forms and has the one Brian Chesky filled out during his stay at their home.
After a few months, the telephone calls started to come into Bettina Network, inc. from people who claimed to be interested in staying in one of the homes in the Bettina Network, but they needed to know more about the business. They asked everything from soup to nuts about how the business operated.
This went on for quite some time until Marceline and Robert began to wonder why these new kind of calls started. At the beginning they accepted the lies that were being told by those who called – that they were interested in doing business with Bettina Network and just wanted to make sure of the company. After a bit it was clear this was not why people were calling. When the calls came in, Marceline asked them not to call back. That was ignored and other people called. Apparently, Brian Chesky was starting to set up Airb&b and when there was a question about how to do something new they encountered their way of dealing with that question was to call Bettina Network anonymously.
One call was particularly horrible. A couple called and wanted to put their house into Bettina Network. What Robert and Marceline did when such a call came in was to make an appointment to go out and see the home. If it came from another city or state, they would have someone they knew and who knew what they were doing go out to visit with whoever was calling to see if there was a match.
Marceline went to visit with the couple. He described himself as a professional chef. She described herself as the treasurer of Bose.
When Marceline arrived it became clear quickly that something was not quite right. They wanted to see a business plan because they said they wanted to make sure where the company was going, the road map – so to speak – of its future, etc.
Marceline gave them a copy of her business plan and said it was not for public consumption. They could read it at the table while she was there, but she was taking it back with her because she did not pass her business plan out to anyone.
They agreed. After a few minutes the many excused himself to go to the bathroom. He took the business plan with him while Marceline was occupied talking to his wife. When he returned he said he had emailed a copy of the business plan to friends in California and Colorado and a couple other places and mentioned sending a copy to Brian Chesky. Marceline was furious, took her business plan from him. He said everyone gave him the same response – they were delighted to see it, praised how great it was, etc. etc. That didn’t mollify Marceline especially since his wife had just told her, when she asked what bedroom they were going to use for bed & breakfast guests, especially since the one they showed her was clearly and permanently occupied.
They said they didn’t have an empty bedroom at the time, but when their daughter moved out they were going to use her bedroom and that was the room they showed her.
That with the business plan saga was too much – Marceline left.
Bettina Network, inc. started to run into some incredible headwinds which seriously hurt the business. They didn’t immediately make the connection between the problems they began to have and the Chesky group, but as time passed and they saw what was happening, it became clear to them this was one business trying to injure another.
About two years ago, Robert and Marceline started to change Bettina Network, inc. and began to make Bettina Network Hedge School s a more prominent part of Bettina Network, inc. They decided not to change their web site because the problems were too immense and they didn’t want more.
About six months into their changes as they sent information out to former guests and others they then heard about Airb&b changing its services and those changes were almost word for word copying the changes Marceline and Robert were making to Bettina Network, inc.
That continues into today.
