Auburn University Entrepreneurship is Thriving
Alumni and local civic leaders joined Auburn leadership, faculty and student entrepreneurs in Birmingham to celebrate and advance the expanding Auburn Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
When you think about Auburn University entrepreneurship, what typically comes to mind?
The Research Park? The New Venture Accelerator? The IP Exchange?
Is it the Tiger Cage pitch competitions and student-led new venture success stories ?
Perhaps it’s our world class faculty and academic curricula?
Or maybe it’s the wealth of real-world experience, expertise and counsel our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) offer our alumni – on campus and across the local Auburn area business community?
Any way you look at it, there’s a tremendously powerful, wide-ranging array of entrepreneurial activity and impactful new business development taking place every day here in Auburn – all within a radius of just a few miles from Samford Hall.
But as impressive as all this is, it’s not the whole story – not by a longshot.
Beyond the Home Front
While the bulk of start-up business activity may take place primarily in the campus laboratories, classrooms, and dedicated research and workspace facilities, the engagement and impact of the Auburn Family extends far beyond Lee County. When it comes to Auburn entrepreneurship, our work reaches across the entire State of Alabama and— literally – around the globe.
From Huntsville to Birmingham, Montgomery to Atlanta, Lagos Nigeria to Cape Town South Africa – the Auburn Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is a vibrant and growing force in driving student- and faculty-founded new venture formation, development and growth. Helping Auburn students and faculty achieve their entrepreneurial dreams is at the core of our mission.
Case in Point – Birmingham
The broadening Auburn University Entrepreneurial Ecosystem was on full display recently at the Auburn University Building in Birmingham, AL, where local area alumni, business partners and student entrepreneurs joined Auburn leadership, faculty and others in supporting and celebrating Auburn’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovation.
Hosted by the Greater Birmingham Auburn Club, the event featured opening remarks from Harbert College of Business Dean Jennifer Mueller-Phillips and presentations from several New Venture Accelerator EIRs and Auburn University entrepreneurship professors – all touching on the tremendous value being delivered to aspiring student, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs at Auburn.
Extraordinary Engagement
The festivities began with Mike Herron, President of the Greater Birmingham Auburn Club, welcoming the 60+ attendees and outlining the strength and vitality of the Birmingham Club – the largest of all Auburn Alumni Clubs. From alumni engagement events to student scholarships, Herron spoke with well-deserved pride about the support this flagship alumni organization continues to deliver for Auburn.
“Welcome to ‘Auburn in Birmingham!’ began Herron. “I hope you all noticed the new signage, marquee and messaging as you walked in – we are so proud of our new facility and the visibility it brings to all we are doing here in Greater Birmingham.”
And as Dean Mueller-Phillips began her remarks, it became abundantly clear where her heart was:
“This evening marks an exciting, extraordinary opportunity for Auburn alumni in Birmingham
to learn how they can directly impact the success of Auburn student-led new ventures.”
– Harbert College of Business Dean Jennifer Mueller-Phillips
“This is the best part of my job,” noted the Dean, “getting out and meeting our alumni across the country – and especially here in Alabama. And tonight, I am so excited for you all to hear about something that’s near and dear to my heart because it cuts across all disciplines and colleges at Auburn – our entrepreneurship mission is benefitting virtually every aspiring innovator at Auburn, regardless of the college where that discovery and innovation occurs.”
Bringing the Receipts
Mueller-Phillips punctuated her delight by highlighting the most recent Princeton Review rankings, which saw Auburn break into the top tier of entrepreneurship programs in the state, in the south and across the country.
“We are extraordinarily proud to be recognized so highly for the very first time – and it’s a recognition that has been long in coming,” noted Mueller-Phillips. “There are so many people at Auburn who have been working diligently over the years to build this capability, this capacity, this level of expertise. It is great to see that these efforts are finally gaining the visibility and laurels they so richly deserve.”
The Envelope, Please…
- “Auburn is ranked as the number one entrepreneurship and innovation program in the state of Alabama.”
- “Auburn is ranked number two in the SEC and number eight in the entire south.”
- “And we are in the top 25 in the country – out of close to 400 ranked programs.”
“This is great, especially the national rankings. But we want more,” urged Mueller-Phillips. “We want even more of our student- and faculty-founded new ventures to succeed beyond Tiger Cage and other pitch competition winnings. And that’s where the Auburn University KickStart Fund comes in.”
“You’ll be hearing more about KickStart from Dan O’Keefe, who is heading up this new initiative, in a few moments. But first, let’s hear from Joshua Sahib, an instructor at Harbert and the Director of the Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship, who will tell you about some of the academic entrepreneurial programs and initiatives here at Auburn you may not be aware of.”
Robust Academic Fundamentals
Sahib began by illuminating one of the key foundational elements of the collaborative Entrepreneurial Ecosystem at Auburn – academic excellence.
“I’m an instructor in the Harbert College of Business and I teach in the entrepreneurship program while also running the Lowder Center. We offer an entrepreneurship and family business minor as well as a business engineering and technology minor led by the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management.
This minor is a competitive program that is only open to students who are business majors or engineering majors – we currently have about 100 students participating – and it is designed to help those business students who really need more technical aptitude on the one hand, and those engineering students who may not have the business fundamentals they need to succeed on the other.”
“We also know that not everybody is willing to commit to a full scale academic program right off the bat,” said Sahib, “so we have programs such as the Auburn Ideas Jam – a pitch competition in which there’s no slide deck required, no suit needed – it’s all about being passionate and getting your idea out into the world. That segues naturally into the Halloween Pitch Competition and Tiger Cage Pitch Competition which are much more rigorous.”
“And then there’s the Business Builder Bash, a hackathon of sorts where cross-functional teams from business, tech and design work together over a short period of time to create potential new business ideas, some of which have even progressed to competing in the granddaddy of them all, Tiger Cage.”
Building Collaborative Communities
Jennifer Nay, Harbert instructor, NVA EIR and founder of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative (WEC) at Auburn, spoke about the three roles she serves at Auburn and how alums – particularly women alums – can help emerging Auburn student and faculty entrepreneurs succeed.
“I founded the Women’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative because I realized two things about Auburn women:
- Auburn women are some of the most resourceful women on the planet, and
- Auburn women love helping other Auburn people.”
“Based on those two principles, I said to myself ‘I bet if I built a platform that enables Auburn alumni women to connect with the entrepreneurs that we mentor at the NVA, we could create a beautiful portfolio of value-added resources to share, mentorship to engage, networking connections to form, etc. That could really make a difference.”
So, she did just that.
“Starting with seven initial members a little more than a year and a half ago, WEC now counts some 200 women,” noted Nay. “We hold monthly lunch meetings where I fill everybody in on all the cool entrepreneurial stuff going on at Auburn and the NVA. We hear student entrepreneur pitches, give them helpful feedback, and connect in a very purposeful way.”
Call to Action
“What can you do to help these extraordinary student and faculty entrepreneurs?”
“Come talk to me after the presentation. Of course, I want to know who you are and what you do, but more importantly – if you’re one of our talented Auburn women who has something to offer our entrepreneurs, let me know what that is, and if you’re an entrepreneur, let me know what you need.”
“Whether you’re in human resources, talent management, recruiting or whatever your background is, you have something to share with our entrepreneurs, and I absolutely want to connect with you. We even have a Zoom option for our monthly meetings so you can join us from right here in Birmingham.”
Student Entrepreneurs Shine
Birmingham alumni also had the opportunity to hear from two Auburn student entrepreneurs well on their way to building their new ventures, thanks to the Auburn Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.
Sophia Aulisio, a junior studying business at Harbert with a minor in the business engineering technology and founder of Protector Innovations, updated the gathering on her team’s progress and thanked them for all the support that helped them get to where they are today.
“This past year I’ve been refining our product design and paired with a local manufacturer and engineer in Auburn and I now have a patent pending product,” reported Aulisio. “And just this December, I formed our LLC, and finalized my product design. We’re starting with small batch testing and giving it out to players, getting their feedback so that we can prepare for our launch in 2026.”
“None of this would have been possible without the support of Auburn and the entrepreneurial ecosystem that Auburn University has provided me. Not only have they given me mentorship, countless resources and a community that supports me, but everything else that’s helped scale this business. I never thought that I’d be standing here in front of you folks today as a founder, but that’s the power of Auburn entrepreneurship – taking an idea, a passion, and turning it into a reality. Thank you. And War Eagle!”
Thomas Lester, a fourth generation Auburn engineering student studying industrial and systems engineering and a Thomas Walter Center for Technology Fellow who is also getting a business engineering technology minor, gave the audience an update on his company’s first product offering.
“What you are looking at here is the most convenient coffee solution ever invented – Earlybird,” reported Lester. “It is a self-heating, pre-made coffee container and more. With the simple press of this push point, it starts heating in under two minutes.”
“But this didn’t happen overnight. It is the culmination of countless hours and mentorship from organizations like Auburn’s New Venture Accelerator. Last year I competed in Tiger Cage just a few months after having the idea with only very early prototypes and was able to win $15,000.”
“That money went to filing my first patent and towards the basic equipment I needed to go ahead and start my business. And last year, thanks to the help of my mentors in the NVA, I was able to win money in four different pitch competitions, bringing in more than $42,000.”
“We now have multiple patents pending and are working alongside two major manufacturers in New Jersey to advance our product development, with plans to start licensing our flagship product this summer.”
“And just last week, Shark Tank reached out to us for an interview, which went really well – we might just get the call to fly out to LA for taping. None of this would be possible without Auburn.”
Stepping it Up – AU KickStart Fund
“I got involved as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the NVA about four years ago,” reported O’Keefe. “I initially was a Tiger Cage pitch competition judge and then was asked to join the staff. One of the things that became very evident early on was we could do more to help these companies get going.”
To Learn More about KickStart click HERE
“Don’t get me wrong – the Tiger Cage and pitch competition funding is awesome, as Thomas just said. But too many of our companies kind of die on the vine because they don’t have access to the resources to take them to the next level.”
“So, I started doing some research around what options might be available to us? What are other universities doing? How can we create an even more potent entrepreneurial ecosystem and funding mechanism for our students and faculty entrepreneurs?”
“I put forward a proposal to launch the Auburn University Kickstart Fund as part of a broader vision of how we could create a world-class equity funding capability for our startups, and off we went. Truist Foundation became our first corporate grant partner this past fall, joining alumni and other Auburn supporters who have generously donated.”
AU Kickstart Fund is a designated fund within the Auburn University Foundation that will provide direct, non-dilutive grants to select New Venture Accelerator companies exhibiting best-in-class potential for success. The Fund is designed to bridge the gap between new business formation and initial seed or Series A funding and will be administered under the governance and oversight of the Harbert College of Business and the New Venture Accelerator.
“The AU Kickstart Fund is very simple. It operates as a sub-fund within the Auburn Foundation that will grant much-needed financing in the form of non-dilutive grants to those companies that are the most promising business ventures – those we believe just need some more money, some more mentorship, some more support to really become truly investible companies. Our plan is to begin taking applications for grants in the fall.”
In Closing – Your Support Matters, a Lot
“Please pull me aside as we resume networking,” concluded O’Keefe. “I’m happy to discuss how you, your colleagues, friends and business associates can help fund this increasingly essential component of the Auburn Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.”
“And be sure to tell your fellow alums and others across your networks who may live in the Atlanta area about our upcoming alumni event on March 18th at the Microsoft Innovation Hub located 84 Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303.
“From what you’ve all heard here tonight, I am confident you will be glad you did.”
War Eagle indeed.
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To learn more about the KickStart Fund please contact Dan O’Keefe at dto0009@auburn.edu.
To learn more about the Women’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative please contact Jennifer Nay at jgn0012@auburn.edu.