“The Time is Now!” to Follow Your Entrepreneurial Dream

More than 200 aspiring student and faculty entrepreneurs from colleges across the Auburn campus urged to act now in getting their new business ideas off the ground

Auburn’s New Venture Accelerator (NVA) has been instrumental in helping literally hundreds of student- and faculty-based entrepreneurs follow their entrepreneurial dreams by starting a new business – and in many cases – growing that budding new entity into a thriving, profitable and potentially life changing enterprise.

The success stories are many and varied – from leading cryptocurrency services provider Yellow Card helping businesses large and small across the African continent conduct essential, everyday financial transactions, to Room2Room Movers delivering practical, much-needed assistance to college students on campuses across the southeast and beyond. New ventures that started with little more than an idea are being nourished and grown every day at the Auburn NVA.

A Broadening Reach

Since the inaugural Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition 11 years ago and the NVA’s formal founding in 2020 – the NVA has attracted aspiring entrepreneurs who came primarily, although not exclusively, from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, the Harbert College of Business and a few other Auburn schools.

But that ratio has changed markedly over the years to where, now, students and faculty from virtually every college at Auburn are taking advantage of all the NVA has to offer.

As proof of the expanding reach of the NVA, the recently held 2025 Tiger Cage Quarterfinals included teams from fully half of Auburn’s colleges, including – in addition to the regular cohort of College of Engineering and College of Business students teams – the College of Human Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, and the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

That phenomenal growth and expansion of the variety of students and faculty working with the NVA was on vivid display on Friday, January 24 at the NVA’s first Lunch & Learn for aspiring entrepreneurial students and faculty at Auburn. Led by NVA Director Lou Bifano and organized by Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) Jennifer Nay, the event drew more than 200 students and faculty from virtually every Auburn college looking to find out how to successfully join the world class Auburn Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.

A Uniquely Collaborative Team

In addition to NVA Director Lou Bifano and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Jennifer Nay, the expert panel included Allan David, Associate Dean, Chemical Engineering; Adam Ficken, a Ph.D. candidate and instructor in the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management who has Master’s degrees and experience in both business and engineering from Auburn; Shay Pilcher, a two-time Auburn graduate in Mechanical Engineering and previous Tiger Cage winner; along with Ian McLeod, and Mason Williams, both MBA candidates and entrepreneurs competing in Tiger Cage 2025.

An Opportunity Like No Other

Following a welcome note and brief introduction by Director Bifano, EIR Nay opened the event with a detailed overview of all the services available for aspiring Auburn entrepreneurs, the caliber of expertise on-hand to provide counsel and mentorship, and the broad and expanding portfolio of entrepreneurial assets that make the Auburn Entrepreneurial Ecosystem so special.

Nay, an experienced serial entrepreneur in her own right, started out by describing the three primary roles she has as an EIR at Auburn University:

As one of nine Entrepreneurs-In-Residence at the NVA, Nay helps identify, on-board and mentor promising NVA start-up teams.

As an instructor in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department at the Harbert College of Business, Nay leads students through key requirements of the Entrepreneurship and Family Business Minor.

Importantly, Nay is also the founder of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative (WEC) at Auburn, where she leads a rapidly expanding community of women-founded start-ups at Auburn. Formed only a little more than a year and a half ago, WEC has grown from an initial group of seven to more than 200 members today and has recently launched a new ambassadorship program for female Auburn students willing to leverage their robust social media following to enlist fellow women entrepreneurs.

Who We Are and What We Do

Located in Auburn’s Research Technology Park on South Donahue Drive just before it intersects with South College Avenue, the NVA features 7,000 square feet of space uniquely designed for the education, collaboration and success of aspiring entrepreneurs – complete with whiteboards, smart screens, and top-tier office space for 20 to 30 student and faculty entrepreneurs.

But where the rubber really meets the road, according to Nay, is the hands-on mentoring, business plan development, pitch competition deck creation, practice sessions and ongoing support Auburn EIRs, the NVA staff and a team of dedicated student interns and others connected with the NVA deliver on a daily basis.

“What is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence?” you may ask. According to Nay, EIRs work on a one-on-one basis with aspiring entrepreneurs, with individual EIRs connected with each start-up founder and team depending on the specific backgrounds of each EIR and how their areas of expertise match up with the type of business and/or market students and faculty are targeting.

That’s a critical component of what the NVA strives to provide – deep, hands-on subject matter expertise in helping students and faculty whose new business ideas draw from the broad range of academic disciplines taught at Auburn’s 12 colleges. Nay focused much of her remarks on driving home the message that no matter how you come to the NVA, no matter where you come from, regardless of the area of new business creation you want to address, we have someone – an entire team, really – poised to help you along your way.

“The incredible experience and expertise here at Auburn’s NVA is available to any Auburn student, faculty or local Auburn area resident,” notes Nay. “Regardless of your college, your major or the particular business idea you may envision, we have somebody on-board to help you pursue your entrepreneurial dream.”

“Don’t wait until you graduate to become entrepreneurs if that’s what you really want to do. Auburn has so much to offer you now, while you’re here, while you’re students, while your instructors, faculty advisors and everyone else you come into contact with is urging you to take full advantage of all that’s right in front of you!”

To prove her point, Nay cited examples of the wide variety of innovative new business ideas supported by the NVA in recent years, including new ventures founded by:

Thomas Lester, a Samuel Ginn College of Engineering student who competed in Tiger Cage 2024 with Early Bird, his idea of cold brew coffee in a can that is activated by the push of a button.

Zakariya Veasy, Harbert student and founder and CEO of LucidTrade, a start-up that is creating mark-to-market energy asset trading services driving sustainable energy solutions designed to enhance grid stability and contribute to a cleaner, greener future.

Chera Howard, a master’s student from Auburn’s College of Agriculture, who has developed an innovative way of growing turf that uses African-American hair to release water and nitrogen slowly over time and is completely fire resistant.

Moises Gonzales, a student in Applied Discrete Mathematics at the College of Sciences and Mathematics and founder and CEO of FarmHub, a start-up that is redefining the way people connect with their food, making it easier than ever to buy fresh, locally sourced products directly from nearby farms.

Holli Michaels and Courtney Montague from the College of Engineering, who have a prototype for a device that would help you do your exercises correctly.

Masoud Mahjouri-Samani, Godbold Associate Professor in electrical and computer engineering, Director of the Laser-Assisted Science and Engineering Emerging Nanomaterials and Devices (LASE-END) lab and founder of NanoPrintek – who has developed the first electronics 3D printer of its kind that can print without any additives or inks in real time.

Elizabeth Lipke, George E. & Dorothy Stafford Uthlaut Endowed Professor in Chemical Engineering and Yuan Tian, Postdoctoral Researcher at Auburn, are co-founders of VivoSpheres, which has created a precise, cost-effective test bed for high-throughput and pre-clinical evaluation of critical cancer therapy candidates.

You Just Might be an Entrepreneur

So, how do you know if you might have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

Adam Ficken has a way of helping students find out.

Ficken, who first graduated from Auburn in May of 2003, came back in the fall of 2009 and completed two master’s degrees – one in Industrial Systems Engineering and an MBA in December of 2011 – and he’s now back at Auburn to complete his Ph.D. this summer. “So, here I am back at Auburn for the third time in my adult life as a student, a full-time student. Why am I telling you this?” he asked the students in attendance.

“First off, a lot of what I’m about to share with you comes from a place where that guy right up there on the screen back in 2003 had a whole lot of ambition, but he really didn’t know what to do with it,” says Ficken. “He didn’t have the resources available to him that exist here at Auburn today.”

“Number one, you should know the student experience right here today at Auburn has never been better ever in terms of the facilities, in terms of the programs that are offered to you, the phenomenal expertise. It is literally incredible. So, listen up – take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that is in place today here at Auburn that I wish I had back in 2003.”

“And so, I’m going to try and share with you what I wish someone had shared with me at that point in time. Is anybody in here close to graduation in May?” asked Ficken. “I’m speaking to you here. If you’re an undergrad and you’re thinking, what am I going to do the rest of my life? Start with Tiger Cage, have your sights set on the Alabama Launchpad somewhere down the road,” urged Ficken. “Don’t leave here empty handed today. Talk to us. Make sure you walk away with something that you can apply to your life.”

Do You Have What it Takes?

“So, do you have what it takes? Let me ask you a few questions:”

Do you dream of being a CEO, of being the person in charge, the one that’s able to put their mark on the world by leveraging their inspiration into building an organization and helping guide it?