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Innovation in Action: Empowering West Texas Entrepreneurs with Taysha Williams · Conservation Stories

• 0:16
  Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Conservation Stories. This is a podcast that is sponsored by the Sandhills Area Research Association. Sara, as we call it, which is less of a mouthful. And I'm your host, Tillery Timmins Sims. Today we have with us Taisha Williams from the Innovation Hub at Texas Tech. Taisha, thanks for being here.
• 0:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 0:38
  Speaker A: So excited to have you here and to introduce people that do not know about the Hub and you. It's a great place. So give us a little bit about background on you and all right, so.
• 0:49
  Speaker B: On me, let's see. So I'm from Central Texas.
• 0:52
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 0:52
  Speaker B: Grew up, was an army brat.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Right.
• 0:54
  Speaker B: So. But we landed in Fort Hood, Clean Texas. So grew up and was raised there. Went to school undergrad at University of North Texas in Denton. Really focused on. So I did sociology there and then nonprofit management. So my heart was in nonprofit organizations. So right out of college, started working, worked about 15 years in nonprofit, and then good old agriculture brought us here because my husband is in agriculture, so he currently works for Bayer Crop Science.
• 1:24
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:25
  Speaker B: So great place to be. Lubbock for all things ag.
• 1:29
  Speaker A: Absolutely.
• 1:29
  Speaker B: So I followed him here and then was blessed to move onto Texas Tech. And so when I first got the job at the Innovation Hub, which is entrepreneurship, was wondering, well, how do I fit nonprofit skills to entrepreneurship? Come to find out, it goes hand in hand. So full circle and maybe we'll get to that later. Kind of what I'm doing now.
• 1:52
  Speaker A: But.
• 1:53
  Speaker B: But working with entrepreneurs is what we do at the Innovation Hub. Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker A: And I know about the Innovation Hub because I have a friend that helped kind of establish all that Sabbath, which people may be familiar with. She's now. Oh, my goodness. She's one. One of those alumni, tech alumni, astounding alumni awards. And she's just a movie star. Oh, yeah, absolutely. She's just amazing and has done a lot of work in startup, helping people with startups. And we are excited to have you because I want people to. We want to help foster that because we need. We need that, you know? Right. I mean, like, we need in our small towns, we need to be fostering that sense of, like, what else can we do?
• 2:35
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 2:35
  Speaker A: You know, how can we diversify our economy as we're running out of water? How can farmers diversify on their farm? And so I'm glad that you're here and excited. I also, one of my closest and dearest friends, Sarah Burnett, has been through the Hub.
• 2:51
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 2:52
  Speaker A: And remember that conversation the day that we. We came up there and looked at her. Her product that she is now in the middle of getting her the phase two.
• 3:04
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 3:04
  Speaker A: Grant, which is. It was a very, very difficult grant to get. And she got the first phase of that and now is moving into phase two, which is super exciting that she's getting to really expand the, you know, looking at the production of. Of that product. So, yeah.
• 3:19
  Speaker B: I'll never forget the day she walked in, she had her innovation in her hand and she's like, you know, my business is fine, but I've created this thing. And I said, that's what we do here. We're gonna make that and go into the market. And she was like, oh. I said, so you're an. You're an innovator. You know that, right? Like you've. You're an innovator, an entrepreneur. And she's like, oh, okay. So we did it. So we awarded her some money.
• 3:42
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 3:43
  Speaker B: Spent the year mentoring her through that. And she's incredible. Sharing her story yesterday in our office.
• 3:49
  Speaker A: Yes. Yes. I. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty exciting that she was there at the. That 1 million million caps. Yeah. Talking about that. So tell us is. Okay, the hub is. Is on the campus. It's. It's like 14 Fourth street, like close to roses for people that are here.
• 4:06
  Speaker B: Yeah. I always explain it. It's on the plot of land in between Sonic and Rosas.
• 4:11
  Speaker A: There you go.
• 4:12
  Speaker B: The Health Sciences Center.
• 4:13
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 4:13
  Speaker B: So right there between Texas Tech Parkway and Quaker.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 4:16
  Speaker B: Plot of land for a reason, because that is going to be Research Park. So we are the innovation hub at Research Park. So one of these days we'll have a full growing ecosystem out there with, you know, different buildings and.
• 4:29
  Speaker A: Really? I didn't know. That's awesome. So that's the idea.
• 4:32
  Speaker B: That's the plan. Yeah, that's the plan. Innovation Hub is the first building and it's been there for, let's see, I've been there eight years.
• 4:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 4:40
  Speaker B: So I was one of the first program directors there. And so I've seen it grow from the very first program that we've had until now. So we've launched 45 startups through our accelerator program there. But the whole concept around it, and it's supported by Texas Tech University, of course, and then the Lubbock Economic Development alliance could not do this without their support in market Lubbock. And our charge is to create jobs and grow the economy. And we do that through entrepreneurship and innovation. So not only do we work with students, faculty, research from the university to commercialize it take it off the bench into the market. But we also work with community entrepreneurs in the sense that we're wanting to create new things. So innovation, we want that best new idea, whatever they're developing, we want to help them through the process. We do that in so many different ways from ideation. So we've got programs where you can come in and just share your best idea. We've got T shirts and music and a party like atmosphere to think about entrepreneurship in a fun way and just develop your ideas, ideas and be creative. And then we've got programs with real seed funding to develop, you know, prototypes to actually take. Okay, now I have an idea. Let's build something around it. And then we've got our accelerator program which is seed funding and mentorship. It's a year long program. We're in Cohort 8, getting ready to graduate. Cohort 8, there's 13 teams now, companies, right. That's exciting to say. They've moved in this year from teams to companies that will be graduating in April. And then we'll bring on Cohort 9.
• 6:11
  Speaker A: So those. Okay, so let's start with the first, the first program that you mentioned. So let's talk a little bit, like expand on each one of those things because I was there not last week, but the week before and set in on one of your programs and was I. I mean I actually just this morning used information I learned. There you go.
• 6:33
  Speaker B: All right.
• 6:33
  Speaker A: When I was getting coffee today.
• 6:34
  Speaker B: Perfect. Yeah. So we'll start with ideation. So in ideation we've got about, I would say five or six programs. And these are just early stage ideas. You could off the street and say, hey, got this big idea. It's funny because when people know where I, I live, they find me on the street and it's like, hey, can I tell you about my idea? Church, school, all the things or me.
• 6:55
  Speaker A: Who calls and says, hey, good idea.
• 6:57
  Speaker B: Exactly. I got the next big idea. I'm like, yes, you do. Let's work on it. And so it's just a fun way to one, bring people together of all disciplines. So one, in about two weeks we have Red Raider Startup. We are hoping to have anywhere between 100, 200 people from the community, students, high school students, come together, throw ideas out, form teams around it and just work together with strangers to build and be creative. It's, it's so fun. I mean there's everywhere they're writing on the, the whiteboards everywhere. It's fun. We throw food at them, of course. Right? Yeah, yeah, food T shirts, music, make it just a really cool vibe for creativity.
• 7:35
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that, I mean that really, I mean it. It encourages people, like, hey, this is valuable, this kind of thinking. And also when you're in a group like that, I mean, like, one good idea just kind of like, creates.
• 7:47
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 7:48
  Speaker A: I don't know, there's something about, you know, if you haven't done something creative in a long time, it's like, really hard to get going. And then once you get going, it's like more of it keeps coming and coming and coming.
• 7:57
  Speaker B: Yeah. And the biggest thing we see is people that have been working on something for so long, they. They fall in love with it and they can't sometimes see the other perspectives. And so these ideation programs put people on your team just for that weekend. Right. Unless you want to bring them on for good, which has happened before. People have built real companies with people they've met that weekend, which is awesome. But you get perspective from maybe a math student, from an engineer, from a high school student, and it just broadens your. Your thinking around what you've been working on. The good, the bad, the ugly. And so you get to take that and move forward.
• 8:33
  Speaker A: Right, right. Because it is so true. Because you do have confirmation bias. And it's like, yes. You only want to hear what you want to hear.
• 8:39
  Speaker B: We call it your baby. Your baby's ugly. It's your B baby. Somebody's gotta tell you it's not that cute.
• 8:46
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 8:46
  Speaker B: You know we love you, but. Yeah. Got some work to do.
• 8:48
  Speaker A: I know I had a friend who used to say. She would just say, oh, what a baby.
• 8:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Somebody's got to be. Somebody's got to tell you the truth.
• 8:57
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 8:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. And then the second stage. So that's my favorite stage. It's like a large funnel. We always talk about the entrepreneurial funnel at the Innovation Hub. The first stage is large. Everybody walks in, they come in excited, work together, and then it starts narrowing in. It's like, okay, whose idea are we going to move forward? Who wants to try this? Is it viable? And so the second stage is commercialization. And that's the program you saw. That's where we're really teaching these teams to fall in love with the problem that you're trying to solve. If you don't have a problem that people care about, they're not going to care about your product. You're not going to get it to the market. You got to find a product market fit. So that middle of the stage is our commercialization programs. We do that with the National Science Foundation I Corps program all around customer discovery. So we teach them how to go talk to potential customers about the problem, not the solution. And we try to get them thinking, you know, outside the box, where they fit in the marketplace. The best part about this is recently we've gotten a partnership, a big partnership with what's called the West Hub. And so that is a consortium of. Of universities in the West. So we are probably the far, far west, but we fit in. So Colorado, ucla, uc, Santa Barbara, usc, all of those. So we are in a consortium where we share grant funding to support this program. It's huge for Texas Tech. So that's happened in the last year.
• 10:25
  Speaker A: Wow, that's exciting. That's exciting.
• 10:28
  Speaker B: And then once they go through, they validate, so you got ideation validation. Then the funnel gets even smaller and we start spitting out startup teams, which can turn into companies. So once you get to that accelerator phase, you get $40,000. It's really great.
• 10:43
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 10:43
  Speaker B: A team of industry mentors. We have 72 mentors right now.
• 10:47
  Speaker A: That is what's so cool right there.
• 10:48
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And that's. That's the cornerstone of everything that we do. Even in ideation, they'll. They'll work and have office hours with them and.
• 10:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, because this is like patent attorneys and I mean, and business people, people that have been in business for years or people that have been in venture capital. I mean, like, it's all kinds of people that you met. Accountants. I mean, people need to really be looking at you to help. Help actually make it successful. Because I know that small businesses don't have a great track record. Isn't like a lot of them don't survive, you know, And I know it's. I know just from my own experience. It's like you just like throwing something against the wall until something sticks. You can't really. A lot of people can't afford to do that.
• 11:29
  Speaker B: Right.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: And that's just like, not. You're really just helping people narrow their. Their focus.
• 11:33
  Speaker B: Exactly. And it's amazing to me because. Or it's amazing for me because as the director of the Hub, I can't have knowledge in all of those areas. I just don't, you know, I don't understand the research a certain way, or I might not. I'm not a patent attorney. So that's my. Those are my champions. Those are. That's my team, 72 of them. And we keep adding different expertise. And so in a year's time, you get, you know, not only Seed funding. But we set up milestones for you. So if you don't know what to do, we're gonna show you and walk you through. And you got a team of mentors that you can just confide in. And we start every mentor meeting with what keeps you up at night. And they get to just share, you know, I'm worried about this or partnership issue or I need more money or whatever it is. And the mentors use their connections and their expertise to get them through that.
• 12:19
  Speaker A: Wow. That. And that's, I mean, that's so valuable. It really is.
• 12:23
  Speaker B: I think it's more valuable than the $40,000.
• 12:26
  Speaker A: I know. I think it is too. Because that's the thing that's going to make it last.
• 12:29
  Speaker B: Sure. Yep.
• 12:30
  Speaker A: Is that kind of, you know, people being willing to give that kind of advice?
• 12:36
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:37
  Speaker A: Wow. So what are the kinds of companies? What I mean, are they all the same thing or are they all in all different?
• 12:45
  Speaker B: Which is even more fun and challenging at the same time. Right. So we've got, in the 13, we've got some that are faculty led teams. So straight from the lab.
• 12:53
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 12:53
  Speaker B: Commercializing. We've got some that are from the community that just, you know, we're working on different agriculture. We've got health care.
• 13:02
  Speaker A: Oh, wow.
• 13:03
  Speaker B: You know, we've got healthcare devices, we've got therapeutics. Last year we had one that was from. She was a student, she's now graduated, but that was doing cell phone design cases. And so I was like, well, that's, that's not so innovative. Right. But she came to us and she's like, hey, I, I like started posting on TikTok. I got kind of TikTok famous. Right. And, and now orders are coming in and I don't know how to sustain this. So we're like, you know what, let's. You need help. Right. So we put a team of mentors together, we got her going and she's just, she's killing it. So.
• 13:38
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 13:38
  Speaker B: Could be anything. But we really want to folks separate ourselves from the small business, restaurant or plumbing business or like that.
• 13:48
  Speaker A: It's something that's new and innovative. Right, right. Right. Because you and I met a couple weeks ago to talk about a couple of different ideas. I have one, which is something that people are doing in other places but no one's doing here.
• 13:58
  Speaker B: Right.
• 13:58
  Speaker A: And then the other is something that no one's doing. Yes, Right.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: And that takes a different mindset because you've got to go figure out one if it's going to work. You Got to build it, you got to test it.
• 14:08
  Speaker A: Right.
• 14:09
  Speaker B: And then you've got to put it out in the market, find a product market fit. So there's a place for both innovative startups and small businesses. It's just. And business concepts are the same.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: Right.
• 14:19
  Speaker B: But when you're talking about an innovation, it's new and you got a lot, you got a lot of.
• 14:24
  Speaker A: Do you have any, do you have any data to share as far as, like, okay, we have created X amount of companies, you said while ago. What did you say? How many?
• 14:34
  Speaker B: 45. 45. That's launched from our accelerator. We're going to bring in 12 new ones. So. And then collectively we also have. Speaking of data, so I'll spit this out, but it's for the large, the large innovation of population. So we've got minute members and tenants, and so tenants can have office space, lab space, and so we also count, count those metrics because they're utilizing resources and mentorship and then members can come in and our space, co working space, all of that. So the metrics that I'll spit out here in a second are collectively, through the startup companies, our members and our tenants. And so collectively, since 2017, have launched 591 jobs. And that's huge for us there.
• 15:16
  Speaker A: There you go. That was the number I was wondering about.
• 15:18
  Speaker B: It is huge for us because that is exactly what we're trying to do.
• 15:21
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 15:22
  Speaker B: They've also raised $89.2 million in capital. So being in West Texas, it's hard to find investment capital. Right. We're not Dallas Austin.
• 15:33
  Speaker A: Right.
• 15:33
  Speaker B: But we have just the same amount of innovation going on. Right. We've got some really incredible things. So for them to find that capital is challenging, but I think that's a big number to be proud of.
• 15:44
  Speaker A: Yeah, it is. So do you. Are there opportunities for them outside of our area to look for that funding?
• 15:52
  Speaker B: Sure. So there's, you know, part of my job is build relationships with those venture capitalists, angel investors from all over. So we have a lot of different ways that we could try to bring them in for demo days and host them and just really showcase what they're doing. And so I work a lot with them over the year to get ready for investment. And then once they graduate from our program, we try to send them to other accelerators across the country, get them in front of venture capitalists. I mean, I get calls all the time. It's like, who's in your portfolio? So I'm always ready to spit that out and share what I can with them.
• 16:25
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:26
  Speaker B: So, you know, it's. It's hard. Raising money is really, really hard. And that's, I think, for me, watching them is probably the hardest part of it. Right. And then become sustainable.
• 16:37
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:37
  Speaker B: Find that customer base and. And keep building it.
• 16:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:40
  Speaker B: But one thing is, you know, another challenge is keeping good talent here. Right. We want to grow them. We want to utilize our resources and our mentorship, and we want to work and especially with, you know, Lita, economic development. We want to build jobs here in West Texas. We don't want these students to come out and then go to Dallas and have a lot.
• 17:00
  Speaker A: We're really brain drain.
• 17:02
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 17:02
  Speaker A: Brain drain.
• 17:03
  Speaker B: We don't want that. And they're incredible companies, and they're building. Building new jobs and growing the economy, but we need to keep them here. And so we do that by making sure that they have connections here, they can get customers here, they work with corporations here. So a lot of my job is industry connections and partnerships.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, I didn't. I was not aware of that. That's really great, because, I mean, I'm. And, you know, you and I have discussed, you know, in the past, how do we connect our little rural communities that are so vital to the economy of Lubbock, you know, but they're hurting badly, you know, and how do we help them, you know, innovate in their own communities and keep their students there?
• 17:45
  Speaker B: And, you know, I know, and we talked a while ago, and I think it's something we still need to work on. Right. But getting. Doing a little, you know, world tour. Right.
• 17:55
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 17:55
  Speaker B: Showing what. What innovation thinking is. Because I talk to my husband all the time and about this. You know, he works with farmers all the time, and he's been in different agriculture jobs, and he's actually been on the farm and been in a vineyard and all these things, and he's like, man, every day is like, I have an idea, because something's not working. So imagine how many farmers have these ideas.
• 18:16
  Speaker A: Right.
• 18:17
  Speaker B: But they're just trying. They're trying to make a living. How are they gonna develop it so we. We can partner and show them. Hey, we've got these smart students that can do it for you.
• 18:25
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 18:25
  Speaker B: Let's partner.
• 18:26
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 18:27
  Speaker B: And let's get these innovations to life that are changing the way that we do.
• 18:31
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 18:32
  Speaker B: Farming and business.
• 18:33
  Speaker A: Yes. I mean, and I think that would be a fabulous project for us to, like, follow up on, like, you know, because those students are out there. They're. They're Those you know, FFA or 4H, that senior project, you know, and they can come in and learn, you know, how to do this, and then do it on with the farmer. On behalf of the farmer, Today's episode is brought to you by Evan Stone with Clear Rock Farm and Ranch, part of the Clear Rock Realty Group in Lubbock, Texas. Evan understands West Texas land, agriculture and what it takes to buy and sell farms and ranches in our unique region. If you're ready to make your next move, trust someone who knows the lay of the land. Visit Evan at clearrockrealty.com serving Lubbock and the surrounding communities. Clear Rock Farms and Ranch, your partner on the planes.
• 19:37
  Speaker B: Yeah. And it's amazing how many students I meet that just in a normal conversation is like, oh, yeah, I built an app last night, or oh, yeah, I. I built a. A robot that does. And I'm like, what, What. What did you do last night? But they're just doing it for fun. But you put them for good, you know, put them with them. Not only does it help. Right. Our farmers doing that, or whoever is. Is wanting to do that, but it keeps our students here because they're connected now.
• 20:01
  Speaker A: Right.
• 20:01
  Speaker B: We had a guest speaker not too long ago last year, and he came and he was talking to the community about how do we foster this talent out of Texas Tech and keep them here. And he said, it's the power of seven. He's like, they need seven customers or seven partnerships to keep. To really establish. Like, the reason is. Is because once you have seven employees or seven customers, you're. You're starting to churn out this, you know, this business that has to stay here, especially employees. You have seven employees. They start having families that go to school here. They start establishing a church community. They start and then that they build their lives here. It's hard to move.
• 20:41
  Speaker A: Right.
• 20:41
  Speaker B: So seven customers, seven employees. And so we just charged our audience. Hey, let's. Let's support them on that.
• 20:48
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 20:49
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's.
• 20:50
  Speaker A: And that's something that, as a community that we can do.
• 20:52
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 20:53
  Speaker A: Be one of those seven.
• 20:54
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 20:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. So. So how do someone that doesn't. I mean, that somebody wants to know what are the innovations that are coming out of there? I know one of the first one was Braxley bands.
• 21:06
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
• 21:06
  Speaker A: And that was really fun to see that.
• 21:08
  Speaker B: So I'll share a quick story about that. So we were talking about Red Raider startup.
• 21:12
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 21:12
  Speaker B: And so that was in 2016 that they did. It was my very first Red Raider startup. I barely knew What I was doing, right? And so we come and we have all these students come, and the first hour is we say, okay, pitch your ideas.
• 21:24
  Speaker A: Right?
• 21:25
  Speaker B: These are two. Two students from Rawls College of Business. They both pitched the same type of idea. They looked at each other across the room was like, hold on a second. Let's do this together. They get together and they want to build a flexible or make flexible Apple watch bands. Well, in 2016, Apple was just. They had the harder. Yeah, the harder bands. Now they're all over, right? But like, okay, let's do this. Well, so they got together that weekend, built a team, did all of that stuff. The next Monday, they come to my office, like, okay, we're ready to really do this. They have their grandma's sewing machine and a sewing book. Sewing for dummies. I was like, oh, this is awesome. So we put them up in the co working space, and they just get after it. And they're. I think they're sewing. The old sewing machine is still. Still there somewhere. But it was classic. And I mean, they were just. I mean, it was a mess, which I loved. It was just stuff everywhere. They were building these one by one. And then I remember him coming down and saying, hey, we built a website and somebody from Ohio bought. Bought one. And it wasn't my grandma or my mom.
• 22:22
  Speaker A: Yes, Right, right, right.
• 22:24
  Speaker B: That's a real customer way to go. And then here they go. They're churning them out. They went to different stores here.
• 22:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, I've got one back there. Yeah, yeah, back in the day.
• 22:35
  Speaker B: And then they were. Yeah, they were just churning them out one by one by one. And they realized, okay, this is really. So now they're so big that they don't have to be in stores. It's all E commerce. They've. They've worked with Mark Cuban. They've. I mean, anytime I see them, they're like, on the beach somewhere. I'm like, what a life they live, Right? They have figured this out. So over an Apple watch band. Like, it's just. It's crazy. And then you've got some that are working on. You know, there's one that came out. He's medical residency right now at the Health Sciences center, but he came to us and he's like, you know, my cousin is in a wheelchair and he is getting pressure ulcers because he has to sit there all the time. And there you have to. The only way to really solve that is every like, 20 seconds almost, you need to kind of lift up or shift. And who's doing that all day long. Right. And who's going to remember to do that all day long? And getting pressure ulcers can lead to death, right? Yes. Infections, all of the things. So he's like, there has to be a better way. And so he came through our program and he created Hyper Innovations. And he originally it was, you know, kind of a timer where it was like, okay, beep, get up, get up. And he's like, well, that's still not it. Right. So we iterated some things. And so he ended the. The program with what's called the feather. And it's a little a pad or, you know, massaging type technique that hits those spots all day that, that are prone to those. And so he went on to get investment. He actually went on to get the junior, I think, a future Texas Business hall of Fame. And so we're actually recruiting for that right now. And so I was thinking about him this morning. I was like, man, that guy is just amazing. And then he comes back and speaks to our startups.
• 24:15
  Speaker A: Oh, wow.
• 24:16
  Speaker B: So just things like that and all of these innovations, there is some reason why they're doing it.
• 24:20
  Speaker A: Right.
• 24:21
  Speaker B: He had a cousin, there was somebody that was. That went on a ski trip in college. She's still a student here, but they went on a ski trip and somebody got hurt and had a brain injury. And so she started looking at the helmets and she was like this, why do they. Why do not have better helmets? And how do we know if the helmet is bad? How do we trust it? And so she's making an indication, like, you know, indication where if it's this color, it's time to be replaced. There is nothing like that. So she's got several paths where she's trying to figure out, do I make these helmets myself, do I make the device, or do I sell my technology to a helmet company right now or whatever, you know, Right.
• 24:59
  Speaker A: It's like, right, right, right.
• 25:00
  Speaker B: And so those are all the decisions we help them make. Path A, path B.
• 25:04
  Speaker A: Right.
• 25:05
  Speaker B: But it's very rare that somebody comes just because they had a random idea. There is some emotion to it. There is some story behind it. And that was. That's what makes a good entrepreneur.
• 25:15
  Speaker A: It's because it's people that they. They identify problems.
• 25:19
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 25:20
  Speaker A: You know, and I think to me, that's the. That's the heart of what an entrepreneur is, is that my mom was always that way. Like, she's always been like, there's got to be a better way to do everything we did. There's got to be, you know what I mean? Like, she knew there had to be some kind of better way to do it, you know, better system or whatever, you know, and that kind of spirit is what propels.
• 25:42
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 25:43
  Speaker A: People want to. They don't want to just see. They don't want to just see problems. They want to find solutions.
• 25:47
  Speaker B: Yes. And. And so it kind of goes full circle. Like I was telling you that my nonprofit. So I want to bring back to that because I think about it every day. I'm like, wow, that was a really cool evolution in my career, because I spent 15 years in nonprofit. Nonprofit is supporting social issues, helping people in the community. Entrepreneurship is that same thing. Right. And there's something called social entrepreneurship. It is creating products and services that give back, that serve, that make a social impact, not just a commercial impact. And so we started a social entrepreneurship program a couple years ago, and there are several of them that are going through the program the same way, but we're thinking about it a little bit differently. And so I'm actually now in my first semester of teaching social entrepreneurship at the Honors College, so I get to share my love of nonprofit and entrepreneurship together. And so my class right now is looking at the world, and the United nations have put out 17 goals by 2030. We want to solve poverty, hunger, all of these things, inequalities. So we're going through all 17 of them, and they're charged to create a social venture around it. So yesterday in class, we had to go through entrepreneurial thinking, that same thing. You're like, how do you get started? It's a. You're solving a problem. You want to do that, but how do you do that? And so they just went through several exercises on how to. How to do that. And they're just looking at me like, well, how do we solve poverty with an entrepreneur venture? It's like, well, you're not going to solve the whole thing, but you're going to solve something. Right. And so that's the same thing with entrepreneurship. Whether it's a product or something, it comes from a need or a passion. So it's really fun to watch that full circle. And social entrepreneurship is such a. It's unique, but. But I also think the entrepreneurial mindset can go whether you're doing social issues, whether you're even in business right now. Small businesses should think like an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur thinking.
• 27:42
  Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: And I mean, in nonprofits should think like that.
• 27:45
  Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. You know, one of the. One of the things that we've have been doing over the last is we've been going for about a year. We, you know, as a nonprofit, you, you generally raise funds. And we are like, that is like not in our mission. Our mission does not anywhere say we will spend half of our time raising funds. So what can we do to be sustainable? And you, we worked with Texan by nature, who has a really great. They don't, they don't really have fundraising events, you know, of course they have this foundation board, this amazing board, you know what I mean, of all of these families, ninth generation Texans, you know, but generally they're like, well, we do a project and then, you know, we add our cost of running it, you know. And so what we've been doing is say, okay, what are, what are projects that fit within our mission, that the industries that we are involved in need? How can we then put together a project and go to them and say, this will benefit you. This needs to be done. You're going to pay someone to do it. And if you pay us, you're promoting this work. You're promoting this work. And then we're going to include this little fee at the end. And that is the donation to our organization. And that keeps us, you know, being able to keep moving forward sustainable, you know, keep. Keeps us sustainable, you know, and so yeah, you're going to pay someone to manage these projects. But it could be, it could be us.
• 29:21
  Speaker B: Exactly.
• 29:22
  Speaker A: It could be us.
• 29:23
  Speaker B: Think like an entrepreneur. Always.
• 29:25
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 29:26
  Speaker B: Even tell my kids that. I'm like, think. Because they watch my work, right? And they, and they're just like, how would I solve that? I'm like, I don't know. Think, like, think like an entrepreneur. That's always my answer. I'm like, just think outside the box. Think big.
• 29:38
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I, I feel like sometimes people have looked at Lacy and I and go, what? Like, and I'm like, we have a lot of gall.
• 29:47
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 29:48
  Speaker A: I mean, we're just like not afraid to ask, you know, and not afraid to, you know, say the spicy comment. You never know, you know what I mean? Sometimes it's just the right thing, you know, and something like now one of the, one of the things we're doing, project management is with nas. And so at the beginning of March, we will be at Commodity Classic and we will be at the NASA booth.
• 30:12
  Speaker B: That's great.
• 30:13
  Speaker A: And we'll be representing their AG program. And we are just super excited. And who would have thought a year ago, you know? And then we ran a project a couple of well, back in the fall of last year and helped raise awareness with some partners about the. Our energy, lack of energy waste regulations and, you know, sensible, you know, and these are, you know, people in the ag industry that are saying. I mean, I'm sorry, in the oil industry, they're saying these regulations make us look bad because everybody thinks that this is what we're doing and we're not going to do this, you know, but it's making all of us look bad, you know, and so, you know, those are the kind of things that I feel like that Lacy and I both have that kind of mindset of, like, we see things that need to be done, let's just. Let's do them. But we can't do them without having partners to help further that work.
• 31:14
  Speaker B: Sure, yeah.
• 31:16
  Speaker A: We.
• 31:16
  Speaker B: I mean, the entrepreneurial mindset. Well, there's something also called intrapreneur. Right. Why you're in. You're working in your job, whatever it is, you could be innovative. An entrepreneur mindset. It goes in everything that you do. It's grit, it's determination, it's focus, it's creativity.
• 31:35
  Speaker A: Never heard that. Never heard that word before.
• 31:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, I might have just made it up. I don't. I don't know, but it sounds good.
• 31:40
  Speaker A: I don't know, but I like it.
• 31:42
  Speaker B: Yes. But if you think like that in every area of your life, you know, you're going to try new things and be bold. And I think.
• 31:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 31:48
  Speaker B: You know, I was talking to a group the other day because Lemonade Day is coming up.
• 31:52
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 31:53
  Speaker B: And that's something for younger. The younger generation. Right. And that's a big deal here. And watching these, these kids think like entrepreneurs, Just imagine what they're going to do at, you know, at an early age. They're not jaded by what's not going to work. They try it all.
• 32:08
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 32:09
  Speaker B: So when we work with these younger, you know, we have programs just for fun over the summer, you know, Shark Tank junior.
• 32:14
  Speaker A: Oh, how fun.
• 32:15
  Speaker B: And you watch, you teach the entrepreneur mindset. And they're thinking so big because they haven't seen things not work before. And that's. I, I told my, my class yesterday, I was like, it's like childlike faith. Right. Don't think about what won't work. Think about what could work.
• 32:31
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker B: And then work backwards, you know.
• 32:32
  Speaker A: Right.
• 32:32
  Speaker B: And they're like, oh, okay, okay. Because they were thinking, well, that would never work. So I'm not going to go down that path. I'm like, you. You don't know well.
• 32:38
  Speaker A: And you know, also too, you get to catch kids at a time to say failures as good as success. I mean, like when you're looking at a, you know, a startup, you know, something that's not going to work. No. Is as good as a yes.
• 32:50
  Speaker B: Yes. If you do it, we always say fail fast.
• 32:53
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 32:53
  Speaker B: Right.
• 32:54
  Speaker A: You want to do it quickly, do.
• 32:55
  Speaker B: It quickly, move on, learn and try something else.
• 32:58
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 32:59
  Speaker B: And so the best thing I can say about that is the entrepreneur mindset is so deep in these programs that we have the Innovation Hub teach you to be an entrepreneur. We know and our funders know, not all of them are going to come out and work.
• 33:10
  Speaker A: Right.
• 33:11
  Speaker B: Some of them haven't even made it through the program over the course of the years. Right. It's just because they're like, okay, well I'm at a stop point, not going to take your money anymore. We're going to try something different.
• 33:18
  Speaker A: Right?
• 33:19
  Speaker B: Right. Some of them have gone on for the next year and then failed because they can't find that product market fit. And that's okay. I got a call last year from one of them that went through the first cohort and he's like, you remember that? You know, you remember that company we tried to launch? You know? Yeah. That didn't work. He's like, but I've gone to create four different companies. I've worked for Google, Marvel and Microsoft in Los Angeles. He's like, I am now on my fourth company. We just closed the half a million dollar deal and I have created an endowment at Texas Tech for students to. To have this opportunity. So I want to come and speak to them. So I brought him in and talked to him and he's like, if it wasn't for that program, I wouldn't have known the steps to do.
• 34:02
  Speaker A: Right.
• 34:02
  Speaker B: And so it just. Right, you know, you just try. And so he failed fast. He learned. And then the other day, I'm flipping the channels in one of the startups that we worked with was on Shark Tank with a new idea. Like, you've got to beat that. I'm like, that's Jared Steele. What is he doing? And so I text him, I'm like, are you serious? He was like, oh yeah. I started something new. You know, I'm like, okay. Like it was no big deal. So they go on to do amazing things, whether it's the one they started with or not.
• 34:28
  Speaker A: It is.
• 34:30
  Speaker B: It's just the mindset and the connections and some of our mentors keep up with with them long term.
• 34:35
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 34:36
  Speaker B: Which is really great.
• 34:37
  Speaker A: That's amazing. So the hub also has, like, spaces where people can work, and you've got. You've got several folks that are in there. Renters, the rent space.
• 34:47
  Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Renting office space, lab space. We even have something called incubator. So it is an incubator. That's what we call the hub, because it's baby companies that grow, stay warm, and we, you know, foster them, and then when they're ready to survive on the outside, they move out. And then we. We foster new companies, but we have an incubator inside the incubator. So we have one space that is paid for by the Health Sciences center, and it's called One Health. So it's for any. Anybody working on the space for life sciences. We want to put engineers and medical students together working on projects so that we get those synergies. So we've got all kinds of things going on. But you can come in and drop in for a day, Come out. You can come in. You know, you could be from out of town and come in and need a space to work. So it's. It's all of that. But the biggest thing is the synergies. So I always take meetings, like with you the other day, outside of conference rooms, as long, as much as possible. Because people walk by and I'm like, you have to meet them. Hey, stop for a second. Can you talk to them? And yes, every single time, it's that we have coffee and popcorn and all the things to get people out of their offices, working together, and they become family, and they. They rely on each other.
• 35:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's really exciting. It's a neat place.
• 35:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. It's wonderful. It is very blessed to be there. Sometimes I'm like, what am I? These people are smarter than me. Most of them are. And they're doing incredible things. And I just sit back and watch somebody.
• 36:09
  Speaker A: Somebody has to be the cheerleader, you know, that's.
• 36:11
  Speaker B: That's my job.
• 36:12
  Speaker A: Somebody has to be the cheerleader. Yeah. And be like, keep doing it. Keep doing it.
• 36:15
  Speaker B: Keep doing what you're doing. I don't understand what you're doing, but I will help you.
• 36:18
  Speaker A: Right.
• 36:18
  Speaker B: Well, let's change the world.
• 36:19
  Speaker A: Let's keep talking about, you know, how we can expand this into how Sarah can help you, as in our nonprofit expand it into other areas. That would be absolutely fun.
• 36:30
  Speaker B: It would be amazing. There's so much we can do.
• 36:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, it sure would be. Well, tell people how they can just drop by the hub and check it out and see what it's about or where. What's the website that they can go to?
• 36:42
  Speaker B: Yeah. So just go to the Innovation Hub at TTU Edu.
• 36:45
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 36:46
  Speaker B: And you can see all of our programs from the ideation, commercialization and acceleration. We've got once a month, one million cups, first Wednesday of every month at 9am you could pop in and just hear entrepreneurs share their story. It's a good way to start. Pop in anytime we give you a tour, but we have funding available. So if you are sitting there with the next big idea, give us a call. We're looking for awesome. We're looking.
• 37:12
  Speaker A: You're recruiting right now.
• 37:13
  Speaker B: We're getting right now. And then we have guest speakers coming in. So there's a place for you no matter what stage you're in. So just come on by.
• 37:19
  Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thanks.
• 37:20
  Speaker B: Thank you. Thanks.
• 37:21
  Speaker A: Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks, friends, for joining us. And I hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity that's there. If you've got an idea, go buy the hub. We will see you again on the next episode of Conservation Stories.