UR students launch food startup — for school credit and profit

Lindsay Batten never thought she’d become a CEO before leaving college, but the University of Richmond senior is beginning her final semester as head of a brand-new startup. The company — which will produce a newly conceived pesto Caesar salad dressing called Envee — is the result of a marketing class focused on entrepreneurship, Bench Top Innovations.

The yearlong program, originated in the 2021-22 school year, divides the class of 16 into four teams, each of which is tasked with creating a new food product in a particular category. They have around six weeks to create the product prototype and brand, then compete in a Shark Tank-style event called “The Great Bake Off” each November. The winning team’s product becomes the class project for the rest of the school year, during which the students found a company to produce, market and sell it in stores around Richmond and beyond.

“We are tasked with making this our own and pushing it as far as we want,” says Batten. “This allows us to truly take ownership of the product. It gives us a lot of freedom to be creative, innovate and work together to create something that doesn’t currently exist.”

The resulting company is entirely run by the students, who have the option to continue managing it post-graduation without ties to the university. Two students from the inaugural class did so with their startup, Absurd Snacks, which developed a nut-free trail mix featuring crunchy roasted beans. The trail mix is now sold in all Whole Foods stores in the mid-Atlantic region and in Kroger and Publix stores throughout Virginia.

Students who have gone through this one-of-a-kind program gain confidence and are better equipped to handle the imperfect information and uncertainty inherent to the process of pursuing a career of any kind, including entrepreneurship.

“Students feel far more prepared to be bold and to take risks,” says Joel Mier, a marketing lecturer at UR’s Robins School of Business who co-founded Bench Top Innovations and teaches it with Executive-in-Residence Shane Emmett. “They have the confidence to be able to do so, and that to me is amazing.”

The Richmond community takes great pride in the students’ accomplishments, with local stores eager to work with them to bring their products to shelves.

“This gives me goosebumps,” says Mier. “It’s amazing watching what these kids can do when you remove barriers.”