With backing from industry leaders and hands-on mentorship funded by the Clif Foundation, two agricultural business seniors turn a classroom idea into a growing dessert brand.

Agricultural business seniors Alex Pope and Josh Van Tassel really love cheesecake. So, when an agricultural entrepreneurship class their junior year challenged them to create a product for “impulsive indulgers,” the answer came decisively and deliciously: cheesecake.

To find a competitive edge, the duo decided to challenge themselves to take the product one step further by creating a frozen cheesecake snack that tasted indulgent but used only whole ingredients and had fewer calories than traditional recipes. “We wanted to create something that we would enjoy working on that would resonate with the healthy mindset we have for our own lives,” Van Tassel said. “Who doesn’t love to indulge at the end of a long day — and why not do it without the guilt?”

The product caught the eye of Jarett Margolis, director of business development at the California Milk Advisory Board, who judged the class's marketing pitches. The following summer, Van Tassel interned with Margolis and, under his mentorship, continued developing the product. That work led to the launch of Nibble, a company co-founded by Pope and Van Tassel that sells bite-sized desserts made with whole ingredients.

That entrepreneurial spirit is one that Agribusiness Assistant Professor Lucy McGowan hopes to foster among even more students in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. McGowan is serving in a three-year fellowship funded by the Clif Family Foundation focused on building a pipeline between the college’s students and Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “This fellowship gives us the opportunity to support students in ways that traditional in-the-classroom learning doesn’t always allow,” McGowan said. “Many of our students are industrious and this program creates space to mentor them and connect them with resources they need to turn their ideas into a reality.”

McGowan recently encouraged Pope and Van Tassel, as well as three other student teams from the college, to attend a Builder Bootcamp hosted by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The Bootcamp provides students with hands-on support as they develop both physical and digital prototypes stemming from senior projects, research, classes or student clubs. Open to individuals and teams, the program offers an immersive environment where participants receive mentorship, early-stage coaching and funding to accelerate their ideas.

Van Tassel had pitched the Nibble idea at the Center for Innovation’s Elevator Pitch Competition in the fall, ranking as a finalist. “It was the first time I was exposed to multiple student start-ups,” Van Tassel said. “I’ve always considered myself an entrepreneur in some way and that was the first time I felt like I had found my people.”

That connection is what excites McGowan about the fellowship. “Much of my focus is on small- to medium-sized businesses,” she said. “I work with students who are interested in building lifestyle businesses so that they can go create the life they want. I enjoy having an impact on that.”

Today, Pope and Van Tassel are selling their bite-sized delicacies throughout the Central Coast and focusing on a plan to be able to ship them statewide. “We have had so much support along the way to create the base of our company and now it is up to us to take the idea and turn it into a legitimate business. We’re ready for it,” Van Tassel said.