After working in the restaurant business, Tanner Agar decided it was time to use his restaurant knowledge and launch his own business, The Chef Shelf. As an undergraduate student with an entrepreneurial mindset, he is hoping to build a community between chefs and restaurants using his website.

The website, www.thechefshelf.com, helps chefs market their products, teach food culture, explain trends in food and provide health information, Agar, junior entrepreneurial management major, said.

“[The site is] trying to build a community and give people information,” Agar said. “We are about building up chefs and restaurants more than we are about making money on cans of soup.”

The website carries products from Bonnel’s Restaurant, Waters, Reata Restaurant, Sevy’s Grill in Dallas, Chef Dean Fearing from the Ritz Carlton in Dallas and Perini Ranch.

Agar said starting a business, as an undergraduate student, can be nerve-wracking.

“I’ve never started a company before. I’m not a lawyer. I’m not an accountant. I don’t have any money,” he said. “There are a lot of resources I need in this company, and I just don’t have them.”

However, Agar is combating those nerves by partnering with people in the entrepreneurship center and using the TCU’s CEO (Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization) resources, he said.

TCU CEO helps students who want to be entrepreneurs. The club is an extracurricular activity, which give students a taste of entrepreneurship, Brad Hancock, director of TCU’s entrepreneurship center, said.

“[CEO] surrounds me with other students who are passionate about starting companies and finding opportunities,” Agar said.

The organization holds events every year including dinners with entrepreneurs, distinguished speaker programs, a national conference in Chicago, a road trip to Austin, business plan competitions, mentor programs and elevator pitch competitions.

At the National CEO conference in Chicago last week, TCU’s CEO chapter was named, “Best in the Nation.”

Agar, using his chef shelf business, won the TCU Elevator Pitch competition earlier this semester. He placed third in the National Elevator Pitch competition in Chicago.

An elevator pitch, Agar said, refers to the necessity for a person to be able to pitch a business idea to a CEO of a company or an interested person in a very short about of time.

“So you’re riding the elevator up and the CEO takes the same one and hits the 20th floor. It’s going to take 90 seconds for him to get up the elevator. You have him for 90 seconds,” Agar said. “Can you convince him why your idea is great, and you’re the person to do it?”

“It’s challenging to come up with in 90 seconds,” Agar said.

Hancock said entrepreneurship isn’t just a part of the business school but a way of thinking, a way of acting that is impacting a variety of majors throughout the TCU campus.

Drop shades is one example of a TCU business success. Three students from different majors came together to create party glasses that light up in unison with music.

“These three students took their different skills sets, engineering, business and liberal arts, and they started this idea. It’s the largest kick-starter campaign in Fort Worth,” Hancock said. “Part of the reason is, we truly believe that an entrepreneurial mindset can benefit every student, no matter their major.”

Entrepreneurship is one of the most important skills business [schools] can teach, Agar said.

“Unlike any other time in history, I think we have people who are uniquely positioned to not only see the world and say this could be done better or I can change the world this way, but they’ve also got access to resources to make it possible,” Agar said.
 

Nationwide, entrepreneurship is something many younger people are pursuing. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, about 400,000 students take college classes on entrepreneurship each year.

With those numbers, universities are investing more in entrepreneurship programs. Hancock said students are being inspired to be entrepreneurs. He said he hopes to see entrepreneurship expand across campus in the next 10 years.

“It will be easier than ever for them to have that entrepreneurial experience in whatever major they are doing,” Hancock said. “Students will look for ways to make the world a better place through either starting their own business or going to work for their non-profits, churches, government…. [by] having a values-based orientation as part of the entrepreneurial thinking.”

The CEO club is open to all majors at TCU. To join, go to the CEO website and sign up. The dues are $50 an academic year, which allows students to attend all CEO events.