Karbowski and Patry started their first business, Rollin’ n Bowlin’, out of Karbowski’s kitchen. Courtesy of Sophia Karbowski and Austin Patry

Sophia Karbowski ’17 and Austin Patry ’17, business partners since their senior year at TCU, were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in 2025. Their company, Realsy — a line of nut butter-stuffed dates — was the first product of its kind, with revenue jumping from $1.7 million in 2024 to $7 million in 2025.

Karbowski and Patry met in a class at TCU and bonded over a shared love of healthful foods. As seniors, they started Rollin’ n Bowlin’, an acai bowl business, out of Karbowski’s kitchen.

When they mentioned the project to Lin Nelson, then a lecturer in the Neeley School of Business who taught their entrepreneurship class, she gave them a $100 bill from her own wallet and sent them home to make acai bowls for the class, which they served while pitching their business idea. Nelson allowed them to continue working on the business during class time, provided they stopped by to give a weekly update.

After a short stint operating a food truck, Karbowski and Patry opened Rollin’ n Bowlin’ cafes in brick-and-mortar locations at 10 college campuses, including in the University Recreation Center at TCU. During the pandemic, as some of the stores temporarily closed, they launched a line of frozen fruit blends so customers could make acai bowls at home.

“That was pivotal for us, because that was when we realized we really enjoyed that CPG space — consumer packaged goods,” Karbowski said. Patry added, “We were having a lot of fun, but realized frozen is really challenging, and we also wanted to have something … we could take on the go.”

Patry and Karbowski’s business partnership began at the Neeley School of Business, where a professor handed them $100 and told them to start cooking. Courtesy of Sophia Karbowski and Austin Patry

Inspired by the social media trend of making dates filled with nut butter and determined to create a version they could package, they tested their recipes on family before launching Realsy in October 2022. The business partners developed their own supply chain, with the snacks produced and packaged at a family-run date farm in Sonora, Mexico. Made with organic Medjool dates, Realsy snacks are filled with almond butter, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter or strawberry peanut butter.

Karbowski described Realsy as resembling a Snickers bar in flavor: “Dates are known as nature’s candy.”