Chaka Dickerson took a risk on her management skills when launching Picture This, a startup event and catering business in the Como area of Fort Worth. But she lacked the expertise for proper planning, pricing and product design.

For help, Dickerson turned to Venture Builders, an innovative cross-disciplinary initiative of TCU’s Neeley School of Business, College of Fine Arts and the Department of Computer Science.

The Venture Builders initative helped Chaka Dickerson grow her small business, Picture This. Courtesy of Caroline Fischer

“They really helped me a lot,” Dickerson said. “They showed me how to price my food — some things I was selling were under budget and some things I was spending too much on and not making a profit.”

Rodney D’Souza, the Davis Family Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Neeley and managing director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, leads the Venture Builders program. D’Souza, also a successful entrepreneur, said he knows what it’s like to struggle, doubt, face challenges, seek out mentors, get advice and finally see that idea become a moneymaking reality.

Students in his class, Special Problems in Entrepreneurship, partner with design students under instructor Jan Ballard to help local startups. The students don’t learn just about textbook challenges they might face in their careers but experience them with business owners whose livelihoods depend on success.

The program didn’t pause during the pandemic, thanks to videoconferencing, except for the participation of computer science students. Plans are for the students, under Bingyang Wei, to rejoin Venture Builders in the fall, D’Souza said.

Finding the Right Match

Through Venture Builders, launched in fall 2019, local entrepreneurs pitch to the students, who vote for the businesses they want to work with and form teams to address the businesses’ needs and challenges.

“It showed us how fast things can move in entrepreneurship and how the to-do list is sometimes never-ending.”
Emily Haag

Since the start, 52 students have participated, 18 Fort Worth businesses have made pitches and 10 of those businesses were chosen for student team projects.

D’Souza said he specifically focused on economically challenged startups, small businesses, entrepreneurs and communities in Fort Worth. “It is vital that our students embrace diversity and practice inclusion as they use their business skills to share prosperity across our local community.”

Each team assesses the feasibility, desirability, profitability, design and scope of the business over a semester, working alongside the business owner and a mentor, often a TCU graduate. At the end of the semester, they present recommendations.

“Instead of working with ideas we make up or working with hypothetical problems, our class dealt with real issues affecting real companies. This class truly made me appreciate the entrepreneurial process — not just creating an idea, but developing it, honing it and bringing it to reality,” said Coury Malooly ’20. For his project, Malooly worked with Mercy Clinic, which provides free health care, spiritual care and self-help assistance.

“Venture Builders provided the most well-rounded entrepreneurial experience I have had at TCU,” said Emily Haag ’20, who worked with Skulair, a headgear startup, in 2019. “It showed us how fast things can move in entrepreneurship and how the to-do list is sometimes never-ending.” Additionally, Haag said, “It allowed us to make connections to DFW entrepreneurs.”

Clearing a Path to Success

Debbie Cooley, founder of M-PAK, a national protective packaging company she started at home, is on the advisory board of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and a volunteer mentor, adviser and advocate for Venture Builders.

Student designer Caroline Fischer and business owner Chaka Dickerson collaborated on branding. Courtesy of Caroline Fischer

“I wasn’t born into affluence. I didn’t know my options. Nobody told me I could do anything. But I set down that bag of doubt and made my way,” Cooley said. “The reason I’m so passionate about this is that I want to help others know that there is help available to get them on their path to success.”

Chris Matos, a senior entrepreneurship and innovation major, signed up for the class to learn business firsthand and to help people in the community. Matos and his team, senior design major Caroline Fischer and Gavin James ’20, who studied economics, worked with Dickerson on her Picture This startup.

Matos said he was drawn to the variety of projects she needed. “I learned the importance of asking the right questions,” he said.

Carlo Capua ’00 mentored Matos and Fischer as they assisted Dickerson. Capua was an ideal fit as co-founder of Z’s Cafe and co-owner of Locavore, a commercial kitchen, event and catering venue. Some of the recommendations they gave Dickerson were to rent a commercial kitchen, bake out of her home when she could and use the same ingredients in different recipes as much as possible to cut costs. The team visited grocery stores to get prices to help Dickerson know the cost of ingredients and assess how much to charge.

Chaka Dickerson wanted elegant typography for her company’s logo and a bright color palette. Courtesy of Caroline Fischer

The logo and branding that Fischer designed impressed Dickerson, who said, “She figured me out. She got the right colors and the font I like.”

Teaming with a designer like Fischer was a learning experience for Matos as well. “It was fascinating working with Caroline,” he said. “She was good at talking us through what she was thinking, the meaning behind things. I didn’t even know there was meaning behind colors and logos.”

Ballard said learning from students in different disciplines is part of the overall experience of Venture Builders.

“They get a case study, they learn each other’s vocabulary, and they get a client who is an entrepreneur and the business is their baby. That’s the real world,” she said. “You can’t replicate that in a classroom.”

Fischer interviewed customers to gain insight on the company. “Chaka wanted elegant and hand-rendered typography for the logo and a bright color palette,” she said. “I took the quote ‘Taste greatness’ from her personal statement and used it as the motto throughout the brand. One of my favorite parts of this project was watching my team’s responses when they saw how mockups worked.”

Another design student, Madison Jones, worked with business students Sydney Phillips and Andrew Horner on Wild Hen Printing Co., owned by Dena Roberts Ashton and also in the Como area. “In the introductory call, she stated that she wanted to make the business full time, and our team knew that we could deliver on scaling and implementing the infrastructure to build a full-time business for Dena,” the team wrote in its final presentation.

Phillips and Horner worked on cost structure, accounting, customer messaging, pricing and scale. Jones developed a new logo. “Her current logo really needed a face-lift and I had to figure out how to explain that to someone who also designs for a living. After speaking about the ways her logo could be elevated, she was open to a possible rebrand,” Jones said.

“Overall it was a really great experience,” Ashton said of working with the students. “They helped me get the business up to date. A lot of the things they asked I had never thought about. It’s good to get another perspective since I only have my own experience and what I know and what I’m doing.”