For the past semester, 16 University of Richmond students have participated in the year-long Bench Top Innovations “Creating and Commercializing Culinary Magic” course that has them innovating in the kitchen.
The course is a university pilot program that uses experiential learning to teach students what it’s like to be real-life entrepreneurs. Throughout Bench Top Innovations, students have worked to ideate and develop innovative yet practical food or beverage products for commercialization.
University of Richmond’s Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (CIE), in partnership with the Robins School of Business, launched the first-of-its kind Bench Top Innovation course at UR.
The class was created by Dr. Joel Mier, a marketing lecturer at UR, along with entrepreneur-in-residence Shane Emmett. Both are with the university’s Robins School of Business.
Mier said, “a phenomenal growth in student interest in entrepreneurship” led to the Bench Top Innovations course becoming a reality. Although students learn in a variety of ways, Mier said he’s a big believer in experiential design.
“To be able to create an opportunity where students have a true ability to create a business, run a business, grow a business, crash a business, whatever going to happen is going to happen,” he said. “But that’s real life, and I think those are important lessons to learn in a safe environment.”
All University of Richmond students are eligible for the course.
“Students from the entire campus can apply to be part of the program, which I think is a real strength,” Mier said. “It brings diversity of ideas and thinking, concepts and backgrounds, and that makes it so much richer.”
Mier and Emmett began collaborating to create an entrepreneurship course before launching Bench Top. Through that process, the pair decided to have students create food-driven products, in part, because of the growth of Richmond’s food and beverage ecosystem.
“We are being recognized as … this foodie destination place,” Mier said. “It’s a perfect linkage between our capabilities and what’s currently happening in an important part of the business climate in (Richmond).”
At the start of the course, students worked in teams of four to identify a food category that interested them, then began looking at trends, products, competition and positioning to come up with a set of product ideas with market potential. They eventually transitioned to an industrial kitchen space and spent several weeks building the product there.
“Our students probably made 30 to 50 versions of their product over this time period making it better, going and getting feedback from the market, sharing it with their friends and strangers in grocery stores,” Mier said.
The semester recently culminated with a competition, called "Bench Top Innovations: The Great Bake Off”.
A panel of judges selected a food creation called “Spill the Beans” as the winner. The product is a beans-based trail mix that’s high in protein, low in sugar and allergen-free.
“You would never know it was beans,” Mier said. “It’s an unbelievable trail mix that just blew people away.”
He added, “Between the health trends, the fitness trends and the allergen trends, this is like the perfect Venn Diagram overlapping here.”
The goal now, Mier said, is to spend the rest of the course working to commercialize Spill the Beans.
“By commercialize, I literally mean be on shelves, be online, be places where you and I can buy it,” he said. “They’re literally starting that process today.”
Somiah Lattimore, University of Richmond director of Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, said, funding for the course comes from CIE and the Robins School of Business, as well as a $1 million gift from the Jason and Jaime Brown Family Foundation and RB Charitable Foundation.
“The University of Richmond recognizes the vital role of innovation in life and business,” she said. “Innovation increases one’s chances to adapt to change and discover new opportunities”