[00:00] Maya Pomroy: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Flight Path series, where guests share their career journeys, the stories of the Rice connections that got them where they are.

Mike Tatz and Corban Bates aren't your typical business school graduates. The Army veterans and lifelong friends went from the battlefield to the boardroom and transformed their shared experience by building a movement right here at Rice Business. We dive into their remarkable journeys, what drew them to military service, the leadership lessons forged under pressure, and how those same principles have shaped their lives.

But perhaps, the most inspiring is the story behind the Veterans Business Battle, a national startup competition they co-founded at Rice Business that's now one of the largest in the country for military-affiliated entrepreneurs.

This episode is about friendship, service, and the power of reinvention. Join us now for a conversation about blending duty, grit, entrepreneurial fire, and building something greater than yourself.

Today, we have two guests, Mike Tatz, Class of 2014, and Corban Bates, Class of 2015, both Full-Time MBAs.

Welcome to Owl Have You Know!

[01:22] Mike Tatz: Thanks for having us.

[01:23] Corban Bates: Awesome, yeah, thanks for having us.

[01:24] Maya Pomroy: So, first and foremost, you're both veterans, so I wanted to thank you both for your service to our country.

[01:30] Corban Bates: You're welcome.

[01:31] Mike Tatz: Appreciate it.

[01:31] Maya Pomroy: So, not only that, you really have squeezed quite a bit into your short lives. You served our country. You've been in the financial services industry. You are entrepreneurs. And you both co-founded something really special at Rice Business, the Veterans Business Battle. When I came to Rice and I learned about it, I was like, Wow, that's really, really cool. I'd never heard of anything like this." So, first of all, did you meet at Rice, or did you know each other before?

[02:04] Corban Bates: We knew each other a little bit before. Yeah. I'll let Mike go. He's very much my elder, so I'll let him go first.

[02:09] Mike Tatz: No. I mean, we went to college together. I think we had a bunch of mutual friends.

[02:16] Maya Pomroy: Where'd you go to school?

[02:17] Mike Tatz: We both went to West Point, so United States Military Academy. Corban was a basketball player. I had some super close buddies who were basketball players. And so, our networks, kind of, crossed a little bit in school. And I remember getting a call from Corban when he was thinking about coming to Rice. And we ran from there.

[02:35] Maya Pomroy: You were both at West Point at the same time.

[02:37] Mike Tatz: We were.

[02:38] Corban Bates: And he was a year ahead of me at West Point as well. I've basically just followed him everywhere he's gone, a year later.

[02:44] Maya Pomroy: Well, it seems to have worked out really well.

[02:46] Corban Bates: Yeah.

[02:47] Maya Pomroy: So, Corban. So, tell me why did you decide to join the military? I know that that's a big, overarching question. You may not be able to answer it in a couple of sentences or maybe you will.

[02:57] Corban Bates: I feel like my path to West Point was a little bit different than a lot of people's. You know, most people have to start thinking about this probably their freshman or sophomore year, and they're applying, and they're going through a whole process. I was incredibly blessed to get recruited to play basketball there. So, it really wasn't until my senior year that I started considering it. You know, I was down in Texas.

West Point's all the way up in New York. I had never seen snow. It just wasn't even something that was on my radar. But once they started to recruit me, I started to talk to a lot of other people about it, about the military, about West Point. I was very fortunate to talk with probably four or five West Point grads that are probably about my age now in their late 30s or early 40s and just told me what an amazing opportunity I had and how it could change my life more than probably any other school I was looking at to go play basketball at.

And so, ultimately, I decided to give it a go and embrace this opportunity. And I wasn't sure about the whole military thing. Again, it wasn't something I had even considered, but I decided to give it a go. And I'm incredibly thankful that I did.

[04:00] Maya Pomroy: And what about you, Mike? Are you from a military family or what was your path to West Point?

[04:05] Mike Tatz: You know, Corban and I, even though we played basketball, which we'll all forgive him for, I was a wrestler. And so, you know, I think, for me, didn't have any family in the military, was planning on going to a Big 10 school, and I went out for recruiting visits at West Point.

And when you, kind of, get the experience of normal college, whatever normal college is to people, and you see different campuses, and then you show up at the Academy, and you get thrown in a room with a cadet who's also, in my case, a wrestler, and they say, "Hey, grab your cot. You're going to sleep over there on the floor. You know, we got dinner in 15 minutes," and then I got six hours of homework, and then be ready to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for formation, and we're going to march to the mess hall for... All the things.

And I was just blown away by the discipline. And I just remember always saying, "If I hate this, I can always go somewhere else, but you'll never get the opportunity to go somewhere else and then come here." I went to prep school. A lot of athletes go to prep school. You can't redshirt at the Academy. So, I did a year at West Point Prep, where I, kind of, got indoctrinated. And then from there, I went over to the Academy. And it was probably the hardest four years of my life, but the most rewarding four years of my life.

[05:23] Maya Pomroy: So, give us a peek into that. What was the most surprising experience that you had while you were there, you know, really prepping yourself to be in the military?

[05:32] Mike Tatz: I think, ultimately, what the Academy does to people is it shows you that you can push yourself a lot harder and farther than you ever thought possible, not as much physically, but more mentally, right? And so, days and weeks and months and years are structured to really push people to the brim in every aspect of life. So, from showing up as a freshman and having to pick up upperclassmen's laundry, deliver them newspapers every single day, tell them what the meals are, you know, memorizing meals, doing all of the duties that you have, plus going...

[06:08] Maya Pomroy: Very hierarchical structure, huh?

[06:10] Corban Bates: Oh, for sure.

[06:10] Mike Tatz: For sure. And then, you know, I think more so than other schools, you have a very smart student body who expects to do very well in class. And I think, at the Academy, at least from my experience, I don't know if Corban can say the same, but they don't give A's and B's out very much.

It is extremely hard to do well. They want you to fail. They give you more work than you can handle. And so, you really have to figure out your time management skills. And on top of that, being an athlete, when you're working out two or three times a day, traveling for your team, people appreciate, I think, that we're on the fields of friendly strife and playing our sports that we were doing, but they didn't care. There was no special treatment for an athlete.

So, all of the things that you had to do from a cadet responsibility perspective was still expected from you on top of school, on top of sports. And so, long story short is you learn how to push yourself more than you ever thought was possible. And I think that foundation that you build there doing that sets you up for the rest of your life because you feel like you can do anything.

[07:16] Corban Bates: And to add on that, I'd say just the workload. Again, I didn't go anywhere else, but the workload compared to a lot of our peers in college is just so high on purpose, like Mike said. I mean, they purposely give you way more than you can do in 24 hours. And you really have to learn time management. You have to set priorities of work.

That's a big thing in the Army is establishing your priorities of work. And then, layer on top of that, to be a Division I athlete, where your coaches are like, "Hey, you came here to play basketball. You came here to wrestle. Like, we expect you to be putting in all your effort toward this and staying after practice. Get more shots up," all this stuff. It's like, yeah, where on earth do you have the time to do all of this stuff? You really have to start figuring out, "Okay. I can do this this day. I can do this at this time. If I move this around, I can do this."

Like, it forces you to get really good at time management. And then it becomes normalized because you carry that into the Army. And then I can remember going into Rice. And while maybe some of our peers, it was an elevation of workload to what they were used to at their undergrad. I know a lot of us, Academy grads, were like, "Hey, this is, like, extremely manageable. Like, there's no, you know, sports. We actually have time at night. Like, we can go to, like, Partio or things like that. Like, this is amazing."

[08:34] Maya Pomroy: No, for sure. So, after you graduated from West Point, was it straight to Rice?

[08:39] Corban Bates: No. Every service academy grad, no matter what academy you go to, owes at least five years of service to their branch. So, we both went into the Army. West Point feeds into the Army.

[08:49] Maya Pomroy: Were you deployed?

[08:51] Corban Bates: Yes. I spent about a year in Iraq.

[08:53] Mike Tatz: And I was not. I shot missiles. I was actually on my way to Korea when I got sent out to NORAD and NORTHCOM. And I worked with our long-range missiles. So, as we would tell people, we could deliver anywhere in the world in 30 minutes or less. So, I didn't have to go anywhere. I had the buttons right in front of me.

[09:11] Maya Pomroy: So, five years in the Army. And then what made you start thinking about business school?

[09:17] Corban Bates: When I got back from my deployment, I had about two years left in the Army. And I actually enjoyed the Army a lot more than West Point and had contemplated staying in, but I wasn't truly passionate about it. I wasn't sure what my passion was at the time, but I knew I wanted to go try to find it. And so, I started looking at different opportunities.

Being from Houston and my wife being from the same area, we wanted to get back to Houston. And so, I, kind of, started to look at different opportunities in Houston. There was this Service Academy Career Conference that was in San Antonio. And so, I thought, "Well, let me just go to that and see what opportunities are there." And that's actually where I reconnected with Mike.

Mike's been a huge blessing in my life because business school wasn't really even on my radar. It's just, kind of, going up and down the aisles of the career conference. And there were probably 20 schools there, but I didn't talk to any of them because it wasn't on my radar. And I talked to Mike. I just ran into him. And it's like, "Hey, how have you been?" like, you know, all that stuff. And it had been five years. Yeah.

[10:13] Maya Pomroy: Really? Just randomly? You just ran into him?

[10:16] Corban Bates: Yeah. He was there recruiting for Rice. Rice had a booth. And he starts telling me about it. And he was just about to start this internship at Goldman Sachs. And he had this amazing first year at Rice. And it just sets you up. And I'm like, "That all sounds awesome.” But I want to think, like, round three for applications had just opened up. Like, and it was like, I hadn't even taken, what is that, GMAT or anything. And so, he tells me about all this. And it's like, okay, I have, like, three weeks to, like, take the GMAT, get an application in, and just pray that I...

[10:46] Maya Pomroy: But if anybody was prepared for that, based on what you just told me about West Point, that's you.

[10:51] Corban Bates: That's true.

[10:52] Maya Pomroy: And you can get that stuff done.

[10:53] Corban Bates: Yeah. I just ran towards it and was extremely fortunate to get in. And Mike completely changed the course of my career. If I hadn't run into him, then things would be very different.

[11:03] Maya Pomroy: So, you were running a booth for Rice. So, Mike, what was your path to Rice?

[11:08] Mike Tatz: Very similar to Corban. You know, if I think about my life up until Rice, I lived under my parents' roof, under their rule and iron fist. I thought I was going to go to college. I went to the Academy where I lived under the fists of the powers that be, right, very structured life. Someone told me when to wake up, when to go to bed, when I could eat, when I could go out on the weekends, and all the different things, right? Now, I graduate. I'm 23.

I go into the military. I still have someone that tells me when I can work out, when it's time to eat. I still have to submit a request to go on vacation or leave the area of my base, right? So, now, here, I get to being 28, 29 years old, and I feel like I've never been able to make a decision on my own.

I've always been told what to do. I've never had the power to say, "Hey, this is what I want to do." And so, with wanting that power of making that decision and also wanting to do things, I hadn't known anything besides life at home being a kid and then being in the military.

And so, this big world of business, what is the business world, right? How do we do this thing called business, right? And so, you know, I contemplated just getting a job, but I said, "Hey, I need to, uplevel my skills in my education so that I can speak the same language as the smart people that are out there and then really figure out what is out there." And so, looking at different schools and ended up landing at Rice, it was just a blessing.

[12:39] Maya Pomroy: So, you landed at Rice. And of course, you were the person that was, you know, supposed to recruit the best recruits, right? And that's how you found Corban. So, you were both at Rice and then decided to start this amazing business battle, Rice business battle.

So, tell me the how that started. What was it that was, sort of, the eureka moment when you were there going through the program that you're like, "You know what? Like, this is a great entrepreneurial school. It's known to be the top entrepreneurial school in the country. And you know what? Let's figure out a way to fold in vets."

[13:18] Mike Tatz: Yeah. So, I think, really quickly, and then I'll let Corban take over here, but piggybacking off that last story of living under a parent's roof, joining the military, and then life after the military, I want to be very clear that the fact that we call it the Veteran Business Battle and it's for veterans, I don't think veterans need any special treatment or should they expect or do we expect any special treatment.

But what I do think is the case is that, as, going back to that last example, here I am, I'm 28, 29, finally getting out of the military, and let's say I do want to start a business. Starting a business, there are a lot of steps to it, but one of those steps that is crucial is capital, right?

[14:01] Maya Pomroy: Yes.

[14:01] Mike Tatz: And so, my network being in the military is, you know, Army sergeants, Army majors, privates, whatever it may be, right? I'm not…

[14:11] Maya Pomroy: They're not the Goldman Sachs folks.

[14:13] Mike Tatz: They're not the Goldman Sachs folks. They're not the people looking to make investments into companies. They're not the people with the means to not only provide financial capital but mentorship capital and experience capital that you would need as somebody being in the military coming out and trying and wanting to start your own business. And so, I think there was an opportunity to find a way to support veterans who didn't have those networks and didn't have some of the intellectual capital and mentorship capital necessary to start businesses.

And we said, "Hey, we have a great network here." And it really stemmed from Al Danto and the entrepreneurship organization and all the guys there that, one, had been there, done that, two, had financial resources where, if they saw an opportunity and something that intrigued them from an investment standpoint, had the capital to potentially make investments, and they also had networks of people that had the capital to make investments, right?

So, all the stars, kind of, aligned in terms of what would be a really great opportunity for a veteran who didn't have any of those resources. And then the top layer of the cake is that they were all... and by they, I mean Al Danto, you know, Mark Martin, the entrepreneurship organization, all of those leaders that helped found this, they had such a will to make this successful and put this thing on and support the veterans. And so, when he, kind of, gave us the green light that we had his support and his cohort's support, then we just ran with it.

[15:54] Maya Pomroy: So, let's back up for a second because Rice is known for lots of business plan competitions, you know, the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship, one of the biggest ones in the country. So, it's known for that, right? And Al was a part of that to begin with, with his career at Rice as a student and as a professor. So, tell me the story of... So, you're in Al’s class. Were you both in Al’s class at the same time?

[16:19] Mike Tatz: Not at the same time.

[16:20] Corban Bates: No. Now, Mike was a year ahead of me, but actually, when I went on my visit to Rice, the one class I sat in with Mike was Al Danto's class.

[16:31] Maya Pomroy: Which one?

[16:31] Corban Bates: I think it was the Entrepreneurship 101 or whatever they call it, just whatever the intro class is.

[16:36] Maya Pomroy: That sold you, didn't it? You're like, "I'm coming here."

[16:38] Corban Bates: It really did.

[16:39] Maya Pomroy: I know.

[16:40] Corban Bates: It was the day that he had another veteran as a guest speaker named, I think, Jim Vesterman-

[16:46] Mike Tatz: Yep.

[16:46] Corban Bates: ... talking about search funds. And I just heard all this. And I was like, "This is incredible. Like, this is an awesome class. Like, this search fund concept is an amazing concept. I'd love to do that someday. Like, this is exactly where I want to be." Yeah, it definitely sold it for me.

[17:02] Maya Pomroy: And so, did you, guys, talk to one another and say, "Hey, I've got this idea."?

[17:08] Corban Bates: Backing up a little bit more, I mean, Rice came up with this concept of really bringing on more veterans to their business school. I think it's a great match of veterans being very far along in their leadership development and people management development by the time they're in their late 20s but being behind on the business concepts and then you pair, you know, the rest of the civilians who are advanced in their business concepts but are probably lacking on the leadership front, probably haven't led that much in their 20s. And so, it's this great pairing where both sides can learn from each other.

And Rice really took the initiative to where, I think it's Mike's class, my class was probably around 10% to 12% veterans, more than anywhere else in offering, you know, very generous scholarships and things like that to bring veterans here. We were getting applications from veterans all over the country that wanted to come to Rice because of the reputation it had built in the veteran community. And so, I know a couple classes ahead of me, here became this sense of wanting to make sure, one, we were pulling our weight but also giving back to the university all the gratitude we felt for all that they were giving us, the opportunities they were giving us as veterans. How do we come up with events or things that could help, you know, advance Rice, help advance veterans, help advance the school?

And there was a number of things we came up with, but I know this concept of the Veterans Business Battle really piggybacked off of the reputation Rice had with its business plan competition. And it was just, man, wouldn't it be awesome if we took this same concept and just applied it to veterans?

And certainly, that wasn't my idea. I, kind of, came in on the end. So, it's really Mike and his class that were the brainchild of this and working with, you know, he mentioned, Al Danto. And there's a lot of guys Mark Martin that really poured into this that we're the beneficiaries of. And that's, kind of, how it got going.

[18:59] Maya Pomroy: So, tell me how it works, right? Do you apply? Tell me the steps of, how to be a part of it.

[19:04] Mike Tatz: So, 100%, we structured it after a normal business plan competition. You submit applications, you need to have a full business plan, business plans got vetted, sent to all. We obviously have two customers, right? We have the veterans who are applying, and then we have the group of investors and angels and the VCs, the private equity, the family offices, all of those folks.

So, we, kind of, made our pitch to the veteran community and marketed it in the ways that we could. I remember emailing every head of every business school veterans club, and letting them know what we were doing and if there were any veterans interested that they should apply. And we started getting applications.

We ended up doing, I think, an internal vet between the veterans at Rice with, I think, Al and a few of the other EO, board members. We limited it down to a group of 30. And then we passed it out to our group of investors and said, "Which companies do you think are the most investible and would you like to hear pitches from?" And we got a group of 15. And we invited them to Rice. And the rest is history.

[20:14] Maya Pomroy: The rest is history. So, what was that first prize? Do you remember?

[20:18] Corban Bates: You know, everyone always did ask, because we phrased it as a competition, so people would be like, "Hey, what is the prize? What do you win?" And it was like, "Hey, this is more of a platform to put you and your business idea in front of different investors."

[20:31] Maya Pomroy: Investors.

[20:32] Corban Bates: Right. And so, we certainly have people that are committed to investing in good concepts, but really, that's up to you all to negotiate. You know, it depends on what you're asking for. And we have developed small prizes, like, oh, best pitch gets this, and I think there are a few other small ones, but the real fruit for wanting to come was, “Hey, you're going to sit in front of a room of 20, 30 investors. And if you say, ‘I need $500,000 to do this, you know, business that I want to launch, like, that's your prize. Go out, convince the investors, and you know, get the capital you're looking for.”

[21:04] Maya Pomroy: So, what have been some of the concepts? What are some of the ideas that have really taken off? And first of all, did you think that this would be... we'd be talking about this like 12 years later after you launched something like this that's brand new, that really had never existed before?

[21:19] Mike Tatz: It's wild. I mean, I think, to this point, millions of dollars have been offered in investments through this business plan competition. That being said, the investors have invested in things from drone companies down to, one of our first companies, I remember, the first year, was called ManSalt. And it was a veteran who said, "I like taking baths. And I go to the store. And there's all these salts for women. And so, I made a man's bath salt."

And he was one of the companies that got an investment during the first competition. But I mean, we have seen the gamut from super high-tech, people trying to send things up to space and working with research institutes, all the way down to trinkets that would be fun to sell or, kind of, funny, cute ideas, call it. And so, we've seen the whole gamut.

[22:11] Maya Pomroy: And, you know, the camaraderie that you're creating amongst this group of people that have walked in the same shoes and seen the same things and experienced things that a lot of people just don't and don't really understand and bringing, you know, that group of people together and creating something new must feel really, really rewarding.

[22:37] Mike Tatz: Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. I mean, I still get emails from people from the early competitions. It's incredible. It's a bond that you can't really understand unless you've experienced it or been through it.

And having everybody together, I mean, I think, once the nightcaps start happening, you know, and you start telling stories, it's fun, it's good, and just great, great people that are ambitious and just want to do something that they want to do, which is the whole point of everything, I think, that we've wanted and the whole point of the competition, right? Do what you want to do.

[23:12] Corban Bates: And it's also amazing that all the veterans who've come behind us at Rice have kept this going. Like you said, it's been 12 years.

[23:18] Mike Tatz: Amazing.

[23:18] Corban Bates: You know, I remember talking to the classes behind us of saying, "Hey, like, this was something we're passionate about, but there might come a time where you, guys, just aren't that passionate about this, and that's okay. You might have your own passions." We've, kind of, left it up to each class to continue running it, if they wanted to keep running it.

It's not something that, you know, we've had to continue to run for 12 years. So, the classes behind us get a lot of credit, too, for continuing it, seeing the value in it, and putting in all the work, because all the work stays the same. It's still a lot of work. You know, we may get credit for being a part of the starting crew, but all the classes that have come behind us have had to put in the same work to keep this going and really growing it as well.

[23:57] Maya Pomroy: So, you both were in the finance industry, a private equity, and you were at Goldman, doing private wealth work, and all that. Tell me what you're doing now because it's really, really fascinating.

[24:09] Mike Tatz: You know, to be totally honest, I would say I'm mostly retired doing my own things.

[24:16] Maya Pomroy: That's nice. Thanks, Rice.

[24:18] Mike Tatz: Yeah. Thank you, Rice. Yeah. But I'd left Rice. I went to Goldman. For me, personally, and a lot of the things that we've been talking about in terms of figuring out our life, I knew that Mike Tatz was not somebody who was going to sit in an office in a suit every day and sit behind a computer.

That just wasn't who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with life. And so, I said, "Hey, you know, I've always bet on myself in the past. I think a lot of whether it be the wrestling mentality, whether it be the military mentality, whatever it is, you run to the fight, right? And you only get so many turns around this sun," or whatever. And so, I was like, "Pretty soon, I'm going to get pigeonholed into this job."

[25:03] Maya Pomroy: How long were you there? How long were you at Goldman?

[25:05] Mike Tatz: I was there for about three and a half years. It was just a job. And I think I never wanted to just have a job, right? One, I always wanted to do something for me. And two, I wanted to do something that didn't feel like a job, but actually was something that fueled my fire every single day. And so, as we talked about, my passion was sports. So, I left Goldman to get into the sports industry. And I went out to California, where I worked for a sports media company and then had a sports agency that worked with sports enterprises.

[25:38] Maya Pomroy: How was that?

[25:39] Mike Tatz: It was amazing. We didn't work with athletes. We worked with sports enterprises. So, from developing stadiums, doing naming right deals on stadiums, helping sports brands figure out how to monetize their assets, helping sports teams monetize their assets, Formula 1, how do we create content around all the things that you are doing, whatever it might be.

We got very involved in eSports while I was there, which was a whole another beast for me. I'm not a gamer, but we started doing a whole bunch of stuff in eSports. And so, my time with the agency was incredible. And then from there, I ended up partnering with a very close friend of mine.

And we started a CBD company for athletes. So, we actually launched our business selling CBD products for pets, then we had an Amazon-exclusive brand. And all the meanwhile, we were building, kind of, our flagship CBD brand, which was a brand for athletes. We worked with a marketing team that worked with Nike and built the brand. And then we just went crazy. And it was awesome.

[26:51] Maya Pomroy: And it's called Resilience CBD.

[26:52] Mike Tatz: It's called Resilience CBD. Yeah. So, I ran the company for about five years with my partner. I still have ownership in the company. I ended up stepping away. And now, I spend my time doing my own investing. I coach a lot of kid's sports and play some poker on the side.

[27:08] Maya Pomroy: Oh.

[27:09] Mike Tatz: Yeah.

[27:10] Maya Pomroy: So, what kid's sport, wrestling? Do you coach wrestling or something...

[27:13] Mike Tatz: I coach wrestling, soccer, baseball, flag football. I do all of them. I say I'm a professional kid's sports coach now.

[27:20] Maya Pomroy: And I bet you've seen some stuff in kid's sports.

[27:23] Mike Tatz: Man, it is wild now, very different from when I was a kid, I'll tell you that.

[27:29] Maya Pomroy: Yes, because I've got kids that are in sports. And for me, the most interesting part of it is, like, it's not so much the kids. It's the parents that are nuts.

[27:37] Mike Tatz: Oh, my gosh. I can take the kids all day. It is so true. It is so true.

[27:42] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. Like, this is about your kid. It's not about you.

[27:45] Mike Tatz: Yeah. Hey, it's 8-year-old girl softball. We're all going to be okay at the end of the day here.

[27:53] Maya Pomroy: So, Corban, tell me about what you've been up to because you were in finance as well. And now, you're running an artisan bakery.

[28:00] Corban Bates: Yeah, interesting path for sure. But right after Rice, again, just, kind of, followed in Mike's footsteps. Again, he was definitely a big blessing to me, to where he was a year ahead of me. He had, you know, done his internship at Goldman Sachs and gotten a full-time offer. And so, he's telling me all about it. And I had come to Rice wanting to get involved in finance somehow, investing, things like that. And it seemed very appealing.

And, you know, looking at the different opportunity sets, decided to try to go do what Mike did and go down the private wealth management path at Goldman Sachs, had a couple other Academy grads really help me through the process and get me in there. You know, similar to West Point, Goldman Sachs has a very low acceptance rate. It's very difficult to get a job there. And so, again, just incredibly blessed that some service academy grads helped me get in there. But similar to Mike, within about six months, I thought, you know, "This probably isn't what I want to do long term."

[28:56] Maya Pomroy: You're like, "And I'm out."

[28:58] Corban Bates: Yeah. I mean, certainly nothing against Goldman Sachs or the profession.

[29:02] Maya Pomroy: Sure.

[29:02] Corban Bates: I felt like the people there were great, and you can build a wonderful career there and do really well financially and have a great life, but the same feeling I got in the Army where I just knew this wasn't my passion and this isn't where my God-given skills and interests align with my career. And so, I ended up being there, similar to Mike, about three years. You know, I used to actually joke with Mike because, you know, he went from high school to West Point to Army to-

[29:31] Maya Pomroy: Rice.

[29:31] Corban Bates: ... Rice to Goldman Sachs and I was just a year behind him every time. So, I was like, "Man, Mike, I can't wait to find out what I'm doing next. Like, whatever you're going to do, I guess I'll be there a year later."

[29:39] Maya Pomroy: You can be coaching kid's sports.

[29:39] Corban Bates: I know.

[29:42] Maya Pomroy: What are you talking about?

[29:42] Corban Bates: I'm like, "I can't wait." You know, at Goldman, we'd be like, "I can't wait to find out what I'm doing next, Mike." But yeah, he left. And then about six months, I can't quite remember the timeline, but I was gone about six months after that, I think. And it was a long road to land where I'm at today. But, very long story short, had gotten to know a family office in Houston, just a wonderful family, a guy that had sold his oil and gas business and had been investing his family's assets for a few years when I met him.

And we just developed a relationship of looking at different deals together. I had actually, from that day I sat in Al's class about search funds, like, on my visit, had always had this in my head that, that sounds amazing. I would love to go buy a small business and run it. So, when I was at Goldman, you know, I actually thought, "Hey, that might be my next step," started to, kind of, look at different small businesses on the side. Like, “I'd love to go buy one of these.” And so, I would meet with this family office, kind of, every quarter, a guy named Brad. And he would talk about the deals.

[30:43] Maya Pomroy: At Vantage Partners.

[30:44] Corban Bates: Right. At Vantage Partners. I actually went to Rice with his daughter. I didn't know that when I met Brad, but just, kind of, like, oh, small world. And so, Brad and his daughter and I would always go to lunch about every quarter. And they would tell me about all the deals they were looking at. I would tell them about the deals I was looking at, like, "Hey, here's might be an interesting one."

And I thought, "If I ever find one of these, I'd love to go to them and see if they would invest." And after building up this rhythm of just looking at deals together for a couple years, they eventually said, "Why don't you come do this for us? Why don't you come and invest in small businesses for us? We've been looking for someone who not only is interested in this and has a skillset but aligns with the way that we see the world, which is a very Christ-centered world, looking to do good with your capital."

And so, man, it was a dream come true. Incredibly blessed. And so, that was in 2018. And I've been with the family office ever since. We've made eight different investments together. And so, for the past two years, I've been inside one of our portfolio companies, which is a commercial wholesale artisan bakery that we invested in late 2019 with this vision of taking a small artisan bakery to becoming a very large bakery.

And it's been a long road, but the company has experienced incredible growth. And it just, kind of, came to, like, me being here very organically where they were growing so fast. They were in Houston. I started coming over one or two days a week just to see where I could help. And then it turned into three or four days a week. And then it turned into five days a week.

And then it was like, "Hey, why don't you be our part-time CFO?" And then like, "Hey, why don't you now be our full-time CFO?" And so, I've just been on this journey with them. It's been an amazing journey. I'm so fortunate for it. I've learned a tremendous amount because I still do have the aspiration to be like Mike one day and actually run my own company.

[32:28] Maya Pomroy: Be like Mike.

[32:29] Corban Bates: I'm just a few years behind him. I thought I was just a year behind, but I think I'll be about 10 years behind him. But no, I'd still love to run a company someday. And this has been a huge blessing to actually get inside one and be a part of the leadership team and drive the growth. And so, that's where I'm at today.

[32:46] Maya Pomroy: What's the artisan bakery called?

[32:47] Corban Bates: It's called Bread Man Baking Company. So, produces just amazing artisan products. I know the first six months I was here, I was taking bread home every day. And, like, the pounds started to creep up. And I'm like, "All right. I got to chill out on taking bread home every day." But no, the products are amazing and have grown from just servicing restaurants and hotels and things like that and grocery stores in Houston to, now, we're all across the United States and Canada. So, yeah, it's been quite the journey.

[33:15] Maya Pomroy: I mean, it's been fascinating talking to both of you to, you know, starting off in the military to, now, all of the real interesting twists and turns and where you are now is really, you know, inspiring and fascinating. And, like you said, it all started at Rice.

[33:31] Corban Bates: Yes. Incredibly thankful for the Rice Business school. I really don't know where I'd be without it.

[33:37] Maya Pomroy: So, any final thoughts? Tell me some final thoughts about where you are now. And if anybody's considering, veteran or not, anybody that's considering doing this and going on this journey, what would you tell them?

[33:50] Mike Tatz: I would start by just saying, “Follow your dreams.” There's a lot of things that you need to personally do to follow your dreams. You need to be humble. You need to not give a crap about what other people think about you.

[34:02] Maya Pomroy: Amen.

[34:02] Mike Tatz: You need to not care about titles and cars and the material things. You need to have a dream. And you need to go do it. And you can do it. You just have to run to it, and you have to do it with all the passion that you have. And I think, if you do that, you can be successful in anything. And I mean, I've seen it through classmates. I've seen it through friends.

I've obviously seen it through my own experiences. I think a lot of people, even at business school, they get very pigeonholed into thinking that they have to be a consultant or an investment banker because they think about the financial support that it's going to give them or the safety net. There's a gazillion ways to make money out there. I think you got to be happy. You got to be happy.

And you can be, but you got to take that leap. You got to have a plan. And then once you figure out what it is, you go, baby, you go as hard as you can, and you make everybody else think that you're crazy for how hard you're working at whatever you're doing. If you do that, I think good things are going to happen.

[35:05] Maya Pomroy: Love it. Corban?

[35:07] Corban Bates: Yeah. I mean, I love what Mike said. I would just say, what was very fruitful for me was really taking the time to truly try to identify what are my God-given talents, what are my God-given interests? You know, I think, a lot of times, I got so caught up in trying to build my resume or do, kind of, what you're supposed to do, what the world tells you to do, or what's going to make you... You know, they'll say, "This is what will make you happy," or, "That will make you happy."

And you just, kind of, get on this track of, like, I wasn't even sure what I was truly interested in or what, you know, was truly important to me. I knew what the right answers were. People would say what's important to you, you know, getting into Goldman, things like that. They say, "Here's what you should say to this question. Here's what you should say to that question. Here's what they're looking for. So, say you're this kind of person."

And you get caught up in this world where I was like, "I don't even really know what I'm truly interested in. I know what I'm supposed to say." Once I took the time to really figure out, you know, how I'm built and what I'm interested in, I would just encourage everyone to go through that exercise and then align your career with that. And you will get so much more fulfillment, and you will likely experience so much more success when you are actually operating in an industry or career that aligns with what you're just naturally good at.

You know, it's really hard. I mean, both Mike and I played sports. It's so hard to go play something that you're not naturally good at. And then when you find something that you are actually naturally good at, it's just so much easier and you go so much further. And then when you put in all that hard work, like Mike said, you just go so much further than someone else who isn't naturally good at it, but they're there for the money or the prestige or something like that.

And so, I would highly encourage, whether it's just in the corporate world or any sort of entrepreneurship venture, make sure it's really aligned with your interests, your abilities, and that your long-term goals align with what you're wanting to do. If it's about money, that's not going to be enough to carry you through. I know I've talked to a lot of guys who have this idea.

And I said, "Hey, I would only go through with this, is if... If you work really hard over the next 10 years and you really, at the end of it, just basically sell it or get out of it for what you put in it, and there's no big exit, like, if you view that as a failure, then you shouldn't get involved in this.

Like, it should be about, kind of, the cliche. It should be about the journey, not necessarily the mountaintop moment. And if you're not going to enjoy that journey, then I certainly wouldn't get involved because it's just not worth it." So, that's a lot of advice I give to people.

[37:34] Maya Pomroy: Well, like Mike said, you only get so many times to go around that sun. So, make them count.

[37:40] Corban Bates: Yes, exactly.

[37:42] Mike Tatz: Yeah, for sure.

[37:43] Maya Pomroy: Well, Mike, Corban, it's been a pleasure.

[37:45] Mike Tatz: Likewise.

[37:45] Maya Pomroy: Really enjoyed getting to know both of you. And, gosh, I mean, I can't wait to see what next for both of you. So, thanks for taking the time.

[37:53] Mike Tatz: Thank you. We appreciate it.

[37:55] Corban Bates: Yes. Very grateful. Thank you for having us.

[37:58] Maya Pomroy: Thanks for listening. This has been Owl Have You Know, a production of Rice Business. You can find more information about our guests, hosts, and announcements on our website, business.rice.edu. Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you find your favorite podcasts. We'd love to hear what you think. The hosts of Owl Have You Know are myself, Maya Pomroy, and Brian Jackson.

[00:00] Maya Pomroy: Welcome to Owl Have You Know, a podcast from Rice Business. This episode is part of our Flight Path series, where guests share their career journeys, the stories of the Rice connections that got them where they are.

 On this episode of Owl Have You Know, we talked to the grand prize winners of the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition, Charlie Childs and Madeline Eiken, founders of Intero Biosystems. Their groundbreaking medical innovation is the first stem-cell-derived lab-grown version of the human intestine, recreating stem cells mimicking human organs, with the potential of eliminating a trial-and-error method in humans. And it all happened by chance.

Listen to their exciting story about their passion for innovation, bioengineering, and how their Rice Business experience has been integral in elevating their venture to the next level.

Today, we have two very special guests, the winners of the Rice Business Plan Competition in 2025, the 25th year of the competition at Rice Business, which is one of the largest and richest competitions that... I mean, we will pat ourselves on the back. Rice is pretty awesome.

And the competition is something that draws people from all over the country, the brightest minds, the most interesting entrepreneurs. And you guys won. And we are so thrilled to have you join us today to tell us about your story and about the phenomenal startup that you have. So, thank you for being here.

[01:40] Charlie Childs: Thank you for having us. This is so exciting.

[01:42] Madeline Eiken: Thanks for having us.

[01:45] Maya Pomroy: So, Madeline and Charlie, so you are the co-founders of Intero Biosystems, which I was reading about this and, just, my mind was, sort of, blown. So, Intero Biosystems has created the first stem-cell derived lab-grown version of the human intestine, wow, with functioning neurons, blood vessels, muscles, and the inner lining of the intestine. I mean, I don't even know how to begin. So, I'm going to let you take over and explain to us, first of all, how you both met and what was really the driving force of creating something that is literally going to change millions of lives.

[01:30] Charlie Childs: Wow, you crushed it. I mean, what the driving force is, is we're total nerds, but that's okay. So, we were both Ph.D. students at the University of Michigan. we are in the lab of Jason Spence. He, like, originally invented this entire field where you can take adult cells, like, blood or any other living cell in the human body, and turn it back into a state where it can turn into any cell in your body. So, that's, like, our stem cells.

So, he figured out how to take the stem cells into these miniature human intestines. And I spent my thesis work optimizing the way that we do that alongside Madeline, who's a biomedical engineer. And both of us get along great. We are good friends. And we both really wanted to push this really fast and make a big impact with the technology because we agree, we think it's super cool and can be super transformative for the field of medicine. So, that's how we spun it out.

[03:20] Maya Pomroy: So, you met in the lab. And tell me about your passion for this kind of research?

[03:25] Madeline Eiken: So, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is, of course, that it's just so cool. Charlie and I talk all the time about how this is the coolest science we'll probably get to do in our careers. It's just the excitement of being able to take a single population of cells and turn it into this extremely complex mini organ is just, like, really exciting for both of us, and I think for everyone in our lab. And then to commercialize it, I think Charlie and I just have this shared goal of really doing research that impacts the world.

I worked at a startup prior to my Ph.D. and absolutely loved the experience. And going into my Ph.D., my goal was to one day work at a startup again. So, it's happening much faster than I ever expected. But yeah, we, like, just know that we work really well together. We know that we have really complementary skill sets. So, my background is in engineering while Charlie is a biologist. And so, the way that we approach problems is quite different from each other, but we have this, like, really shared interest in commercializing that technology.

[04:23] Maya Pomroy: Talk me through the process. I mean, obviously, it's stem cells. And I think that most of us understand what those are, right? But walk me through how you start with stem cells and you literally grow an intestine.

[04:40] Charlie Childs: Sure. We also think it's amazing. And I think, every day, like, as we develop this model, we are just more and more amazed how amazing, like, nature is and how smart science is. So, what we can do is we take these stem cells, which, like you said, can turn into anything in the body, and then we simulate human development. We literally call it Gatorade. Like, the cells live in this red liquid. And it truly is Gatorade.

It has, like, glucose and proteins and other things that the cells need to live just like our bodies do. And each day, we give them different proteins that leads them down human developmental time until they turn into the miniature intestines. So, it's actually a lot more simple than you would think. And our breakthrough figured out that a single protein that we switched in this process caused this beautiful thing to form. So, the cells, we joke about this every day, like, the cells just know what to do and we just need to, like, push them in the right direction and they will figure out what to do.

[05:34] Maya Pomroy: So, you grew this gut, this intestine, which is then going to be used to test medications and pharmaceutical drugs to see what works and what doesn't work, so you don't have to use humans, basically, as, you know, your control group.

[05:53] Charlie Childs: Mm-hmm. Exactly.

[05:54] Maya Pomroy: You can use these stem cells that function the same as a human intestine and eliminate the whole trial and error of using medicines, of... you know, because, personally, like, I've got gastrointestinal issues. That's why this was so fascinating to me. I've been on a bazillion different medications. And none of them really particularly work. Some work better than others, but this is really life changing for people that struggle with this every single day.

[06:25] Charlie Childs: Right. And you're the exact case example of what we're really aiming for. Like, it's horrible to have to go down this list of medications that the insurance company is going to make you do and just be like, "No, that didn't work. Six months of my life wasted. No, that one didn't work. Eight months of my life wasted."

So, our ultimate goal is exactly what you're talking about, like, this personalized medicine approach where we could make 1,000 organoids from you and be, like, "Hey, the first five drugs are not going to work. Do not waste her time with this. Let's go to the sixth drug that we know will have an impact and hopefully make patients' lives a little bit more bearable during this very uncomfortable process to begin with." But yeah, you nailed it on the head. That's, like, our goal. We really want to get there.

[07:03] Maya Pomroy: So, Madeline, I want to ask you, when you discovered that you have created something really unique and, you know, groundbreaking, tell me about that day, that moment, when you were like, "Oh, my goodness. Like, this is big."

[07:21] Charlie Childs: No, it's crazy.

[07:21] Madeline Eiken: Yeah. So, Charlie had done, like, all this really amazing work in her Ph.D. to develop this organoid model, but one of the big drawbacks of organoids is that they have to be encased in, like, basically, jello. It provides some support. As they grow and get bigger, they need some structural support, but the jello that we use in the lab is made from mouse cancer cells. And so, we just have this, like, really not relevant supporting matrix surrounding.

[07:49] Maya Pomroy: Wait, mouse cancer cells?

[07:51] Charlie Childs: Yep.

[07:52] Madeline Eiken: Yeah. Like, the mouse cancer cells spit out a juice that's like jello.

[07:57] Maya Pomroy: Okay.

[07:57] Madeline Eiken: And then we put the organs in it.

[07:58] Charlie Childs: It's gross.

[07:58] Maya Pomroy: What? No. I mean, it sounds amazing. I had never heard of that before.

[08:06] Madeline Eiken: You don't really encounter it in your day-to-day life, but...

[08:09] Maya Pomroy: Not in mine. Not in mine, no.

[08:12] Charlie Childs: Madeline's entire Ph.D. is on how we need to move away from... It's called Matrigel. It's very important for the whole field. Everybody uses it, but we have, like, whole Ph.D.s dedicated, like Madeline's, to how we can move away from it. So, I'll be quiet and let you keep going, Madeline.

[08:27] Madeline Eiken: Yes. So, anyway, Charlie and I were working together. We had this really awesome organoid model that we think could be really powerful, but we know we cannot be using mouse cancer juice to grow it. And so, we're working on some ways that we can grow the organoids without it.

So, we're, like, doing a bunch of pilot studies trying to see what we think might work. And then we had a plate that we accidentally forgot in the incubator for a few months. We were still feeding it, but we just didn't have plans for an experiment for it. And so, like, every month or so, we'll go through the incubator, clean everything out, like, figure out what we want to do with all of the plates that we have.

And so, Charlie and I were looking at this plate that was a few months old. And we were like, "These organoids are moving. What is going on?" And the organoid had matured enough that it was actually doing peristalsis, which is the movement of muscle that pushes food through the intestine. And we had observed this in organoids that we had implanted into mice because they get really big and really mature, but we'd never seen it in the dish doing this.

[09:26] Maya Pomroy: On its own, by accident, in the refrigerator.

[09:30] Madeline Eiken: Yeah.

[09:31] Maya Pomroy: But those are usually the way. Like, that's how they discovered penicillin, right? It was an accident.

[09:36] Charlie Childs: Right.

[09:36] Madeline Eiken: Exactly. Yeah, a little bit of an accident. Um, yeah. So, we, like, freaked out. And it was so exciting for us because it really confirmed that these are just as functional as an actual human intestine. And we can see it with our eyes that these really work. And then it also just opened up this whole other line of questioning that we can ask about peristalsis, which is how food moves through your intestine.

And when you have something like diarrhea, it could be that peristalsis is speeding up. When you have constipation, it could be that peristalsis is slowing down. So, it just unlocked all of these additional questions that we can now ask with the organoids to determine things like side effects to drugs. So, that was a really exciting... We were, like, running around, screaming, showing everyone. This is so fun.

[10:14] Charlie Childs: We were screaming, like, jumping up and down.

[10:16] Maya Pomroy: When was this?

[10:18] Charlie Childs: I think this was, like, early December last year. And science is, kind of, the same way that, like, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you know, you're, like, not a lot going on.

[10:28] Madeline Eiken: Yeah.

[10:28] Charlie Childs: So, we were like, "Oh, my God. Wow, we've been working so hard. This is great." So, it was a good way to end the year.

[10:33] Maya Pomroy: I mean, do you, like, post something like that on Instagram or something?

[10:37] Charlie Childs: [crosstalk 10:41] that.

[10:38] Maya Pomroy: How do you show what you do?

[10:38] Madeline Eiken: I wish.

[10:39] Charlie Childs: I wish. I think one of our undergrads showed their mom, and their mom was very excited, and that's, like, the most that we got, but that's okay.

[10:45] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. So, you made this earth-shattering discovery. And is that when you decided to launch the startup?

[10:54] Charlie Childs: We had decided to launch it earlier in the year, but we were planning on going really slow. Like, it was the month before I defended my thesis. We were going to apply for grants, you know, get, like, a lot of data. We didn't think anyone was going to be super excited about it. I don't know. We didn't know what we were doing.

And then all of a sudden, we got, like, a ton of interest both from customers and investors. And we were both like, "Oh, we got to go. Like, we got to go faster. This is crazy." I feel like, as of two months ago, I'm like, oh, my God, we were in full startup mode. Like, we were just sprinting. And it's really fun. We both love it, but it is not what we anticipated, which is in the best way.

[11:28] Madeline Eiken: Yeah. The further along we get, we’re like…We knew this model was awesome a year ago when we started the company. And the further along we get we're like, "Oh, this model is awesome." And so, we're, like, really, I think, thinking a lot bigger about what we can do with it and, like, how it can help people.

[11:44] Maya Pomroy: And how you can share it, which leads us to the Rice Business Plan Competition.

[11:50] Charlie Childs: Yeah.

[11:51] Maya Pomroy: So, what was really the reason that you decided to compete in the Rice Business Plan Competition? How did you hear about it? What did you know about it? Tell us about that experience.

[12:02] Charlie Childs: All the credit goes to Madeline, like, all of it. She did, like, all the hard work. So, talk about how amazing you are, please.

[12:09] Madeline Eiken: Sure. Yeah. So, when we applied for Rice Business Plan Competition, Charlie was no longer a student. So, as the student representative of the company, I'm really fortunate to be, really, in the supportive ecosystem that the University of Michigan provides. There's a ton of programming for student entrepreneurs. And I'm, like, amazed every day, especially with undergrads starting their own companies.

Like, there's just really, really cool work going on. And so, we had gotten integrated into this community. And then our faculty advisor was in the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship. She was like, "You, guys, I think you'll do really well at these student business plan competitions. You should apply for some." So, she takes a team every year and was just, like, really encouraging. And so, it was something that we had been thinking about just for, like, the past six months prior to the business plan competition.

And then we were really excited when it was time to apply, especially because it was dovetailing really nicely with what ended up being our fundraise. And so, we were like, "This is going to be perfect. We have to write a business plan for our fundraise anyway." Like, we're, kind of, already doing all the activities for it. So, yeah, we applied. We had a watch party for when the teams, the 42 teams, were picked for the business plan competition.

[13:18] Maya Pomroy: Yes, because there's only 42 teams.

[13:20] Charlie Childs: Yeah.

[13:20] Maya Pomroy: I mean, Rice really limits it to the best and the brightest. And, you know, there's hundreds of people that apply to this competition. And to be chosen is a really big deal.

[13:30] Madeline Eiken: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. We were so excited. They announced our name second. And we were just screaming. And it was so exciting.

[13:35] Maya Pomroy: As much as when you saw the organoids or... I'm just kidding.

[13:39] Madeline Eiken: It was a different kind of scream.

[13:41] Charlie Childs: I think it was more because we didn't think we were going to... Like, we were like, "Okay." Me and Madeline were, like, five minutes late. It was, kind of, embarrassing. We couldn't find parking. And the business school would, like... It was so bad. And the business school put on, like, a watch party for us. So, we're, like, running up the stairs. And we were like, "Oh, if we don’t get picked, there's 42 teams, like, it will be okay." They announced us second. And we had walked in the door, like, the second before they announced us. So, it was very exciting.

[14:05] Maya Pomroy: Wow.

[14:05] Charlie Childs: It was very fun.

[14:06] Madeline Eiken: Yeah. It was very exciting.

[14:07] Maya Pomroy: Well, I mean, it's a very, very, very rigorous process to be selected for the Rice Business Plan Competition by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship here at Rice. I mean, they really hand select these teams. And then you were called second. So, tell me how did you plan for it and that whole experience of, so you got in, with 41 others, teams from all across the country, you know, the Ivys, all these phenomenal schools. So, then what?

[14:36] Madeline Eiken: We ended up having, like, a pitch gauntlet leading up to Rice, which I actually really prepared as well. So, we pitched at South by Southwest. And then the next weekend-

[14:45] Maya Pomroy: In Austin.

[14:46] Madeline Eiken: ... we pitched... Yeah. And that was so fun. Charlie's from Austin. We had a great time. And then we pitched at the Baylor University Pitch Competition. Then the next weekend, we pitched at the University of Arkansas Pitch Competition. So, we had a lot of time to really hone our pitch and figure out how we wanted to tell this story.

Charlie and I are both scientists. We're used to telling and talking about the organoids to a very scientific audience. And so, it was really important to us that everybody could understand what we were doing and how we were thinking about the business not just from a scientific perspective. So, we were really lucky to have Dawn, who, at the time, was an MBA student, he's now graduated, at the Michigan Ross School of Business. And so, he was also really helpful in just, kind of, thinking about how we wanted to tell the story to a broad audience while also getting across scientifically how cool the science is. Yeah. So, it was, like, a lot of really lucky, well-timed practice as well as getting a lot of feedback from different people to make sure that the science was really understandable as we went into the pitch.

[15:48] Maya Pomroy: So, tell me your pitch. I want to hear the pitch. What's the pitch? Tell me the story.

[15:54] Charlie Childs: The pitch is that, clinical trials, we all think, are this way to get, like, a miracle drug, but in reality, 90% of drugs that go into clinical trials fail. So, our pitch to the world, so if any pharma companies are listening, come talk to us, is to fail your drugs fast before you go into clinical trials. It takes $2 billion to get a drug to market. Don't waste all that money. Fail it before you go in using our model or maybe we discover your blockbuster drug, and you can then funnel all your resources into that going into clinical trials.

[16:26] Maya Pomroy: Fail fast.

[16:28] Charlie Childs: Fail fast. Exactly.

[16:28] Maya Pomroy: I love it. Fail fast so that you don't waste any time-

[16:33] Charlie Childs: Exactly.

[16:33] Maya Pomroy: ... because time is really of the essence. So, when you arrived at Rice, what were some of the other entrepreneurs pitching? What were some of the ones that stood out to you?

[16:43] Charlie Childs: Oh, my gosh. They were all so cool. Okay. I'm going to say my favorite. And then Madeline, you should tell your favorite. And it might be the same as mine. They were all so cool. It's hard to pick, but we are obsessed with Farmsmart.ai. We saw them at Baylor New Ventures competition. They're out of LSU.

And it's four really, really bright guys who are making this AI for, I'm going to butcher this, but I hope they forgive me, for agricultural use. So, you say, like, what problems you're having with your crop, and the AI will prompt you with ways to fix it or, like, troubleshooting or ask you more questions so you can help your crop or troubleshoot from there. But that was my favorite. It's such a cool idea. Oh, my gosh. I'm obsessed.

[17:23] Maya Pomroy: And Madeline, what about you?

[17:25] Madeline Eiken: Oh, my gosh. I do love Farmsmarter.ai. They're great. I think, like, generally, what's so cool is that we are so excited to talk about our startup. Obviously, we think it's so cool, but then it's so fun talking to all of these other student entrepreneurs that are thinking about really, really big problems that, like, I never think about. I don't think about what a farmer has to do in order to, you know, address issues of their crops while still following regulations.

And so, I think it's just so cool to, like, learn about all of the different ways that entrepreneurs are tackling really big problems with a really cool solution. So, I think, in general, what's so fun about going to these competitions is just meeting people who are just as passionate about us about something totally different. And that was really, really fun.

[18:08] Maya Pomroy: How does the Rice Business Plan Competition stand out in comparison to some others?

[18:12] Charlie Childs: It was, like, a whole other beast. And people kept warning us, like, leading up to it. They were like, "This is fun, but wait until you get to Rice." It was just, like, the breadth of not only the startups, but also the judges and all the people from Rice. The investors, like, we were just blown away at how much support and interest there was.

And I mean, our first pitch was crazy. Like, people were audibly, like, gasping and cheering. And it was just such a fun group to pitch to. And we just made so many wonderful connections. And I truly, truly, like, this is, like, launching us into another realm that we didn't even think we were going to be able to be in both from, like, connections and investors and just support. We're so thankful.

[18:52] Madeline Eiken: No. I just totally echo what Charlie said. It was, like, the energy in the air was just different at Rice. It was so exciting. Like, every day was so exciting. There was just, like, a buzz in the air. I mean, all the competitions we went to were really fun, but Rice was, like, a totally different animal. It was awesome.

[19:10] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. And I saw a photo of you with Dean Rodriguez and with Dr. Cherukuri and with Brad Burke. And you're nodding your head. So, tell me what was their reaction when they learned about your story and about Intero. And what was their response?

[19:27] Charlie Childs: They're just so, so, so, so, so supportive. It was like, "Oh, my God, this is amazing. We think your technology's great. Your team is great. Let me introduce you to, like, 10 other people that are here that we think would be useful to you to talk to." And they were so excited to talk to us, introduced us to even more people. It was nuts. Like, I am still speechless by how much support we received. It's truly unbelievable.

[19:49] Maya Pomroy: And so, my other question is, so because we are in the Texas Medical Center, did you have an opportunity to really connect with some leaders here at the medical center here in Houston?

[19:58] Charlie Childs: Yes, we did. JR, who is at TMC Innovation Center.

[20:01] Maya Pomroy: Reale. JR Reale.

[20:02] Charlie Childs: Yes. Reale, him.

[20:02] Maya Pomroy: Yes. I know him. He was one of my professors.

[20:06] Charlie Childs: No way. Oh, my God. That's wild. He is awesome. And he is, like, exactly the person I'm talking about as far as, like, the support goes. Like, me and Madeline were outside, getting snacks in the afternoon, and he came over and was like, "Hey, I have a ton of ideas and connections for you," and, like, sat us down and talked to us for an hour.

And he and his group really pushed us to add some things to our pitch that I really think brought it home in the end. They really made us think really big, where, like, our vision is going and really how to communicate that vision in the final. And Madeline, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that, like, completely changed how we were thinking about this company entirely.

[20:42] Madeline Eiken: Yeah, I completely agree. And, like, it was just amazing, especially in our first pitch where there were a lot of, like, really medically focused people as judges, we got questions that we get at scientific conferences. Like, we were blown away with the thoughtfulness of the questions with, clearly, people had done their diligence even before hearing us pitch and had read our papers and stuff. It was really wonderful and amazing. We left that pitch and we were like, "Oh, my gosh. This is the most science we've ever gotten to talk about at a business plan competition."

[21:10] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. I mean, for sure. And JR, like I said, I took a class with him and Blair Garrou from the Mercury Fund.

[21:18] Charlie Childs: Oh, totally.

[21:18] Maya Pomroy: It was called Financing the Startup. And I just remember going to class and just being riveted by everything that they would say in terms of funding, you know. Let's talk about that for a minute because I feel that that's really relevant right now in this day and age because one of the things that they did tell me in class... And I graduated in 2022 with my executive MBA, but [crosstalk 21:39].

[21:38] Charlie Childs: Congratulations.

[21:40] Maya Pomroy: Oh, thank you.

[21:41] Charlie Childs: That's awesome.

[21:43] Maya Pomroy: But what they had said was that the financing part, like, for venture, you know, there was so much funding available. And they're like, "This isn't going to last forever." And it's really, really challenging for people that are brilliant, that come up with these phenomenal innovations to really find the funding in order to move to the next stage. So, have you found it difficult to really finance your venture?

[22:10] Charlie Childs: “No,” is the answer. And I know we are planning...

[22:13] Maya Pomroy: That's a great answer. That makes me happy.

[22:17] Charlie Childs: Yeah, no, I think you're totally right. Like, 2022, there was all this funding. And we've seen a huge shift back, especially in the biotech industry. We've just been really fortunate with the timing of announcements from, like, the FDA and the NIH who are saying that they're going to reduce the use of animals in testing. And both have specifically named organoids, which is what our miniature intestines are, as the alternative. So, we just started the company a really awesome tide perfectly on accident.

And we just have such a supportive ecosystem, both in Michigan and now in Houston, that they, like, really get the vision. And we have been having a... I don't want to say easy time because fundraising is extremely hard, but we've had a lot of interest and it's just been going really well. And I think it's just finding the investors who, like, truly believe in your vision and understand your technology. And they introduce you to more people like them.

So, we ended up way oversubscribing our round in huge part with the win from Rice. Like, we had people still reaching out to us being like, "I saw you won Rice, and I saw the FDA announcement. Do you want to talk?" And me and Madeline have to be like, "No, that's great. We'll talk to you, but, like, we are so overwhelmed with interest. We appreciate it, but we'll talk next round." So, it's been great.

[23:21] Maya Pomroy: Wow. So, which round of fundraising are you in?

[23:24] Charlie Childs: We are just wrapping up our pre-seed with all the interest from Rice. So, we're really excited to move forward with everyone we met there. And we're excited to get going and start scaling.

[23:33] Maya Pomroy: So, that's my next question is, so what's next? So, you won $150,000. That was the grand prize.

[23:38] Charlie Childs: Yes. The grand prize was 150. We won 902 total, $900,000.

[23:44] Maya Pomroy: Total. Right. Sorry.

[23:45] Charlie Childs: Yeah.

[23:45] Maya Pomroy: That's a bigger number.

[23:46] Charlie Childs: You're good.

[23:49] Maya Pomroy: So, but for the grand prize it was, like, 100 because, with the photo, with the check, it was 150,000.

[23:55] Charlie Childs: Yes. Uh-huh. Exactly.

[23:55] Maya Pomroy: But you won close to $1 million.

[23:58] Charlie Childs: Yeah.

[23:58] Maya Pomroy: So, what's next?

[24:01] Charlie Childs: Madeline, go for it. You're the schemer.

[24:03] Madeline Eiken: Sure. Yeah. So, now, we're really excited to be really laser focused on de-risking the company and meeting our milestones with this fundraise. We were really lucky to basically double what we were hoping to raise. So, that was really awesome and exciting for us. And because of that extra cushion that we have, we think we can push a lot faster on some of our milestones that we had been thinking about for seed rounds and even Series A.

So, yeah, right now, we're really focusing on lining our manufacturing and figuring out how we're going to make the organoids really reproducibly so we can get them into the hands of customers as quickly as we can. So, now, the fun part of running the company is what we get to do.

[24:43] Charlie Childs: Right.

[24:43] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. So, it's just the two of you?

[24:45] Charlie Childs: It's the two of us and then we have our academic co-founder, who's also our CSO, Dr. Jason Spence, who's our professor at the University of Michigan.

[24:52] Maya Pomroy: Yes.

[24:52] Charlie Childs: And then we just hired a research assistant, which we're really excited to have on board. And then in the summer, we have a Ph.D.-level scientist starting with us as well. So, we're growing very quick. It's very exciting.

[25:03] Maya Pomroy: Well, it was that fortunate refrigerator accident, right?

[25:07] Charlie Childs: Exactly.

[25:08] Maya Pomroy: So, the secret behind it all. I mean, and the timing of it. I'm one of those that does not believe in accidents. The coincidences are not really coincidences. I feel that, you know, everything happens the way and the time in which it should. And with a lot of companies that are recognizing the funding is going to be a lot more challenging. And to be in a space that is being elevated and raised up is really phenomenal to find yourself in that sort of a space.

[25:38] Charlie Childs: Definitely. And, like, maybe Rice should start, like, a Series A-level competition because I feel like we were on such easy mode getting propped up by Rice.

[25:46] Maya Pomroy: I like it.

[25:46] Charlie Childs: Every round, we should just compete in Rice again. I'm kidding. But no, I think a big part of the success is, like, the platform that Rice gave us. It's really hard to reach a lot of these investors. And without Rice, I'm not sure we would have the amount of... I know for a fact we would not have the amount of interest that we have, so we're just so thankful, but it will not be this easy next round. And that's what I keep getting told.

[26:08] Maya Pomroy: Well, I wouldn't listen to that. I think, you know, don't listen to the haters.

[26:15] Charlie Childs: It's just realists, you know.

[26:17] Maya Pomroy: Well, you know, I think that the fact that you did have such phenomenal success at Rice really set you on a path for continued greatness. And the other question that I really want to ask you is, what advice would you give to others that are in your shoes, but not really in your shoes quite yet, but are considering applying to the Rice Business Plan Competition? And what sort of advice would you give them if they're kind of, "Well, do I do it? Do I not do it?" and, you know, those sorts of things? Like, what would you tell them?

[26:48] Madeline Eiken: I think my advice is definitely do it.

[26:50] Charlie Childs: Yeah.

[26:51] Madeline Eiken: We had a great time at Rice. We got amazing feedback. And I think, going to Rice, being really open to the feedback that you're going to get. Like, there are brilliant judges in every room that you go into who have ideas about your company. And so, going in both knowing what the core of your business is, but then also being really open to the expertise in the room. We just got so much value out of the conversations that we had at Rice. And it was just a really fun experience. I really recommend it.

[27:17] Charlie Childs: I would say the exact same thing. And I think even if we hadn't had, like, won any money, it would have been just as valuable of an experience. We were applying, like Madeline said, for the business plan competitions as we were writing a fast-track SBIR grant where you have to include a business plan. That was during, like, January.

And what was great about Rice is we got multiple rounds of feedback, both in person and beforehand. So, we feel so confident moving forward with any, like, bigger thing that we have to do with the business plan that we dialed in at Rice. Yeah. I could go on and on the feedback, which is so fabulous. We're so thankful.

[27:50] Maya Pomroy: Yeah. We're really, really grateful that you came to Rice and that we have an opportunity to learn more about your phenomenal startup. And only wishing in Intero Biosystems the best for the future and definitely on our radars now. And we're going to watch you grow and succeed. And we're really, really thrilled that innovation is something that continues to thrive and grow at Rice Business. So, thank you for being a part of it.

[28:19] Charlie Childs: We're so excited to be a part of it. And we hope we get invited back next year. I'm just going to put that into the void.

[28:24] Maya Pomroy: Oh, I think you will.

[28:24] Charlie Childs: Okay. Great. That's great. It just must be so fun watching it from the other side, too. Like, we had so much fun, but we were also super stressed, obviously. So, I think it'd be very fun to watch it from the judge's perspective.

[28:39] Maya Pomroy: Well, maybe you can come back and be judges sometime.

[28:41] Charlie Childs: Yeah. There we go. Again, putting that into the void. If anyone's listening, I would love to come back.

[28:47] Maya Pomroy: We'll see what we can do about that.

[28:49] Charlie Childs: Thank you so much.

[28:49] Maya Pomroy: We'll see what we can do about that. But Madeline and Charlie, it's really been a pleasure to talk with both of you.

[28:54] Charlie Childs: We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having us.

[28:57] Madeline Eiken: Yeah. This is so fun.

[28:59] Maya Pomroy: Thanks for listening. This has been Owl Have You Know, a production of Rice Business. You can find more information about our guests, hosts, and announcements on our website, business.rice.edu.

Please subscribe and leave a rating wherever you find your favorite podcasts. We'd love to hear what you think.

The hosts of Owl Have You Know are myself, Maya Pomroy, and Brian Jackson.