independent supporter OF TEXAS A&M University and Aggie Entrepreneurs
World-class professional services, educational resources and funds for entrepreneurial students and startups
We engage mentors who are successful Investors, Aggie Entrepreneurs and CEOs within 1-3 degrees of separation from most decision makers in any industry. Been there, done that...a lot.
We believe in the counter intuitive when it comes to companies. We're going to add gray hair to a team of 19-year-olds. For founders with a few years of startup experience, we'll add a young intern for fresh perspective.
We use a personalized approach to helping entrepreneurs and students. Entrepreneurship is non-linear. It's not a one-size-fits-all process, but a unique journey with common characteristics and shared needs.
We help students, faculty, former students and startups connect to the Maroon Fiber, thanks to funding and support from numerous individual Aggie contributors and Aggie-led, U.S.-based corporations.
We helped the Aggie Angel Network to increase investor participation. We regularly support investor networks in Texas. We host Investor Days, attracting investors nationally. We also have a small Aggie Impact Fund.
We brought 20 universities, NASA, Meta and Yazdani to A&M, RELLIS, Downtown Bryan, Midtown and Lake Walk for a 3-day campus conference on entrepreneurial living learning communities in 2019. There's more...
Our team pioneered the concept of hybrid academic learning and residential spaces with startup incubators, food and digital content labs, makerspaces, recreational amenities and conference rooms.
Our team has well-documented results with helping A&M student entrepreneurs to launch companies as undergraduates which have achieved six figures in acquisition or generated millions in Y1 revenue.
Our student entrepreneurs qualify for prestigious global, national and state business competitions. We also raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to sponsor their travels to major conferences and competitions.
We stage residential startup camps for entrepreneurial students from A&M's Youth Adventure Program. We add A&M Students and Faculty, Tech Commercialization and Branding experts, Pitch Coaches and Investors
We help Gig `em University students to thrive in the global Gig Economy. The Gig Generation includes entrepreneurs, content creators, musicians, artists, interactive event organizers, athletes, makers, etc.
We encourage our entrepreneurs to protect their intellectual property. Sometimes, we get free patents through the Aggie Network. VCs invest in and acquire our startups with IP, especially Student Startups.
Members only (travel subsidies)
Open to the public (free)
By invitation (free)
Open to the public (free)
Open to the public (free)
By invitation (travel subsidies)
By invitation (free)
Consulting Services (fee-based)
Consulting Services (fee-based)
Our pro bono student consultants from Texas A&M Consulting Group and TASK Consulting will impress. These award-winning campus organizations deliver actionable recommendations to help our companies achieve their goals.
Our global network of Aggie CEOs and other recognized executive-level professionals are in high demand on a fractional and fee basis, advising enterprise and startup companies from FTSE 100 to Fortune 500. Expert faculty are also available to consult.
Our expert pitch coaches work with students across Texas A&M, as well as university faculty, SXSW startups, global corporate clients, U.S. Navy SEALs and Shark Tank qualifiers. The startups we've helped have raised more than $2.15 Billion since 2018.
Our marketing experts can help you develop a comprehensive strategy to increase your brand awareness and drive sales. We use the latest tools and techniques to get results. Cody Bateman is one of our successful YouTubers with millions of views.
Our team of experienced federal government relations professionals and former state-level appointees have helped young startups like XTraffic and Troverlo to successfully collaborate with cities in Texas on the latest in traffic safety solutions.
Our stable of legal experts can help you navigate complex legal issues and to protect your intellectual property. Our legal experts offer personalized solutions to help you stay SEC-compliant and avoid future legal problems with fundraising.
At the original Startup Aggieland, our team offered ranch retreats to build our community. Since 2019, we have hosted these at Catalena Ranch. We share a meal together and get to know each other, away from distractions and noise!
For more than a decade, we have toured students and startups in Austin for SXSW and Startup Crawl. We do a 2-3 day trip in San Antonio for Startup Week, also free. We believe in getting out of your bubble to see how others are innovating!
Students and startups benefit from talking with industry. We make every effort to help Aggies and sometimes others to get to a trade show for free or at a significant discount as a favor to Texas A&M University and to entrepreneurs in our community.
Student and Non-Student entrepreneurs who seek visibility and validation for their startups or ideas are encouraged to compete in strategic business competitions. Our members routinely win cash awards and publicity with our assistance.
Since 2019, four of our startups have been accepted to a popular ABC-TV business entertainment show. Two of those startups were student companies. Two of them received investments. One of our student startups won the UK version in 2024.
We've placed legions of students in paid and unpaid part-time jobs and internships on behalf of the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship, Ed Rister Entrepreneurship Program and various A&M professors -- focusing on tech and venture.
Mark Bowles is an Industrial Distribution graduate of Texas A&M University who grew up working his family's restaurant in Crystal Beach, Texas. Bowles founded ecoATM and served as CEO of the electronics recycling kiosk-manufacturer acquired in 2013 by Coinstar’s parent company, Outerwall, for $350 million cash. He’s sold companies to Apple, Motorola and Broadcom -- raising $250 million+ for seven VC-backed companies. Mark holds 75+ US patents. Mark's current investments include Truvian Health, Wrapify, Hyduro and Singular Genomics. He was producer and cast member of the award-winning "VCs in a Van" TV series. He was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startup Aggieland in 2015-2018. Mark and wife Katie, also an entrepreneur, split their time between homes in La Jolla, CA and the Texas Hill Country.
David Wesson is an Agricultural Engineering graduate of Texas A&M University who grew up on his family's farm in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2003, David founded GEODynamics. Fifteen years later, he sold to Oil States International in a cash and stock transaction valued at more than $600M. He continued as CEO until June 2019 and served as CTO from July 2019-March 2020. Post-Oil States, he joined the boards of Datagration, Iron-IQ, Wyreline, Wolf Process Technologies, Greenwell Engineering, SWM Technologies and Vertice Oil Tools. David is inventor or co-inventor on 100+ US patents. He was the driving force behind the launch of Aggie Angel Network in 2010 and Startup Aggieland in 2012. David and wife Patsy, also an entrepreneur, split their time between ranches in Poolville, Texas and Little Woody Creek, Colorado.
Meg Lassarat is an Accounting graduate of Texas A&M University who received the Legacy Award from A&M's Aggie Women Network as a
high-profile strategic leader and experienced independent board member with 30+ years of global experience in driving growth, identifying strategic alternatives and delivering positive bottom-line results. She was a mentor at Startup Aggieland in 2012-2014; and for SKYPaws in 2021-2022. Meg serves as an independent director for ENGlobal, Dudek, Alta Southwest and Engineers Without Borders. Meg was CFO for Exyte Energy; Louis Berger; CableLock Systems; Kentz Engineers and Constructors; and Mustang Engineering/ Her career includes finance roles at Halliburton, Petroleum Geo-Services, Transocean and KPMG. The investor splits her time between Florida and Texas.
Shelly Brenckman is the founding Director of 1876 Ventures. Shelly earned a Concept, Creation and Commercialization Certificate as a Multidisciplinary Engineering graduate student from the Meloy Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program in the A&M College of Engineering. Shelly earned a BS in Business at Mays Business School, where she pursued graduate studies in Marketing with a research focus on global entrepreneurship. Shelly taught MGMT 289: Intro to Entrepreneurship at Mays. She co-led the $10M naming gift from the McFerrin Family Foundation for Mays Business School in 2017, among numerous A&M donations from 2010-2025. Recipient of the Legacy Award from Aggie Women Network, Shelly is a 2015 Fish Camp Namesake and one of two A&M recipients of the International Brand Master Award. She co-led the relaunch of Aggie Angel Network (2010), and launches of Startup Aggieland (2012), Startup Living Learning Community (2013), Silicon Valley Bank Shark Frenzy, A&M's CEO Chapter (2014), A&M's Startup Grind (2015) and A&M Entrepreneurship Camp (2017). Shelly co-led the 2020 acquisition of an 8-acre corporate campus for the RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center with William Cole Co. and City of Bryan. The multi-million innovation hub was acquired in 2023 for a $2B impact. Shelly resides in Aggieland with husband Mark and their family.
Lindsley Ruth is CEO of Infinite Electronics, backed by Warburg Pincus, a global leader in providing connectivity solutions and electronic components for various industries, including telecommunications, aerospace, defense, automotive and industrial applications. A Texas A&M University graduate with a 1992 B.S. in Industrial Distribution. Lindsley is a 2023 Distinguished Alumni of A&M's College of Engineering and responsible for millions of dollars in donations to the college. He also sponsored Mays' Freshman Career Exploration Night and A&M's Aggies Invent for the Planet by the Meloy Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. Lindsley facilitated a $1.5 million naming sponsorship for the RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center and sponsored 38 A&M student trips abroad as well as for three A&M faculty and 1876 Ventures mentors. He sponsored delegations of U.K. business leaders to Bryan, TX. Co-Founder of Dianomi Partners, a UK-based investment firm, he also is the author of "Becoming First Choice". Lindsley was an independent non-executive director for Ashtead Group in 2015-2024. From 2015-2022 as CEO of RS Group, an 8,000-employee global omnichannel solutions partner for industrial customers and suppliers, he led a turnaround of the underperforming business and increased share price by more than 6X for a return to the FTSE 100. He and wife Venessa, an entrepreneur, named a lab in the Read Center at RELLIS. They reside near Aggieland on a working horse ranch.
Mark Roenigk is a Texas A&M University graduate with a BBA in Management from Mays business School. As Meta's head of hardware engineering, he is responsible for the building, scaling and innovation of data center infrastructure and more.
Prior to Meta, Mark was the COO at Rackspace, where he managed the global infrastructure and associated services such as data center engineering, operations, hardware design, networking, infrastructure services, supply chain, procurement, facilities, physical & cyber security and enterprise IT. Mark began his career as an engineer at Compaq/HP before moving into management, and has held senior leadership roles at Microsoft, Intuit, Sirius XM, and eBay/PayPal. Mark has helped lead some of the world’s best technology companies as they have grown from small enterprises to hyperscale in a matter of years. He previously served as technology advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mark was a chairman and president of the Open Compute Foundation, serving as a director from 2011-2023. He was a Sponsor of Startup Aggieland from 2016-2018, Mark served as a Mentor to Levitation Technologies, a student patented and licensed spinout from A&M Innovation and Aerospace Engineering. Mark is an 1876 Ventures and Startup Grind-Aggieland sponsor. Born in Aggieland, Mark and wife Nanette reside in New Braunfels, TX. They cofounded Taelor's House Foundation to honor their daughter.
Chris Westfall is an entrepreneur and executive coach retained by Texas A&M University for pitch training, student entrepreneur mentorship, organization-wide leadership development workshops, and as emcee of campus events. Chris is recognized as U.S. National Elevator Pitch Champion by CEO.
A regular Forbes contributor and the author of seven published books - plus a ghostwriter for more - he specializes in bringing stories to life. Besides his international best-seller The NEW Elevator Pitch, his titles include Leadership Language, easier and Bulletproof Branding. His clients have appeared on Shark Tank, Dragon's Den and Shark Tank-Australia. As pitch coach in-residence with the original Startup Aggieland, he helped startups that raised more than $100 million over seven years. As pitch coach in-residence for RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center and 1876 Ventures, he has traveled to London and Malta for keynotes, participated in NASA programs, coached entrepreneurial students and also served as a Startup Grind moderator. Chris coached A&M student startups to First Place wins at Rice Business Plan Competition in 2016 and 2024. He is a winning SXSW Pitch Coach for global startups and startups from the U.S. Chris and his entrepreneurial wife Lisa live in Houston with their family, but Chris is frequently in Aggieland to coach for the College of Engineering, College of Agriculture, Mays Business School and others at A&M. Find his columns on entrepreneurship and leadership in Forbes online.
Chris Valletta is a 2001 graduate of Texas A&M University's College of Liberal Arts with a B.S. in Speech Communications and focus on political science. Chris completed the Executive Program in Entrepreneurship from Harvard Business School. He is a former NFL player and award-winning entrepreneur as cofounder of Mission. Chris is a TED Speaker and TV commentator with a passion for wellness, business and leadership development. The former A&M student-athlete is empowering the next generation of leaders in the United States as the 2022 founder of AmplifyU, America’s first University-approved, course-credit business, branding, NIL law and leadership development program for student-athletes. Chris was involved with RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center. He is the 2014 author of Team WORKS: The Gridiron Playbook for Building a Championship Business Team, used at Startup Aggieland from 2014-2018, where Chris was spokesperson, entrepreneur in-residence, speaker and emcee. In 2023, Chris authored How Boys Become Men: A Practical Handbook for Dads Who Want to Inspire Leaders of Consequence; and The Balloon on the Moon. In 2024, Chris became President of SideKick Operators, a strategic investment and advisory firm. Chris is married to Lili Valletta, also an entrepreneur and past Startup Aggieland emcee. They live in the Ft. Worth area with their sons.
Clinton Bybee is a co-founder and Managing Director Emeritus of ARCH Venture Partners. He has helped organize and finance numerous companies including MicroOptical Devices (acquired by EMCORE), Innovalight (acquired by DuPont), Intelligent Reasoning Systems (acquired by Photon Dynamics), and Cooledge Lighting in Canada.
Clint served as a board member of Impinj (PI), Agrivida and Board Chairman of Cooledge Lighting. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Yellowstone Park Foundation and is an organizing member of the Texas Venture Capital Association. Clint holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a 1985 B.S. in Engineering from Texas A&M University. He served on the A&M Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advisory Council and the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Council. Christie L. Bybee ’81 and Clint have established an endowment to support the Meloy Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program and made a contribution to the original Startup Aggieland, where he participated in Shark Frenzy. Their son, Christopher Bybee, is a 2017 graduate of Mays Business School. As a member of Startup Aggieland, Chris cofounded Shadowbox Media in 2014 -- acquired in 2017 for its patents by a Fortune 500 enterprise. Clint is an avid saltwater fisherman who has traveled the world in pursuit of the "perfect catch". He's also an active golfer. Clint resides in Austin with his wife and family. Clint attends 1876 Ventures Investor Days.
Dr. Leslie Ruyle is a Research Scientist in the Department of International Affairs with the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, where she is the past assistant director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. She teaches at Bush School and the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management. She also leads A&M Study Abroad classes to Africa and Costa Rica. As an ecologist working across disciplines, she creates innovative solutions for global conservation, conflict and development. Leslie has a 2012 PhD in Ecology from the University of Georgia and a 1995 B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Ecology and Biology from Montana State University. She has managed university initiatives for NSF and USAID. Having lived in four countries and traveled to 90+ countries in her career, she has broad experience in international applied conservation and research. Leslie was involved as a mentor with RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center and participated in Startup Grind. She is a global entrepreneur with one exit from Nuru SASU, a solar energy infrastructure company which raised a 2023 mezzanine round of $1.5 million and a 2024 Series B round of $40 million. She founded a startup incubator in Congo, called Wakisha (`ignite’ in Swahili). Leslie is a citizen of the world, but Aggieland is basecamp.
Barbara Klein is a Texas A&M University graduate with a 2019 MFA from the College of Architecture and 1994 BS from the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences with a concentration in Ecology. Barbara is the Assistant Director of the Virtual Production Institute, an Instructional Associate Professor and Associate Graduate Programs Director with Visualization in the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. She leads a summer Study Abroad to Croatia and the Balkans through Mays Business School's Center for International Business Studies (CIBS). Barbara was in residency at RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center through 1876 Ventures Studio from 2021-2023. Previously, she was in residency at Viz North in downtown Bryan through College of Architecture. She was a 2017-2019 mentor for Mays' Blackstone LaunchPad. She was a design and business mentor at Startup Aggieland from 2015-2017, where she helped startups and participated in a 2017 subsidized study abroad to Cuba and a subsidized trip to Nova Scotia for the 2017 Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship (GCEC) conference. At 1876 Ventures, Barbara has participated in five trade missions to the east and west U.S. coasts, Spain, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Malta and the Netherlands from 2021-2023 in our Wayfarers program. Barbara resides in Bryan, where her "side hustle" is restoring vintage houses.
David Smith is the founder and CEO of AmericaThinks and Insight Voting. David is an inventor and software architect with 19 patents relating to high-performance computer cooling, distributed data storage, secure documents, and sustainable data storage solutions. David’s latest work is in anonymity protocols for opinion collection with two patents in examination on Reliable Opinion Polling. Over the last 37 years, David has developed hardware/software like HyperCool, TerraCloud, PayExpress and PDFComplete (approximately 50 million users at the height of distribution). David has led teams and collaborated with go-to-market partners using direct, VAR, OEM and CPG channels. As Assistant Director of Startup Grind - Aggieland, David has been involved in helping to develop and democratize the local entrepreneurship ecosystem on and off campus. He was a mentor at Startup Aggieland from 2016-2019, then joined Startup Grind in 2019. He joined RS/DesignSpark Innovation Center via 1876 Ventures in 2020 David's daughter Lauren was a member of Startup Aggieland's Startup Living Learning Community and helped launch the innovation center, along with David and others from the McFerrin Center. A 1984 graduate of Texas Tech University with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering and emphasis on Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, David and his wife Misty, also an entrepreneur, moved to Bryan from Austin.
Howdy! We are an independent Entrepreneurship Support Organization (ESO) with success in helping Aggie Entrepreneurs and Texas A&M University, including qualifying startups for Y Combinator and ABC-TV's Shark Tank, Techstars, Meet the Drapers, SXSW Pitch, Rice Business Plan Competition, EO-GSEA and more. Free for A&M students who qualify. Member fees for non-student startup founders helps us to keep our programs free for A&M students.