A Latte Risk

But the journey to RoadRunners has included a few speed bumps.  

Kay grew up in a small town just north of Atlanta. Halfway through college in Georgia, he wanted to drop out. Working at a fast food restaurant at the time, Kay had his eyes set on starting his own business.  

After taking his mom’s advice, Kay decided to look for an entrepreneurship program and give school one last shot. At the time, Kay said undergraduate entrepreneurship programs were less common. However, it didn’t long in his research process to find the No. 1 ranked Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. Enthralled with what he read, Kay booked a plane ticket the same day, emailed Wolff Center Executive Director Dave Cook and had a meeting in Houston a week later. 

“I told him, ‘I want to join this program. This is what I’m doing in Georgia right now. I have these dreams of starting this business,’” Kay said. 

That meeting affirmed his choice to attend Bauer and apply for the Wolff Center, but he just missed the application deadline. That didn’t stop Kay from taking a risk, though. 

He quit his job and moved to Texas, so when the next application cycle rolled around, he would be an in-state resident. In his downtime, Kay worked for the corporate office of a fast food restaurant.  Eventually, he got the word that he’d been accepted into the next Wolff Center cohort.  

“I had this dream of being the first student in the Wolff Center to win every single project,” Kay said. “They changed the projects around a little bit from class to class, but for the most part, they’re the same ones. First semester, I won the innovation project and some of the smaller ones, and realized that I could accomplish this dream.” 

That inspired him to take another risk. Kay decided to fully commit his attention to the Wolff program, quitting his job and living off credit cards to do so. For Kay, it paid off, and he was able to accomplish his goals in the program.