Nate Meyer and Ty Vansteenburg are closing out their senior year by putting their classroom knowledge into action as Jimmy John’s franchisee co-owners. The classmates credit the TCU Neeley School of Business’s academic and hands-on learning with preparing them for this endeavor.
January 30, 2025
*Updated February 25, 2025
By Alexandria Salinas
For entrepreneurship majors, Nate Meyer and Ty Vansteenburg, senioritis does not exist.
They are powering through the final months of their senior year at Texas Christian University by re-opening the shuttered doors of a Jimmy John’s restaurant just off campus and serving as the new co-owners of the franchise business.
“We want to feed as many students as possible,” said Nate and Ty, as they prepared to launch their new business at the start of this semester.
The two friends, who are also roommates and classmates, say they are on a mission to leave a lasting legacy at TCU by building a community where growth, opportunity and connection thrive. For them, this is not just a business venture. It’s their chance to shape TCU’s future and make an impact that lasts long after graduation. Their business location near the intersection of University Drive and Berry Street provides a connection to TCU’s Campus Master Plan and the broader Fort Worth business community.
Ty’s connection to Jimmy John’s runs deep. “My dad started franchising in 2001, and I was born in 2003, so Jimmy John’s has been part of my life since day one,” he said, adding that his first job at 14 was in his dad’s restaurant.
Even with that entrepreneurial fire, Ty’s journey was not a direct path. He started in finance and real estate, chasing what he described as a more conventional path. After trying a real estate internship that was not a good fit, Ty put all of his energy toward his passion of being an entrepreneur—and he never looked back.
Nate’s journey was also unconventional. His grandfather, a businessman in the truss industry, saw firsthand what it means to build from the ground up. When he arrived at TCU, he began on a pre-medical pathway, but it didn’t take long for him to pivot his studies to management and entrepreneurship.
Will Drover, an associate professor and the department chair for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department, said the business school encourages students to identify and define their interests through firsthand experience.
“A defining strength of TCU Entrepreneurship is our ability to fuse elite instruction, experiential learning and hands-on programming with practical, real-world application,” Drover said, adding that the professors are key to this approach. “As a top-ranked program, our team brings a wide range of expertise, ensuring students don’t just learn about entrepreneurship and innovation—they put it into action. We regularly see that our students graduate ready to launch, lead, and innovate with confidence.”
Ty described the hands-on approach in Neeley’s award-winning entrepreneurship program as a game-changer.
“It’s interactive,” Ty explained. “We tackle real challenges. Professors share personal experiences, teaching us to avoid and handle pitfalls.”
“There are 100 right ways and 100 wrong ways to build a business,” Ty said. “Neeley shows us how to navigate both.”
After taking a new franchising course with Michael Browning ’07, an adjunct professor and member of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department’s advisory board, Nate and Ty said they knew opening a business wasn’t just possible - it was inevitable.
“We can definitely do this,” Nate said. In the fall, they learned that the Jimmy John’s restaurant on University Drive had closed, they jumped on the opportunity.
“It felt like it fell in our laps,” Ty said. “It was God, truly. The timing was perfect.”
The lessons they learned in class echoed loud. “High risk, high reward,” Nate said. “If you’re not willing to take a risk, you won’t succeed.”
Nate and Ty have high standards for their restaurant and their final months as students at TCU.
“We want to finish strong and inspire students to take action,” Ty said.
Nate added, “There are countless opportunities for students to seize.”
For Browning, it has been incredibly rewarding to see students to take action on a franchising concept.
“Franchising is a proven path to business ownership, and seeing Ty and Nate apply what they learned in class to real-world opportunities—reopening a Jimmy John's on campus—is a testament to their entrepreneurial spirit and the power of education,” Browning said.
“The best part is that this isn’t just about business; it’s about giving young leaders the confidence to take calculated risks, leverage a franchise system’s support, and start building something of their own,” Browning said. “If this class has played even a small role in inspiring that kind of mindset, then that’s the biggest success I could ask for.”
