Two business owners with Neeley connections received the Texas Business Hall of Fame honor this summer. Kassidy Allen, a senior, has developed an allergen-friendly meal prep business for college students and her award includes a scholarship. Caleb Biggurs, a recent MBA graduate, leads an entertainment marketing agency and will also be awarded a $15,000 prize.
June 27, 2024
By TCU Neeley School of Business
The Texas Business Hall of Fame recognizes servant-minded business leaders through their annual awards program. This summer, the class of 2024 award recipients were announced and included two TCU Neeley School of Business connections – Caleb Biggurs ’21 (MBA ’24) and Kassidy Allen, a senior who is a double major in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Marketing. Each one has a business venture that captured the interest of judges and led to statewide honors that includes a $15,000 prize for each honoree.
Caleb Biggurs leads an entertainment marketing agency, Area 51Media, that serves the music, fashion, lifestyle and technology industries. Texas Business Hall of Fame chose Biggurs for The Mitchell Family Foundation Award for innovative and entrepreneurial excellence.
“I’ve always been interested in marketing and advertising. I love telling great stories. It’s been my passion for a long time to create content and tell inspiring stories,” Biggurs said. “I love to take on new challenges and work with all types of different businesses to help them grow and develop.”
Earning an MBA at his beloved TCU, where Biggurs also received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and played football, gave him an opportunity to build upon relationships while combining his experience as an entrepreneur as he further developed his business acumen. Through the graduate program, Biggurs said he took advantage of opportunities and the expertise all around him.
“I would not have known about the Texas Business Hall of Fame without Neeley. That’s one of the highlights,” Biggurs said. “Another thing was connections. I was a younger PMBA, and most of the people in my cohort were older than me. It offered me a different perspective and a chance to connect with people who are well into their professional careers. I enjoyed hearing what other people had to say, who are a little further in their careers than I am.”
The next steps for Biggurs are to scale his marketing agency and continue to work with bigger brands to further develop his business.
Kassidy Allen is a double major in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Marketing, who received the Future Texas Business Legend Award for krescent, her allergen-friendly meal prep business that caters to college students. Allen’s passion to create krescent is a personal one. She has battled food allergies all of her life, and her venture looks to provide a service-oriented solution.
“It should not be so difficult to eat in college with food allergies,” said Allen, who at one point was scheduling her classes around the availability of meal options and missing events with her classmates to make home-cooked meals. “I want to create solutions. I believe in finding problems and taking active strides to fix them.”
Allen began krescent approximately 18 months ago and is preparing to provide allergen-friendly meals to college students via shipping. The additional capital provided through the Texas Hall of Fame prize will help active shipping start sooner.
“I am so grateful for the guidance and mentorship at Neeley, specifically through the BNSF Neeley Leadership Program. Everyone in that program has helped me get to where I am today,” Allen said. “The entire TCU community has been such an influential force for me, and I am so appreciative.”
In addition to providing the meal service through krescent, Allen plans to incorporate education opportunities across social media platforms and through content creation to educate people about the challenges people with food allergies face.
Biggurs and Allen will be celebrated alongside other award winners at the Texas Business Hall of Fame induction dinner in November.
