NMSU College of Business alum, grad student celebrate recent Aggie Shark Tank wins

Original Article | Tatiana Favela | tfavela5@nmsu.edu | January 2, 2024

Adriana Garcia is a graduate student entrepreneur and innovator from New Mexico State University’s College of Business who took the chance and reaped the benefits as one of the winners of the 2023 Aggie Shark Tank.  
 
Garcia is currently pursuing her master’s in business administration with a concentration in finance. She recently won first place in the “Shark Favorite” category with a grand prize of $5,000 and shared her idea for BAClog, a data-driven consumer insights platform for alcohol sales, stemmed from her love of baseball.  
 
“My father became a die-hard Red Sox fan while attending school in Boston — a trait he would later pass onto me,” she said. “Earlier this year, Matt Strahm, a reliever for the Philadelphia Phillies, observed that Major League Baseball fans were being put at risk with the extension of alcohol sales beyond the seventh inning despite the shortened game times, given the newly implemented pitch clock. So, this summer I decided to attend as many MLB games as possible (i.e., as I could afford) to gather data and conduct interviews on this issue.”  
 
Through this process, Garcia talked to dozens of fans, vendors and ballpark staff at Chase Field in Phoenix, Fenway Park in Boston, and Camden Yards in Baltimore.  
 
“As I started this process, I discovered more and more people were willing to talk to me because they also identified this as a problem that needed a common sense solution,” she said.  
 
As a result, Garcia developed a platform that helps provide a better understanding of product consumption in real time in an effort to mitigate potential risk while continuing to drive alcohol sales at large scale venues.  
 
“Using the demographics consumers provide from their ID, and by creating a drink ledger at time of purchase, servers can better estimate someone’s consumption level and allow them the ability to better determine if someone has had too much to drink in the event space while verifying their legal drinking age,” she explained. “For the users, this will streamline their purchases while generating a rewards program to their account.”  
 
Garcia said winning this category feels like a huge accomplishment and shows that people believe in her idea. She hopes that large corporations do more to promote responsible drinking instead of passing on that responsibility to the consumer.  
 
“One common theme among my interviews was that each person could recall an event they attended where an overly intoxicated individual was present, and it negatively impacted their experience.”  
 
Garcia was one of several students from NMSU’s College of Business who took home prizes from the Aggie Shark Tank event. College of Business alum Tony Rico won the technology software-as-a-service application category.  
 
“This win secured my dreams and ideas, and it allows me to believe that any of my dreams are possible with enough determination and effort,” Rico said. “It was a good practice for the real world – it gave me a good wrap-around idea for how business would be in real life and has helped me tremendously.”  
 
Alejandro Muñoz, managing director of No Border Ventures and one of the 2023 “sharks” said he was truly impressed with the level of thoughtfulness and work that the student entrepreneurs put into their ventures.  
 
“I'm hopeful for the future of entrepreneurship in the region,” Muñoz said, “and I look forward to supporting and collaborating with these students.”  
 
Rico and Garcia said they encourage other students to not give up on their ideas and to believe in themselves as much as they did.  
 
“Don’t ever give up. No one wants to go against someone who’s infinitely persistent,” Rico shared. “Don’t ever quit – keep doing what you love not what gets you paid.”  
 
“Born and raised in Las Cruces, I have both a desire and commitment to see New Mexico thrive,” Garcia said. “I hope I can inspire others to feel the same.”  
 
The event took place in October and is sponsored by the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship and housed at NMSU’s Arrowhead Center. The program aims to train, motivate and aid students during the early stages of their business endeavors while giving them an opportunity to showcase their business ideas to regional business leaders and investors.  
 
For more information about Aggie Shark Tank, contact Carlos Cuesta Albornoz at carlosic@nmsu.edu or visit https://arrowheadcenter.nmsu.edu/program/studio-g/aggie-shark-tank/.