Jake Baron was walking back from class one day, and his shoulders were really bothering him. It seemed that this blob of weight on his back was the problem.

Not too long after, Baron ran into a couple that lived in his apartment complex. They had just come back from a jog, but they did not carry their keys and needed someone to let them in.

“I was wondering why someone hasn’t made a real comfortable backpack or backpack that did more than just put weight on your shoulders,” Baron said. “And then I started thinking about that, as well as why can’t people run with anything.”

So it began. Over the next several months, Baron used these two instances to launch him into this winning idea of Casenova, his new and unique backpack.

Once Baron found out that UT offers grants every semester for student-owned businesses, he really began to work.

Tom Graves, a friend of Baron, is the operations director for Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He says that these bi-yearly grants given by UT can really aid students in their quests for entrepreneurships.

“We reach out across campus for any student who has a business to make an application for the grant,” Graves said. “Typically we get around nine to 12 student-owned companies that will pitch for grant money. The intention is to provide seed money for start-ups.”

During class, Baron would draw sketches of various ideas that he had for this new backpack. He made paper cutouts and paper models. After many wads of paper and ideas twirled around, Baron finally decided on neoprene as the material, which is best known for its use in wetsuits and koozies.

“Most backpacks have very thin straps and are very uncomfortable,” Baron said. “This one has a mesh, so it’s not hot and sweaty against your back. The other thing is that it’s tight. It’s snug against your body so when you’re wearing it it’s not bouncing around, rubbing against you.”

“I see all these students with backpacks, and I said, you know, if you’ve got a novel idea for a backpack, you may be able to get some real traction,” Graves said.

Baron had been in competitions before his final pitch for the $12,500 grant, but the idea was no shoo-in. Baron won first place in a 2010 competition, and then went on to compete in Vol Court, which is run through the university research foundation.

“I actually ran from graduation in my gown to give this pitch,” Baron said. “Later that day I received a call from Tom Graves, and he told me that I had won the competition, and within a week he told me that I had won this grant.”

The grant is from the Boyd Venture Fund. Randy Boyd, who started up the fund, set up an endowment with the business school, which is administered by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Baron has already received $7,500 of his grant, and $5,000 of that has already been allotted for placing the order to the manufacturer in China, where he will be receiving his single-strap knapsacks from.

Graves, who met Baron as a rising junior, said that Baron is the exemplary applicant of the grant.

“He actually met the criteria of the grant,” Graves said. “Is the business scalable? It clearly is. Does he have a set of identified milestones that he intends to achieve with the money he will be awarded? He does. And is there real growth potential for his business? And there is.”

Apparently, the sprint from graduation to the pitch platform paid off.