Imagine going to the grocery store and buying a bag of cheesecake bites made with Greek yogurt. Joshua Van Tassel is an agricultural business senior making this idea come to reality. He co-founded Nibble — a business selling guilt-free cheesecake bites backed by Real California Milk. He came up with this idea with his friend Alex Pope in their agricultural entrepreneurship class last year. The top three projects of the class would receive an offer for funding from a Real California Milk sponsor.
Although Van Tassel and his partner’s project did not place in the top three, the sponsor called them after the class and offered funding. Since then, they have continued developing their business – incorporating feedback from business owners and the community and dedicating their senior project to it.
After graduation, Van Tassel hopes to receive more mentorship to help him and his partner grow Nibble as a company. They are applying to the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s Summer Accelerator and Incubator programs. Their future goals are to sell Nibble products at local farmer’s markets, local premium stores and even grocery stores nationwide.
One word that best describes you: Creative
One thing you would bring to a deserted island: My dog
Your future plans: Continue my company Nibble, or I do have a couple offers for different jobs I’m looking into as well
One object you can’t do your job without: A knife
A Cal Poly class that shaped your life: Entrepreneurship in Agriculture (ABG 304)
Q and A:
Kaylie Wang: What has been the biggest challenge of creating a business?
Joshua Van Tassel: The hardest part was probably the formulation in the beginning because we had no food science or baking background. Essentially it came down to just a ton of trial and error and research. Some of that research was literally just scrolling through TikTok and looking at different healthy cheesecake recipes people made. And then once we finally got it, we stuck with it and really haven’t changed it since.
KW: If you were to go back in time, would you have done anything differently when you started Nibble?
JVT: Probably more community outreach and sampling. In the very beginning, going up to random people and asking them to try the product or reaching out to random people was really scary. Once we actually started doing it, it got easier and easier and easier. Now, we feel like we can go up to anyone and talk to them.
KW: What advice would you give to Cal Poly students who aspire to be entrepreneurs?
JVT: One, consistency is the biggest thing. In the beginning, I thought that Nibble was a silly idea. I think you can make any idea pretty big and worthy if you actually put the time in every single day. The consistency usually shows in the end from all the hard work and not giving up.
Two, I’d say one of the biggest things that you can get out of starting a business is making many different connections. Almost every single week we’re meeting a new founder or CEO who just is willing to talk to us. It’s super cool to be able to learn from all these different people and build all these different relationships.
KW: Who has been your most important connection and what advice have they given you?
JVT: Some of the best advice I received came from Justin Gold, founder of Justin’s Peanut Butter. Justin was working as a server and at REI while he was trying to start his business. I think everyone’s trying to get the best six figure jobs and have a family right out of school. One of the biggest things that’s held us back is that social construct. He told us if it’s something that you truly love, there’s seriously no reason not to. Do the things that you love, and if you truly love it, it’s going to be worth it in the end.
For the final Peak issue this year, the Peak team chose to hold exit interviews with nine students on the horizon of impact. Whether it’s going pro in a less-than usual sport, starting a cheesecake business or transforming the music marketing scene, nine seniors in the class of 2026 stood out as those led by influence. Check out the rest of the features here.
