Idea Bank celebrates five-year anniversary

Over five years ago, on Apr. 9, 2021, the Troy University IDEA Bank opened its doors. Now, the resource center is celebrating and reflecting on the last five years of development. 

The IDEA Bank is a university-owned student development center that provides workshops, competitions and resources for student entrepreneurs. The IDEA Bank’s Director, Lynne George, can’t take credit for the idea, but she does take pride in what she has been able to do with it since she was put in charge in its infancy. 

“It's been a very rewarding job for me to just be a part of its startup,” George said. “It was still kind of a concept when I took this job, and I got to really develop the programs and welcome the students and get to know people. 

“Not only has it been rewarded for me personally, but I've seen it change people's lives and I've seen programs that we've hosted have such a huge impact on people and on the successes that have come from it.” 

Troy alumna, Avalon Meacham, is credited with the idea for the center. She was a student entrepreneur having trouble securing a business license when a conversation with her professor sparked the idea. 

“I am so impressed by all the progress that the staff at the IDEA Bank have made over the past five years, and I’m equally impressed by all of the student entrepreneurs,” Meacham said. “I have full confidence that the IDEA Bank will continue to serve many students and the community for many years to come.  

“I am just grateful that my story helped such an amazing program come to fruition and that I can still support the IDEA Bank as an alumna.” 

The IDEA Bank has now seen five different graduating classes of entrepreneurs and business owners, many of which credit their success to the help they received from the center when they were students. One particular group is still reaping the benefits two years after graduation. 

“Without the IDEA Bank, we would have nothing, truly,” said Reanna Thompson, co-owner of Studio 207 Graphic Design and the IDEA Bank’s program and marketing coordinator. “We would be drowning in Google searches trying to figure out what we really needed to do next.  

“Not only did I get the job here, but then there's a student incubator office that Jared Hester, one of my co-owners, ended up winning as an office.
 A lot of our clients are just walk-ins from here that we hear need marketing services and we're like, ‘We're right here!’  

“I mean, we landed the City of Troy that way, and that's just a crazy, huge client, so we would not be anywhere without it.” 

Through the years, the center’s worth and success have been proven through student achievements like Studio 207, but at the beginning, it wasn’t concrete that it would live up to George’s expectations. 

“I was comparing it to a lot of other schools’ entrepreneurship centers, and I was doing a lot of research on entrepreneurship centers, and none of them looked anything like this,” George said. “They were much bigger and at some point, I realized you just have to stop trying to be everyone else and just lean into what you know. 

“I didn't have a clear image of what it was going to become. I just had a lot of goals, and a lot of my goals we have achieved, a lot of my goals we have not yet achieved, but we have time.” 

One of her aforementioned not-yet-achieved goals, looking forward, is to expand the IDEA Bank’s services to fill the full space. They have empty rooms and an upstairs space that they are working on renovating and eventually adapting into new areas for new resources, events and entrepreneurial processes.  

“I definitely think we’re just scratching the surface and just getting started, but I think from where we were five years ago, I'm very pleased,” George said. “We've grown a lot and I'm excited to keep going.” 

The Tropolitan was unable to get a set-in-stone timeline for any of these advancements. Students interested in the IDEA Bank’s services can find it on Troy’s downtown square at 63 S. Court Square Unit A, Troy, AL 36081.