Lukas Ng Builds Agriculture Startup as Technology Management MBA Student

The seeds for Greener Pastures had already been planted when Lukas Ng (TMMBA 2024) enrolled in the Technology Management MBA program through the University of Washington (UW) Foster School of Business. But Ng credits the MBA experience with giving him and his wife and business partner, Tawni Rodriguez Ng, the tools to take their agriculture startup to the top at multiple UW pitch competitions.  

In January 2024, Greener Pastures was awarded the $1,000 WRF Capital Second Place Prize, as well as the $200 Davis Wright Tremaine Best Communicator Prize, at the Science & Technology Showcase through the UW’s Science & Engineering Business Association and Foster’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship.  

Greener Pastures competed again in May at the Buerk Center’s Dempsey Startup Competition — the largest and longest-running collegiate new venture competition in the Pacific Northwest — winning the $2,500 DLA Piper Best Idea with Global Reach Prize. The team also competed as a finalist in Buerk Center’s Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge in March 2024. These valuable opportunities made it possible for Ng and Rodriguez Ng to continue exploring Greener Pastures’ commercial viability. 

“This would not have happened without going through these competitions,” Ng said. “Not only was it informational, but the support and mentorship we received also served as a force to make us take those next steps.”

Applying diverse business experience to drive a solution 

Ng and Rodriguez Ng, who is also a UW student pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Biology, first started mulling over the concept of Greener Pastures after learning about a problem encountered in the agriculture industry that they just couldn’t let go of.   

“At first, it was just a passing comment and a passing interest,” Ng said, “but then when I thought about the problems of climate change and food security, it seemed like something that could be solved with a little bit of business know-how, common sense, and business acumen.” 

As a business consultant who has also worked in sales, marketing, and go-to-market strategy, Ng already had the background to start working on Greener Pastures. The startup has developed a regenerative agricultural solution that aims to improve how seeds are planted for optimal growth while allowing farmers to increase crop yields and decrease inputs. 

But the timing couldn’t have been better to help bring the idea to fruition. 

“The concept would have been explored either way,” Ng said, “but it was a happy coincidence being in the Technology Management MBA program and participating in the UW pitch competitions.”

Clear path to the Technology Management MBA 

As an undergraduate at the UW, Ng floundered in his career path, changing his major seven times before begrudgingly settling on a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. However, his path to the Technology Management MBA was much clearer after watching his brother, Thomas Ng, graduate from the program in 2018. 

“When Lukas started talking about business ideas, I remember thinking, ‘You’d benefit from an MBA,’” Thomas Ng said about his younger brother. “I’d give him a couple pointers here and there, but I knew the classes would be so much more beneficial. 

“I couldn’t teach him the fundamentals and competitive strategy thinking the way the program could.” 

The Technology Management MBA is one of the Foster School of Business’s four MBA programs for working professionals, featuring an accelerated 18-month program taught by award-winning Foster faculty.  

“I literally used every new learning the next day on the job,” Lukas Ng said. “I still find myself leaning on the frameworks we learned in class when I think about decision-making on the job and for all the customers I work with.” 

In addition to a unique curriculum focused on technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, students have access to invaluable career support, mentorship and networking with 1,500 TMMBA alumni and nearly 60,000 Foster alumni. 

“The alumni network and existing network with the cohort is so strong,” Ng said, “I was able to leverage it for research purposes to vet ideas.” 

UW pitch competitions drive innovation 

Participating in the UW pitch and new venture competitions added another layer of value to the Technology Management MBA program, helping Ng build his network even more, to include investors at both the angel and commercial levels. “We were so overwhelmed with the support we received that we had to pick and choose who we had support from,” Ng said, adding that he witnessed each team receiving the same level of support.  

“The Dempsey Startup, and really all of our competitions and programs at the Buerk Center, are designed to challenge and position student ideas and innovations for growth,” said Yuko Oaku, Dempsey Startup manager and Buerk Center Assistant Director. “They achieve that in and out of the classroom by receiving access to the greater entrepreneurial community and with their community of peers, who are also driven to succeed.” 

Founded in 1991, the Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship inspires students from all majors and disciplines across campus to pursue their entrepreneurial passions.

Using storytelling to pitch their product 

Ng and Rodriguez Ng debuted Greener Pastures at the Science & Technology Showcase, which places a spotlight on science- and technology-based innovations coming out of UW. This smaller competition is meant as a proving ground of sorts for ideas that look to go beyond the initial potential shown in research or through customer feedback. 

“After the first competition, we learned the importance of storytelling and narrating to complement the science,” Ng said. “When we got Second Place overall and Best Communicator Prize, that’s when we thought, ‘There’s something here, we’ll explore it further.’” 

Just two months later, Ng and Rodriguez Ng entered Greener Pastures in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), which gives students the opportunity to come up with meaningful solutions to big problems the world faces related to climate and the environment.  

“At the EIC, we learned about legal hurdles, competitive hurdles, and production hurdles that we could come across in the future,” Ng said, adding that the experience also reiterated the importance of drafting a comprehensive story and narrative. And while they did not win a follow-on funding prize at the EIC, the pair and their innovation were featured in a Poets & Quants article highlighting sustainability opportunities for MBAs in the Foster School.  

Ultimately, these lessons helped Greener Pastures advance to the Sweet 16 Round of the Dempsey Startup Competition, from a record field of 136 teams. The Dempsey Startup provides student teams with mentoring from entrepreneurs and investors, the opportunity to tell their stories to the Seattle startup community, and the visibility they need to get going.  

“At Dempsey, it was all about understanding the rules of the game that you’re playing before you decide to play the game,” Ng said. “If you do decide to play the game, make sure that you are evaluating yourself on the same rubric on which you will be evaluated – talking to investors and customers, that’s the real framework of the competition.”

An ambition for entrepreneurship

After graduating with his Technology Management MBA in June 2024, Ng is continuing his work as a business consultant while also pursuing options for Greener Pastures. But what’s next for him is still unclear. 

“My ambitions have not changed,” Ng said. “Whether it’s a year or 10 years from now, I will be doing something on my own. It’s just a matter of, ‘Is it the right idea, and am I the right person to do it?’” 

In the meantime, he hopes to mentor new Technology Management MBA students and maintain close connections with his graduating class. 

“There’s a friendship and kinship with this group where you can talk about your work, and it feels like a natural part of it,” Ng said. “It’s not work-life balance, but work-life integration.”

Learn more about the Technology Management MBA here.