As a butter-making entrepreneur interested in churning out her product, Annenberg School of Communications student Emmy Keogh, C’26, did some digging and found the Food Innovation Lab, a program of Venture Lab. Venture Lab is a collaboration among the Wharton School, Penn Engineering, and the Weitzman School of Design, helping students from across Penn to develop their entrepreneurial pursuits.
For Keogh, preparing her pitch deck for Venture Lab was thrilling.
“It was exciting to ponder things like, ‘What is my value proposition? Who is my customer? And how can I make butter a talking point around the table?’,” she says.
Keogh presented her plans for Debonair Butter to Lauren Hooks, the Food Innovation Lab’s senior associate director, and Hooks laid out some of the opportunities offered by the lab: pathways to Whole Foods, a potential week in a Michelin-starred restaurant, access to an FDA food analyzer, connections to local dairy farmers, and guidance on whether to sell within state lines or take the business national.
“I was so overwhelmed by the possibilities, in the best way,” Keogh says. Since that meeting, Keogh has been in the Food Innovation Lab’s commercial kitchen every Wednesday and Friday, working out plans for her business.
Her hard work even culminated in a taste test at Wharton’s Lippincott Library this spring, where Keogh showcased four butter flavors — honey pistachio, blueberry sea salt, garlic parmesan, and rosemary thyme — for Penn students, faculty, and staff to sample. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, she says.
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By the Annenberg School for Communication
Posted: May 15, 2026
