Soarce’s path to revolutionizing the world of material science grew from the ashes of a blown-up rocket experiment while Derek Saltzman ’23 and Mason Mincey ’23 were still engineering students at UCF.
They had been tasked in a semester-long class assignment to build a carbon fiber rocket that would successfully carry the professor’s payload. While their design may have failed epically — while being broadcast live on the internet — they noticed one very important element that turned out to be the spark for their future company.
“When we walked up to the rocket, we saw that the motor had gone through a 2-inch-thick steel plate, but the carbon fiber that we had made was intact and still super strong and actually protected the professor’s payload after exploding and crashing,” Saltzman says. “We said, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good at manufacturing this [carbon fiber] stuff.’ ”
They took it as a sign to change their majors from aerospace engineering to materials science and engineering, and the earliest roots of Soarce were planted.
Sustainably Strengthening Industries
Soarce is at the forefront of bio-based nanomaterials and seeks to solve society’s greatest climate challenges by leveraging natural materials to create products that can outperform those made synthetically.
Drawn from seaweed, hemp and elephant grass, their nanocellulose coating can be applied to and fortify carbon fiber structures — everything from hockey sticks to electric vehicles to rocket ships.
“That allows engineers to design parts that are lighter, stronger and more efficient,” Saltzman says. “For electric vehicles, they can now go farther. In the world of aerospace, we’re making those materials stronger so now you have more payload mass that you can put into space.”
Their innovation has so much promise it has already secured $3.2 million in funding.
“UCF is about dreaming big, going as big as you can. And that’s how we feel.” — Derek Saltzman
“UCF is about dreaming big, going as big as you can. And that’s how we feel,” Saltzman says. “We’re on pace to what we feel is going to be the largest global nanocellulose producer in the world. And we are not afraid to say that and stand behind it. That’s a big dream, but that’s kind of what we’re here to do — make big changes.”
UCF-Backed Entrepreneurship
Their entrepreneurial journey has gone through several iterations since Saltzman and Mincey were randomly assigned as roommates in UCF Housing during their freshman year. The pair dabbled in enterprises involved with agriculture and drone racing, cutting their teeth on the business side of running a company through resources UCF offers including the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s UpStarts Student Venture Accelerator Program.
To this day, they’re still partnering with the UCF ecosystem, utilizing the UCF Business Incubation Program’s Life Sciences Incubator in Lake Nona, which gives Soarce access to a fully equipped, Biosafety Level II wet lab to foster their work in advanced materials.
“UCF has really strong partnerships and connections to industry that allow you to funnel your idea from a lab-benchtop scale all the way to integrating into a Fortune 500 company to get that product off the ground,” Saltzman says.
Now, along with fellow UCF alums and Soarce co-founders Matthew Jaeger ’22, an actuarial science alum, and Patrick Michel, a former management student, they’re looking forward to expanding their operations into an 8,000-square-foot facility in partnership with Tavistock and heading into pilot trials with Fortune 500 companies.
“It’s really cool to see how far we’ve come, from an idea in a notebook that we started eight years ago to now within the next three to five years, we’ll have that material not only created, but actually being flown into space and amongst the stars,” Saltzman says.
The Soarce co-founders were recognized on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry list in 2026.
