The Entrepreneurship Bug<\/strong><\/p>\nOriginally an aspiring accountant, Obiocha switched his focus at UConn to economics and in his second year, joined his roommate at a meeting of an on-campus economics club on a whim. There, Obiocha met a fellow student who hoped to develop a way to support charities while shopping online.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always knew I liked business and I liked helping people, and this was interesting to me because it combined them,\u201d Obiocha says. \u201cI joined the startup and that\u2019s when I got the entrepreneurship bug \u2014 particularly in social entrepreneurship, the idea that you can not only maximize your profit, but also maximize the positive effects on the people that you work with and on the planet as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
He became part of the four-member Sharelogical LLC team. The judges of the first UConn Innovation Quest competition originally anticipated only three winners, but were so impressed by the team that they created a special $5,000 award specifically to support its work.<\/p>\n
After graduation, Obiocha launched a micro-consignment economic development initiative through the Social Entrepreneur Corps in Cape Town, South Africa. He later returned to Connecticut to lead a corporate social responsibility program for a food technology startup in Hartford. In 2013, Obiocha co-founded A Happy Life, a coffee-roasting company and coffee shop in New Haven aimed at offering fair-wage coffee with a mission of creating a happier world that gained kudos from the National Retail Federation and the Connecticut General Assembly.<\/p>\n
Obiocha sold the business three years later upon being named a Social Entrepreneurship Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. He was later named the first Director of Innovation at Yale\u2019s Dwight Hall, the Center for Public Service and Social Justice, and in 2017 became a founding employee and, later, managing director of the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale.<\/p>\n
Now as executive director of CTNext, Obiocha has big plans for the Nutmeg State. \u201cWe have leaders who believe in Connecticut, we have the resources, and we have the talent. If we continue investing in the groundbreaking businesses shaping the future of our communities, we can build up Connecticut into the next epicenter of innovation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A Husky Forever<\/strong><\/p>\nDespite his Yale connections, Obiocha has remained a loyal Husky and an ardent fan of UConn\u2019s basketball teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud that he is a Husky,\u201d says Maric. \u201cHe is someone who brings people together, and we all share the same belief that education and entrepreneurship must be available to all, and that none are left without opportunities to fulfill their potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Maric and others at UConn, Obiocha wants to ensure the kind of economic inclusivity that supports talented people from all walks of life and knocks down barriers that might otherwise have blocked their aspirations.<\/p>\n
For Obiocha and CTNext, this has taken shape in the organization\u2019s startup supports, such as their Talent Bridge Program, which funds and connects high-growth companies with soon-to-be graduates; Entrepreneur Innovation Awards, a pitch competition and showcase for Connecticut\u2019s most innovative new companies; and Community Micro-Grants, which aim to support events, projects, and organizations that bolster Connecticut\u2019s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Obiocha hopes Connecticut\u2019s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem serves not only those who currently live in the state but also attracts former residents \u2014 including UConn alumni \u2014 back to launch businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor entrepreneurs, it\u2019s often difficult to find and understand what resources are available to you, and it\u2019s true that Connecticut has not always had the most robust supports to help these great ideas thrive. That\u2019s changing,\u201d Obiocha says. \u201cWe\u2019re doing such exciting things in Connecticut and you can be in on the ground floor in building an environment and ecosystem in which everyone can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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