{"id":80708,"date":"2013-08-09T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T12:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=80708"},"modified":"2015-12-14T10:30:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T15:30:02","slug":"uconn-alums-living-the-sweet-life-as-founders-of-froyoworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/08\/uconn-alums-living-the-sweet-life-as-founders-of-froyoworld\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Alums Living the Sweet Life as Founders of FroyoWorld"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brothers<\/a>
Brothers Willam Bok '08 (CLAS), left, and Dennis Bok '04 (BUS), founders of the frozen yogurt chain FroyoWorld, in their Storrs Center store. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As kids, UConn alumni Dennis \u201904 (BUS) and William Bok \u201908 (CLAS) were self-described troublemakers. Today, they\u2019re enjoying the sweet life as entrepreneurs and founders of FroyoWorld \u2013 Connecticut\u2019s first self-serve frozen yogurt chain.<\/p>\n

Since its launch in the summer of 2010, the chain has grown to 18 locations, including the recently opened FroyoWorld in Storrs Center, just off campus at 1 Dog Lane. The chain is expected to expand to 50 or more locations by the end of 2013, according to William, the younger of the two Bok brothers. In the past year, FroyoWorld has experienced a whopping 600 percent growth.<\/p>\n

The Boks credit UConn \u2013 and specifically the Student Support Services program in which they both participated \u2013 with helping them achieve such success. SSS provides advising, academic support, and advocacy for first-generation, low-income, and\/or underrepresented students at UConn.<\/p>\n

In their youth, the Bok brothers were capable, but didn\u2019t have much initiative, admits William. It was their responsible older sister, also a UConn alum, who convinced them to apply for the SSS program.<\/p>\n

All SSS students take part in a six-week summer program just before their freshman year to help prepare them for university life and the rigors of college-level courses. Dennis went through the SSS summer program in 2000. His brother took part two years later.<\/p>\n

The course was \u201calmost like a boot camp,\u201d says Dennis. \u201cAt first, it\u2019s hard to be there knowing your friends are off at the beach,\u201d adds William, \u201cbut it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summer program showed them what to expect at UConn, and helped them get some basic requirements completed, easing the workload while they were adjusting to life in college. \u201cIt helped us out tremendously,\u201d says Dennis.<\/p>\n

Both brothers graduated from UConn \u2013 Dennis from the School of Business with a degree in accounting and William from CLAS with a major in history. While Dennis is the one with a business-related degree, both brothers have business in their blood. They followed in the footsteps of their parents, who came from Korea and opened their own dry-cleaning establishment in Branford.<\/p>\n

William got his initial taste of the frozen yogurt trade when he started a self-serve frozen yogurt lounge in San Francisco with his wife\u2019s cousin. A few years later, he sold the business and moved back to Connecticut. In August 2010, he opened the first FroyoWorld in New Haven with his wife and brother. The chain has been expanding rapidly ever since.<\/p>\n

FroyoWorld targets areas around college campuses, positioning its first store near Yale and others near Brown and UMass. As of now, most FroyoWorlds are located in New England and New York, but the chain also has two sites in Puerto Rico. In an effort to take the company international, the Boks are working on opening a store in London.<\/p>\n

From the very beginning, they intended to bring FroyoWorld to UConn. The new Storrs Center provided the perfect opportunity. They are also scheduled to open a store near UConn\u2019s planned new Hartford campus.<\/p>\n

While frozen yogurt isn\u2019t new, the self-serve aspect of their business is. Customers pay by the ounce and choose from a rotating menu of 12 unique flavors and dozens of toppings and \u201cdrippings\u201d (sauces). The base flavor is the original award-winning Tart that William brought back from San Francisco. His wife and sister create new flavors, which are exclusive to FroyoWorld. (Dennis\u2019 favorites are Strawberry Tart and Peanut Butter. William prefers Original Tart topped with Fruity Pebbles, strawberries, and mocha \u2013 a Japanese sweet rice cake.)<\/p>\n

The Bok brothers aren\u2019t just introducing new Froyo flavors to the world. They\u2019re also creating much-needed jobs. Each FroyoWorld employs 10 to 15 people. The company\u2019s core employees are mainly friends and family, says William. The manager of the New Haven store is a fellow alum of UConn and Student Support Services. And the manager of the Storrs FroyoWorld, Cec Amado, first met Dennis in the SSS summer program.<\/p>\n

\u201cDennis was my first friend at UConn,\u201d Amado says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to help UConn people,\u201d says Dennis.<\/p>\n

The frozen yogurt barons have come a long way since their undergraduate days. To today\u2019s SSS students, Dennis says: \u201cWhen you ask yourself, \u2018Why am I learning this? I\u2019ll never use it,\u2019 think of it as the building blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

William agrees: \u201cAll the things you learn and the people you meet will come into play later.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s some pretty sweet advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneurs Dennis \u201904 (BUS) and William Bok \u201908 (CLAS) launched Connecticut’s first self-serve frozen yogurt chain in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":81000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-80708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 17:55:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80708"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107109,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80708\/revisions\/107109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/81000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80708"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=80708"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=80708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}