As a UConn student, Lyla Andrick ’24 (CAHNR) created about 2,000 brightly colored dinosaur stuffed animals in her dorm room, while also juggling schoolwork and a job at a veterinary clinic.

The plush animals have become so popular that the small New England boutiques where they are sold can’t keep them on the shelves.

After graduating in May, Andrick has become a full-time entrepreneur and is now on the verge of expanding her Happy Dinosaur startup by increasing production and developing a series of related, creative outlets for youngsters. Her target audience is children ages 2 to 8.

“I do think ‘screen time’ has engineered the creativity out of children’s lives to some degree, and at an age when original thought should be developing the most,’’ Andrick says. As a creative child, she would often get mixed messages about creativity and imagination, sometimes being encouraged to reign it in.

Happy Dinosaur is designed to enhance children’s creativity and spark their imagination by welcoming them into the world of her characters. She is currently writing stories to complement five of the original characters. Children will be encouraged to read the stories and submit their own ideas for future books and TV episodes.

“By opening our creative direction to kids, we can show them that it’s okay to get crazy with their creativity,’’ she says. “Happy Dinosaur is a way to create a lasting, personal experience that values the mind of a child through storytelling.’’

Happy Dinosaur Vying for $30,000 Wolff Competition Grand Prize

Happy Dinosaur is one of five UConn-affiliated startups pitching in the Wolff New Venture Competition on Oct. 1 in downtown Hartford. The competition will award more than $70,000 in prize money to participants, with the first-place finisher receiving a $30,000 check. The event is the School of Business’ pinnacle entrepreneurship challenge.

New this year, the event will include a startup showcase in addition to the pitch competition. Thirty UConn startups will be exhibiting their technologies, products, and services. Among them are: Opti-Moo, an agri-business for vegetable growers offering technology and irrigation management tools, and Puure, a retailer selling organic women’s undergarments. Attendees will be able to purchase items from the startups that sell consumer products. Some $45,000 in in-kind prizes will be awarded to startups participating in the showcase.

‘You Kick Down as Many Doors as You Can’

UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI) invited Andrick to attend this year’s Summer Fellowship Accelerator designed for promising student, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs. The courses and mentorship were extremely valuable, Andrick says, particularly for someone with a limited business background.

“As a solo entrepreneur, there are so many jobs to do.  When you’re starting off, you kick down as many doors as you can. But when you’re ready to grow, it’s no longer a one-person journey,’’ she says. “A smart entrepreneur gets people to open doors for them instead. Whether I pursued them, or they came to me, I met those people through CCEI. It was a great program. I loved it!’’

With a major in Entrepreneurship in Animal Science Technology, she had little exposure to traditional business courses. During the Summer Fellowship Accelerator, Prof. Wayne Bragg brought her up-to-speed on financing a startup.  “He has an amazing ability to explain complicated ideas without being demeaning or patronizing,’’ she says.

At the same time, Prof. Rory McGloin helped Andrick with her business pitch. “My first pitch was horrible. Absolutely horrible,’’ Andrick says. “He’s helped me develop confidence in speaking and become a 10-times better communicator.’’

One of the biggest benefits from both UConn and CCEI has been the camaraderie.

“The friendships are so valuable. Being a solo entrepreneur is very isolating. I’ve made great friends and even though they are in different industries, they’ve experienced many of the same things I have,’’ Andrick says.

High School Teachers Saw Andrick’s Potential

Andrick’s entrepreneurship journey started in high school. She loved to doodle, and one day sketched a smiling dinosaur on a friend’s AP Physics worksheet. When they turned in the homework, the teacher remarked about the happy dinosaur, inadvertently cementing the startup’s name.

“Happy dinosaurs became my signature doodle for a while and eventually they made it to my economics teacher, Mr. Lavazzo,’’ she says. Some students were doodling on a white board, and she did too. Lavazzzo loved her work and told her that Happy Dinosaur could be the next “Hello Kitty.’’ He later gave her a pack of erasable markers and requested she draw Happy Dinosaur having a snow day.

Others supported Andrick, including the school art teacher, who allowed her to hang out in an AP art class despite not being enrolled. Eventually she made a dinosaur out of clay and gave it to Lavazzo, who encouraged her to make a stuffed animal version.

During the pandemic, Andrick had time on her hands and the need to make some money for college, so she began to make Happy Dinosaurs that represented her friends’ college choices. It wasn’t long before she realized the children’s marketplace was an untapped gold mine.

Made of soft, apparel-grade fleece, the dinosaurs can go in the washing machine and are sustainable and durable. Happy Dinosaurs can be customized with 18 different colors, and some 100 combinations. She even offers limited edition dinosaurs, including everything from Scented Dinosaurs to Pride Dinosaurs and Halloween-themed Dinosaurs.

Creating the Next Chapter in Happy Dinosaurs

Andrick’s next steps for Happy Dinosaur are two-fold. She is looking for a manufacturer to make the make the stuffed animals because she can’t keep up with the orders. She is adamant that the company adhere to her very high standards for quality, sustainability, durability, and consistency. She is also creating stories for some of the characters.

“I am currently writing the stories for five original characters, starting with our main hero, Happy Dinosaur. There are five characters which will have their own original books and then we will be accepting story submissions from children for future e-books, print books, and TV show episodes,’’ she says. “I’m currently in the very beginning stage of working on an animated TV show but I’m focused on making sure these five characters are ‘just right’ first. I want to make a character that has the same multi-generational impact for kids as Snoopy did, so they grow with it, instead of out of it, so the character has to be just right.’’

“These dinosaur characters have the same kind of problems little kids might have, such as feeling embarrassed or saying the wrong thing, or getting ‘over-excited,’” she says. “We’re trying to have an element of emotional and social education without being on the nose or too etiquette focused. The ultimate goal for the characters is, for example, a four-year-old to say: ‘Hmm, I’m stuck, what would the Clever Dinosaur do? I’ll do that,’ and then be able to share that with us and have that become a book or episode.’’

“I’m happy with where I am,’’ Andrick says. “Summer Fellowship was so fast- paced, I learned so much in two months. I’m still maintaining that momentum, still growing quickly. I’ve met people who are interested in the characters and the toys. I hope Happy Dinosaur will last multiple generations.’’

The Wolff New Venture Competition will be held on Oct. 1 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the YG Club at Dunkin Park in Hartford. The event is free to attend, and all are welcome. Please pre-register at https://ccei.uconn.edu/wolff-new-venture-competition/.

The Wolff New Venture Competition is supported thanks to the generosity of the Wolff Family Fund for Strategic Entrepreneurship, as well as Revyrie, wiggin(x), Digital Surgeons, Santander, Sardilli Produce and Dairy, Prime Materials Recovery Inc., Webster Bank, Fiondella, Milone and LaSaracina CPAs, Baystate Financial, Mark and Jamie Summers, and Event Resources.