Entrepreneurship

UConn Dentist Develops Customizable Toothbrush to Encourage Kids to Brush Better, Longer

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – When his patients’ parents would tell Dr. Dante Paolino that they had trouble coaxing their children to brush their teeth, he was admittedly a bit judgmental.

Then he and his wife had their own children, and the pediatric dentist’s whole perspective changed.

“My kids employed some classic stalling tactics, like throwing themselves on the floor, pursing their lips or locking their mouth shut, running away, pushing the toothbrush out of their mouth with their tongue, or shaking their head back and forth while trying to brush,’’ Paolino says. “They tried literally anything they could do to avoid getting the job done.’’

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UConn Student Justin Fargo Went from Family iPhone-Fixer to Small Business Cybersecurity Champion

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – In the last year, Justin Fargo ‘28 has created a new cybersecurity and compliance firm to help small- and medium-sized companies meet the requirements needed to become U.S. government contractors.

“I really think people should know that just because you’re a college student and you have a lot of obligations, you can still take risks. You don’t have to wait until you graduate to start a business,’’ says Fargo.

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Veterans’ Bootcamp Graduates 21 Entrepreneurs – Including One Who Appreciated a Great Hot Sauce Before He was Born

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – It was perhaps predestined that Sean Maloney would love hot sauce, because his mother had such strong cravings during pregnancy that she ate it straight out of the packet.

“By age 10, I was putting hot sauce on everything, even pancakes,’’ Maloney says.

Today, Maloney is the founder and owner of 13 Stars Hot Sauce, a veteran-owned small business with six sauces “ranging from mild to wild.”

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BUILDing Connecticut’s Capital City: Unique UConn Course Celebrates Five Years of Partnership, Collaboration, and Hartford Stories

Posted on by Jaclyn Severance

UConn Today – On a Wednesday afternoon in late April – tucked inside a quiet brick building in Hartford’s Frog Hollow neighborhood, just a few blocks from the shining gold dome of Connecticut’s State Capitol building – a celebration took place.

On the third floor of The Lyceum – an historic site that at different times in its past housed a box manufacturing company, a punk rock dance club, and a roller-skating business – there were balloons, and there was music. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Smiles and handshakes and hugs passed around.

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Innovation Quest Selects Five Top Startups, Ranging from Manufacturing Innovation to New Hair-Care Option

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – The Innovation Quest (iQ) entrepreneurship competition crowned five new champions on April 20, with innovations that included a novel manufacturing innovation, a system for making tuition payments easier, and tool to help protect creative endeavors from being usurped by AI.

The students ranged from a second-semester freshman to a ready-to-graduate Ph.D. candidate. Together, they shared $35,000 in prize money.

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First-Year Business Student Invites UConn Diners to ‘Swipe’ for Easy Dining Hall Nutrition Info

Posted on by Jaclyn Severance

UConn Today – Sean Howard ’29 (BUS) is not a code writer or a programmer.

He doesn’t have a background in computer science, and he comes from a family of teachers, not engineers.

But the first-year School of Business student from Branford, who hasn’t settled on his major quite yet, is an entrepreneur, which means that he tends to look at the world around him with an entrepreneurial mindset – seeing a need, and then trying to meet that need with a solution.

And in his first semester at UConn Storrs, he found a need.

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UConn’s Entrepreneurship Ranking Climbs in 2026 Princeton Review Findings

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – UConn’s reputation as an entrepreneurship academic powerhouse climbed significantly in the 2026 rankings released Nov. 12 by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur.

The results were based on 40 data points including academic offerings, faculty credentials, experiential learning, mentorship, and more.

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Wolff Competition Awards Grand Prize to Company Using Seaweed to Replace Plastic

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – SeaSol Technologies, a startup that is converting seaweed into compostable food packaging to replace plastic, was the grand prize winner at the Wolff New Venture Competition last week.

CEO Yidan Zhang, a UConn Ph.D. candidate, was exuberant at receiving the top award, which includes $30,000 prize and $5,000 in pro-bono services from Wolff Financial Group.

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Retired Army Major Wins EBV Alumni Event Pitch Competition

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn Today – If you ask U.S. Army Major (Ret.) Henry H. Washington III ’21 EBV about the experiences that set him up for success as a youngster, he will credit three things:

  • loving parents,
  • a never-miss-church-on-Sunday ethic,
  • participation in every sports team available, all which kept him busy, tired, and out of trouble and
  • a “village’’ of people who cared about him.

Today he is the Founder and CEO of the Henry H. Washington 3 Foundation, which serves to better the lives of children, teens and young adults in metro Atlanta. The foundation offers a wide range of services, but is particularly focused on helping youth find a career path, stay out of trouble, and serve the community.

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