A look back at the Yale Innovation Summit’s boldest ideas shaping tomorrow’s world.
 

By Evan Sun, Yale College 2027 

At the 2025 Yale Innovation Summit, the panel “Repeat Offenders: Top Entrepreneurs Discuss Launching Multiple Ventures in Connecticut” convened in partnership with Connecticut Innovations, featured three of the state’s most remarkable founders: Vlad Coric of Biohaven, Michael Weiner of Abbratech, and Andre Swanston of PHȲND. Moderated by Shannon Allen, founder of grown and board member at Connecticut Innovations, the discussion explored how risk, resilience, and reinvention define entrepreneurship in Connecticut—and why these “repeat offenders” keep choosing to build here.

1. Entrepreneurship as Inheritance and Service

“Entrepreneurs solve the problems others are too afraid to touch.” — Vlad Coric, Biohaven

Allen opened by grounding the conversation in legacy—her grandfather’s role as Connecticut’s Commissioner of Minority Small Business—and the notion that entrepreneurship is a civic act, a continuation of service through creation.

For Vlad Coric, that mission took shape when he left academia to tackle what others had abandoned: cures for mental illness. “Everyone saw catastrophe; I saw opportunity,” he said. The result was Biohaven, a biotech powerhouse born in his spare bedroom. For Coric, entrepreneurship is less about risk than responsibility—to patients, to science, to the possibility of doing better.

2. Risk, Resilience, and Reinvention

“If it’s not hard, it’s not worth it.” — Andre Swanston, PHȲND

Michael Weiner, a lifelong scientist turned CEO, described the unease of trading the lab for the boardroom. “My job used to be solving the science,” he said. “Now it’s keeping the doors open.” His insight reframed entrepreneurship as a sustained act of translation—between vision and viability, experiment and enterprise.

Andre Swanston, meanwhile, turned adversity into propulsion. A Bronx-born son of immigrants who went from nightclub owner to JPMorgan executive to data entrepreneur, he thrives in the impossible. “How do I keep going when it gets hard?” he mused. “I don’t even think about it. If it isn’t hard, it isn’t worth it.” His next venture—bringing a Major League Soccer team to Bridgeport—extends that same refusal to settle for what already exists.

3. Building Where Others Don’t: Why Connecticut Works

“Most investors ask why not. CI asks how.” — Michael Weiner, Abbratech

Each founder credited Connecticut Innovations (CI) as the catalytic force behind their success. Coric called CI “an early believer when belief was all we had.” Weiner praised its open-door pragmatism. Swanston highlighted the state’s “dense talent and low overhead,” where founders can recruit from both New Haven’s biotech hub and New York’s creative corridor.

They agreed that Connecticut’s innovation scene thrives on collaboration over competition—a network of doers who pick up the phone, share advice, and invest locally. The result is a uniquely human ecosystem: small enough for connection, ambitious enough for scale.

4. Lessons in Leadership and Failure

“Failures are tuition for innovation. One success pays for the rest.” — Vlad Coric, Biohaven

When asked what defines a great entrepreneur, the panelists’ answers formed a composite portrait:

Resilience, said Coric—“You’ll hear a hundred reasons why it can’t be done. Focus on the one reason it can.”

Focus, said Weiner—“Pick a problem that will still matter when the tools finally exist.”

Ego, said Swanston—“The right kind. If you don’t believe you’re the best person to do it, why should anyone else?”

On failure, they were unified: it’s not a setback but a prerequisite. As Coric put it, “Ninety percent of what we test doesn’t work. But that one drug changes the world.”

5. The Human Side of Building

“Balance isn’t stepping away from the work—it’s building a life that makes the work worth doing.” — Shannon Allen, grown

Despite their intensity, each founder returns to what grounds them. Coric still sees patients and mentors young entrepreneurs. Weiner crafts ceramics and teaches pottery at the Guilford Art Center. Swanston keeps family dinners sacred and debates Shark Tank valuations with his kids on Saturday mornings.

Their routines aren’t retreats from ambition but reflections of it—proof that meaning sustains motivation. As Allen closed, “Entrepreneurship doesn’t require you to lose yourself; it asks that you know why you began.”

6. What’s Next for Connecticut’s Founders

“Connecticut isn’t just producing companies—it’s producing repeat offenders. People crazy enough to keep doing it.” — Andre Swanston, PHȲND

Each founder is already writing the next chapter:

• Biohaven is advancing precision immunology and novel treatments for epilepsy and bipolar disorder.
• Abbratech is exploring next-generation antibody discovery tools.
• PHȲND and the Bridgeport stadium project are projected to create 1,300 permanent jobs and $3.4 billion in economic impact for Connecticut.

Together, they’re reshaping the state’s economy and proving that innovation doesn’t have to migrate elsewhere. Connecticut, they agreed, is no longer a stopover for founders—it’s home base for those bold enough to begin again.