At 24 years old, Chris Sacchinelli is on track to become a millionaire, helping dozens of businesses start and acting as the CEO of a holding company aimed at bootstrapping startups.
His secret lies, not in his parents”™ wealth or lack thereof, but in learning financial literacy at a young age, he says. He opened his first mutual fund at 9 years old and has since embraced the uncertainty that comes with making an investment.
“Financial literary, and the stability you gain from it, opens doors and really empowers people,” said Sacchinelli, who lives in Norwalk. “Instead of being slaves to a cog, in a sense, we can empower ourselves and see what our maximum potential is.”
Hoping to help others actualize their dreams and ambitions, Sacchinelli”™s latest venture, Swaave Elements, will be offering young adults free courses on financial literacy and entrepreneurship, beginning in 2014. The program, an extension of Sacchinelli”™s Swaave Holdings company, will teach students about financial vehicles and how to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to starting a business.
During the course, students will address the beginnings of a startup and explore the different facets of managing a company, whether it”™s marketing, accounting, product development or human resources. At the end of the course, the best student will be invited to stay on with Swaave Holdings to manage the project the group had worked on.
“Not many individuals are coming out of college and getting a job they”™re passionate about,” Sacchinelli said. “But if younger individuals knew what they were good at, and had the (financial) freedom to actually do it, the world would be a lot different.”
Sacchinelli said he started Swaave Holdings about eight years ago as a boutique investment firm building ventures from the ground up. The first successful company distributed digital music around colleges, which lead to the technology behind one of the company”™s most successful platforms, a digital advertising network. A handful of Sacchinelli”™s ventures have broken the six-figure threshold and one has broken seven figures.
Currently Swaave Holdings supports six ventures and is trying to launch one to three new startups every quarter. With a new batch of students churning out of Swaave Elements, Sacchinelli said he believes he”™ll be able to quickly expand the holdings company. For the last four years he”™s been informally “teaching” new entrepreneurs the skills the courses will offer. But now it will be in a structured environment with set “blueprints” he has developed.
Sacchinelli, who grew up in Norwalk, said he was happy to be back in the state after entrepreneurial stints in Boston and Tampa, Fla. He primarily moved back to the area to be with his family and ill mother but said he was excited to contribute to the burgeoning entrepreneurial scene in Connecticut.
While not officially a part of CT NEXT, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s innovation ecosystem, Sacchinelli said he hoped Swaave Elements would closely complement the ecosystem and provide alternative support for entrepreneurs.
“We”™d like to complement the overall Connecticut innovation and startup initiatives around the state, but do it in our own way,” Sacchinelli said. “By differentiating ourselves, we”™ll be able to add to the environment more. We believe strongly in complementation. In competition, everyone is a loser.”
Good idea and well needed. Every student should be exposed to financial literacy at the very least.. Keep up the good work…