Lyla Andrick started Happy Dinosaur in March 2020 as a COVID relief fundraiser and continued as a side hustle through college. During the entrepreneurial journey, Lyla studied Entrepreneurship in Animal Science Technology at University of Connecticut and advanced Happy Dinosaur. UConn's Werth Institute and Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation were essential for taking the turning the small business into a start and eventually a full time toy company. For four years, every single dinosaur was handmade by Lyla, until demand suggested an opportunity to scale. Aside from Happy Dinosaur, Lyla is spending her post-graduate year developing Happy Dinosaur and occasionally riding horses or reading about 18th century maritime archeology.