Orrego Award for Emerging Entrepreneurs, in honour of Jerome and Tyler
Juan Orrego, BCom’18, is a Colombian-born entrepreneur who immigrated to Canada at 17 years of age. Juan comes from a family of entrepreneurs, and he always knew what he was going to do when he was older: build companies.
At 21, Juan founded Cuboh while in his last year of his undergraduate degree. He found it challenging to build a company full-time while going to school — he had limited financial resources and the most common piece of feedback he heard was "raise money from friends or family," but as an immigrant, he had no network that could support his business.
Juan then found the Innovation Centre at UVic and received backing through several awards and pitch competitions that literally funded his food and rent. He holds the Innovation Centre and such awards very dear to his heart, without them his life would have looked very different.
Juan wants to support other emerging entrepreneurs—particularly immigrants—just as he was supported when starting out. He hopes to do so in honour of two influential individuals, Tyler and Jerome, who played a pivotal role in his own entrepreneurial journey.
At 21, Juan founded Cuboh while in his last year of his undergraduate degree. He found it challenging to build a company full-time while going to school — he had limited financial resources and the most common piece of feedback he heard was "raise money from friends or family," but as an immigrant, he had no network that could support his business.
Juan then found the Innovation Centre at UVic and received backing through several awards and pitch competitions that literally funded his food and rent. He holds the Innovation Centre and such awards very dear to his heart, without them his life would have looked very different.
Juan wants to support other emerging entrepreneurs—particularly immigrants—just as he was supported when starting out. He hopes to do so in honour of two influential individuals, Tyler and Jerome, who played a pivotal role in his own entrepreneurial journey.