Next in our series of Social Enterprise Stories we feature Vishal Patel. Vishal is the Founder and CEO of A Happy Life, a Wallingford, Connecticut based coffee roasting company that promotes happiness at home and throughout the world by profits to help farmers in developing countries live sustainable, happy livelihoods, coming up with ways to help customers bring more happiness into their lives, or finding the most environmentally sound way to deliver our products.

Why are you operating in Connecticut?

Having been born and raised in Wallingford, CT I wanted to start my company close to home.

Why did you decide to start a Social Enterprise?

After visiting Tanzania and other parts of Africa I realized there was a need to connect our wealthy market with their starving one. I wanted to create an entity that was going to help bring balance to the economic inequity between our society and undeserved ones such as Tanzania. Additionally, I wanted to create a brand that was going to help individuals realize happiness in their own lives regardless of where they came from.

What is the community you’re trying to have an impact in?

The main community we are trying to have impact in is in coffee growing communities in underserved countries around the world. We hope to help impoverished farmers create innovative solutions to the problems they face with the ultimate goal of creating a holistic and permanent end to poverty.

How do you/will you achieve that impact?

Using our profits from selling roasted coffee packaged in compostable 12oz bags we will help develop innovative solutions to improve healthcare, education, and entrepreneurship systems within each growing community. Additionally using, social media, creative packaging, and local events we want to create social movement designed around creating happiness in people’s lives today.

How do you balance purpose and profit?

We’ve decided to use 100% of our profits from selling coffee to help farmers in underserved countries because it was important to me that my company dedicate 100% of its resources towards accomplishing its mission and not be hindered by having to diverge additional profits to people that do not need it as bad.

What have been your biggest challenges thus far?

Our biggest challenge has been creating brand awareness. In a saturated market such as coffee it is difficult to differentiate and we have been working hard to create a brand that stands out.

What is the most rewarding thing to you about operating a social enterprise?

The most rewarding aspect of running a social enterprise is the freedom to innovate and create solutions to problems I see in the world. Being able to dedicate 100% of my energy towards solving these problems is a freedom I could not have in any other traditional job. I hope that my company, A Happy Life, will create this sort of environment for others as well.

Why do you want to incorporate as a benefit corporation?

 Incorporating as a benefit corporation will allow us to create a corporation that will be able to effectively create change, inform the public of the change we are creating and preserve our mission in the DNA of our business.

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