Meet Andre Swanston, Connecticut’s first black majority owner of a professional sports team. The black entrepreneur has always aspired to own a sports franchise.
Swanston told NBC Connecticut that she chose soccer because she was a great fan, despite not playing it. Today, he is the president of Connecticut Sports Group, which owns the Connecticut United Football Club.
CT United Football Club became the newest team to join MLS Next Pro, a professional men’s soccer league run by Major League Soccer. His role with CT United Football Club places him among the few black major owners in American sports history.
Swanston was a tech investor before becoming the owner of a professional sports club. In 2013, he founded Tru Optik, a streaming data and analytics platform, inspired by his father’s hard work after immigrating to the United States from the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Swanston began working as a financial advisor at Ameriprise Financial after earning a finance degree from La Salle University and a business degree from the University of Connecticut. He later worked as vice president of investments at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from 2010 until 2012.
Before entering corporate America, he owned and operated nightclubs and restaurants. He also engaged in local advertising to increase awareness for his businesses. His experience in this field will drive him to pursue a full-time career in technology, resulting in the establishment of Tru Optik.
Tru Optik provides data management, campaign activation, audience measurement, and marketing attribution for OTT media providers and linked TV, as stated on his LinkedIn page. According to his Instagram page, Trup Optik is intended to help media firms, advertisers, and publishers.
Starting and running his technology company was not easy for him. He admitted that in order to keep the company viable, he had to sometimes accept the venture’s minimum earnings. And, like many black entrepreneurs, obtaining venture investment was tough, especially in the early stages.
“My fear of disgrace helped me overcome frequent rejection from premier venture capital firms as a young black CEO who did not attend an Ivy League university or work for a major tech company. According to Fortune, many venture capital funds refused to meet with him. “Instead of allowing my setbacks crush me, I used them to prove the VC funds wrong. I attracted angel investors, small venture capital firms, state investment vehicles, and strategic corporate investors.”
According to a Skydeo report, he led the company in developing a proprietary household graph that allows advertisers to target specific members inside a household.
According to NBC Connecticut, TransUnion paid more than $100 million to acquire the company in 2020. This came after TransUnion had already invested in Tru Optik’s $10 million seed round.
As the first Black majority owner of a professional sports team in Connecticut, his ambitions for the team include a new stadium, a free youth academy, a hotel, and affordable housing.