Stories & Updates

Republished with permission from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, who originally published the content here: https://lerner.udel.edu/seeing-opportunity/friends-to-founders/. The “Blue Hens of a Feather” series highlights students and alumni of the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics who “flock together” with fellow Blue Hens to launch successful business ventures. Read on for the story of two friends who started their company while at UD and have remained true to their Blue Hens origins as they’ve expanded.

After deeply exploring the tech space on his entrepreneurial journey, Jonathan Wood, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019, discovered his true unique value. The recent graduate emphasized his own tech and entrepreneurial capabilities to land a full-time tech role within PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a Big Four public accounting firm with more than 250,000 global employees.

For many, the last year spent in school is a daunting, anxious ordeal filled with uncertainty about the next step in life. Sam Stokes, Entrepreneurship & Technology Innovation (ENTI), Class of 2018, was no different, but rather than go through the motions of finding a job to start down a career path she didn’t deeply care about, as many of her friends were doing, Sam spent her final year in school searching for her higher purpose and deepest interests and passions. Now, Sam operates a location-independent lifestyle business that provides web design services for small businesses and solopreneurs who want more from life.

It took 27 years for Michael Friedenberg, President of News and Media Operations for Reuters, an international news organization, to return to UD for a visit. The Entrepreneurship Club, a student-run organization supported by Horn Entrepreneurship, invites entrepreneurial alumni and community members to share their insights with students on a weekly basis during Free Lunch Friday. Michael shared Reuters’ views on freedom of the press in international spaces and why factual based reporting is important.

ChaCha Hudson started The SEWcial Cafe, a community sewing space for women to create, collaborate, and develop handmade products in a relaxed and inspiring environment that encourages innovation with in October 2018. Now almost a year on from launching, and ChaCha wants to bring her unique value of sewing expertise with strong community building practices to other women across the world. 

Kelsey Kosinski’s original intention was to complete an engineering degree and solve complex problems. But in her freshman year, she quickly realized how much she missed the creative outlet she had through sewing and designing her own fashions. Kelsey abruptly switched her major to fashion design and trusted her interests would lead her in the right direction.    

While the UD community enjoys the summer weather and a quiet campus, only to be interrupted by the constant construction on Main Street, the Horn Entrepreneurship community has been busy making waves outside of Newark. We have gathered up a host of stories about what our amazing and active community members have been up to, creating growth and positive change wherever they are. 

Summer Founders is about a third of the way through its 11-week programming and has already provided participating student ventures with valuable lessons on their entrepreneurial journey. The Horn Entrepreneurship media team caught up with a few of the student founders to find out what insights they have gathered from the program so far.

John Smothers, Leadership and Entrepreneurship & Technology Innovation, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, discovered his true passion through the entrepreneurial journey and pivoted away from his business management degree to dive into leadership and entrepreneurship. Now, John is a founding partner at Dimension Ventures, an investment firm eager to create real impact for a better future through investments in highly selective startup ventures. But John’s journey wouldn’t have been possible without his work ethic and the transformational relationships he was able to form.

Vince DiFelice, Senior Instructor of Practice and Faculty Director of Venture Support, has been an instrumental figure in helping nascent student startups find their footing and future success. Beyond delivering exceptional venture support guidance, Vince has helped students find new passions and recalibrate their career goals to better match what they are most interested in.