The last six months flew by! But our community was anything but quiet. Check out all of the accomplishments - and give kudos to your friends. Smile knowing that you are part of a community making an impact on the world.
Students
Backyard Gig, launched in mid-2020 by University of Delaware sophomores William Shahroze Ali and Suryanuj Gupta, was highlighted in a feature on Technical.ly about the startup’s growth and increase of users in the college town community. They were also named Collegiate Entrepreneurs of the Year at the 38th Annual Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) Conference, and were semi-finalists at the event’s pitch competition. In October ‘21 they were finalists in the Emerging Enterprise Center’s Swim with the sharks competition, People Choice Award.
Horn Entrepreneurship student Sierra Ryan-Wallick’s social venture UP Cycle Design placed first in the Great Dames Remarkable Ideas Competition, winning the startup a $1,000 cash prize, a year of business mentoring, and a portfolio of business services. Up Cycle Design was a finalist in Hen Hatch 2021 with a prize package including $7,250, 20 hours of business advisory services from Placers and a travel package worth $2500 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions. FounderSierra RyanWallick was also featured on Technical.ly for her work with Spur Impact as an intern, including launching a mentorship program called Impact Mentoring after a successful pilot last spring.
Entrepreneurship major Mandy Zicherman placed first overall in the national RNMKRS College Sales Competition. The competition included 2,000 participants of which 90 were UD students. Competitors had to communicate with an artificially intelligent customer bot while using a sales process. Mandy’s startup, Navigating Access, was also a finalist in Hen Hatch 2021 with a prize package of $2,900 and a travel package worth $2500 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions. In addition, Navigating Access received the Audience Choice Award for Most Motivated startup and received $1000 to spend on expenses associated with the search for a business model as a member of VentureOn.
Sam Goetz’s music tech startup Stemmer was one of ten semifinalists in the second annual Swimming with Narwhals startup competition, presented by Bandlab. Goetz had the opportunity of presenting his venture at “The Shock Before The Quake”, an virtual pre conference part of the Music Tectonics Conference. Stemmer was also a finalist in Hen Hatch 2021 with a prize package including $4,500, 10 hrs of accounting service from BLS and a travel package worth $2500 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions. Stemmer won the Audience Choice Award for Most Promising startup and received $1000 to spend on expenses associated with the search for a business model as a member of VentureOn.
ShareWallet, founded by Jason Bangser, was a Hen Hatch 2021 finalist with a prize package of $4,800, legal services and filing fee for one trademark or patent application from Devlin Law Firm, 10 hours of accounting services from Belfint Lyons Shuman (BLS) and a travel package worth $2500 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions.
Founded by Santha Rani and Esha Shah, Supremely Sweet was a finalist in Hen Hatch 2021 with an award of $2,300 and travel package worth $2,500 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions.
Pick-Up Sports, founded byMichael Meola, was a finalist in Hen Hatch 2021 with an award of $2,300 and travel package worth $3,250 to support participation in third party entrepreneurship competitions.
Alumni
Bryce Fender and Joel Amin of Wilminvest LLC, Maya Nazareth of Alchemize Fightwear, and Daniel Goodman and Alex Pickett of Ultimate Tournament were all named in PHL Inno’s first ever “Inno Under 25” list for the Greater Philadelphia Area.
Med-tech startup Strados Labs won the Judge’s Choice Award for Chronic Disease Management and VBC at the Med City INVEST Digital Health Pitch Perfect Startup Contest, making them one of three winners out of 18 total companies. Founder Nick Delmonico also raised $4.5 million in a pre-Series A round of funding, bringing the company’s total funding to over $7 million to further develop and commercialize their non-invasive respiratory smart device and system.
Alumni Daniel Goodman and Alex Pickett’s e-sports betting startup Ultimate Tournament wrapped up its seed round of funding, bringing in a total of $770K to further develop the platform.
TheraV, a medtech company founded by Amira Idris Radović, was named a recipient of a 2021 EDGE Grant, providing her business with up to $100K in matched funding to facilitate their growth.
ContainIQ, a new business that provides an open-source container orchestration system with native monitoring and tracing launched by Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard, raised a $2.5 million seed round from Lachy Groom Fund, Y Combinator, Taurus Ventures, Pioneer Fund, ACTAI Ventures, and more exceptional entrepreneurs.
Blue Hen 17 & 43 Most Promising Business 8 Myles and its founder Myles Powell were featured in an article on Technical.ly and in UD Magazine detailing how Powell began the frozen comfort food company while working as a full-time civil engineer.
Kenny Eck’s Patient Sortal increased its current investments by $256K, making $400K in total funding as a result of SputnikATX optioning total investment rights along with other ATX angels.
Tric Robotics, a startup led by Adam Stager that designed a robot to autonomously treat strawberry crops with UVC light instead of pesticides, was awarded $50K in funding from the Delaware Technical Innovation Program (DTIP) grant.
Green energy startup Versogen signed a Series A term sheet for $10 Million, led by a $6 Million investment from a Korean Chemical Venture Capitalist.
Garry Johnson appeared recently on Kingscrowd Startup Investing Podcast to talk about his roots learning entrepreneurship from his mom, then subsequently at University of Delaware & Horn Entrepreneurship, and most recently his work with Bison Venture Partners at Howard University.
Alyssa Kutcha published a book that extends the passion and drive behind her jewelry company, f.y.b., to encourage, empower and foster a positive female community through mentorship, resume building, and networking. Follow Your Bliss, includes a collection of empowering words of wisdom from 60 influential, trailblazing women.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Lignolix $2.4MM as part of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge. The initiative aims to reduce the cost, enhance the sustainability, and expand the production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
RiKarbon received a $1.15MM small business and research development grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The awards were granted to projects who are pursuing technological solutions that support the Biden-Harris Administration’s clean energy goals – in areas varying from cybersecurity, renewable energy, carbon management, grid reliability, and fusion energy.
ForestPesa, founded by Robert Ddamulira, Ph.D., researcher at the Center for Energy and Environment Policy in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, won $7,000 in the 2021 Africa Beyond Tourism Challenge.
Faculty
Dr. Stephanie Raible, assistant professor of social innovation and entrepreneurship and faculty director of UD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative (SEI), published “The relatable entrepreneur: Combating stereotypes in entrepreneurship education” along with Karen Williams-Middleton in the scientific journal Industry and Higher Education. The paper breaks down ways to overcome entrepreneurial stereotypes through education to break down limitations and yield greater diversity. She was also the keynote speaker at Penn Club of Delaware's sixth annual BE LIKE BEN Scholarship Celebration on Jan. 5.
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship Laura Gasiorowski published a paper in Business Management Dynamics titled “Uncovering the Evolution of Director Experience in Early-Stage Ventures”, in which she discusses how new ventures bring in the expertise they need as they grow.
Senior Instructor of Entrepreneurship and Faculty Director of Venture Support Vince DiFelice presented at the Fall Lerner Faculty Teaching and Research Showcase and shared his successful teaching techniques, strategies and styles with other faculty and staff .
Daniel Lee, professor of entrepreneurship, recently had his coauthored research article “Gender bias in high stakes pitching: an NLP approach" published in the journal of Small Business Economics. His paper looks at the role of gender bias in pitch competitions such as Shark Tank, using a Natural Language Processing Approach.
Horn Entrepreneurship
Horn Entrepreneurship was awarded a $50,000 grant for the Blue Hen Proof of Concept program (POC) from the U.S. Small Business Administration through its Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC). The 2021 competition focused on start-up accelerators and incubators working with STEM/R&D entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups and innovation-focused small businesses located in HUBZones.
The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine rated Horn Entrepreneurship as one of the best in the nation. The magazine’s joint ranking placed UD at #38 overall and #8 in the Northeast in its 2022 list of the top 50 undergraduate schools for entrepreneurial studies.
Horn is pursuing a new initiative - The University Launch Fund. The $6MM fund is focused on pre-seed investments spun out of UD, enabling them to reach the minimum level of investment readiness needed to successfully attract private investment from angel and venture capital investors who are active in the regional ecosystem. Horn welcomed a new team member, Glen Gaddy, as managing director of the fund.
The University of Delaware is a partner in a new regional innovation network, established with a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), to accelerate the transformation of scientific discoveries into technologies that improve our daily lives.
Note: if we missed your accomplishment or someone you know, please reach out to megm@udel.edu. We will gladly update this article. If you want to submit an achievement this spring, use the same email. We look forward to celebrating your accomplishments.
About Horn Entrepreneurship
Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement at the University of Delaware. Currently ranked among the best entrepreneurship programs in the US, Horn Entrepreneurship was built and is actively supported by successful entrepreneurs, empowering aspiring innovators as they pursue new ideas for a better world.
