Stories & Updates

Calling all Blue Hen student entrepreneurs: apply to University of Delaware’s premier startup funding competition, Hen Hatch. This program is a once-a-year opportunity for UD students to put their best ideas forward and compete for a portion of a $50,000 prize pool. The submission deadline is September 16.

Personal Growth. Self Discovery. Overcoming Obstacles. These are the recurring themes during my interviews with the 2022 Summer Founders. Now mostly through the program, this group of young entrepreneurs have made strides working full time on their ventures.  

“I bet you twenty bucks I can beat you in this game.” Playing video games and involving money in the equation is a situation which tends to occur regularly among gamers. Alex Pickett and Dan Goodman had a goal to create a platform where gamers can play for money. 

The last six months might have flown by for you, but the last six months these students, alumni, faculty and staff were building their businesses, becoming better students and professors, and more. Take inspiration from their achievements in this article. 

It’s a bright, blue, sunny day and you decide to take a trip to the ballpark with your friends. The game is tied and everybody is excited to see what happens next. All of a sudden your chest tightens up and you begin to wheeze. It feels impossible to get a breath and now your friends all begin to panic. You pull out your inhaler and head for the car. Just a moment ago your biggest worry was your favorite team winning, and now it’s hoping to make it out of the hospital before the day ends.

This year’s Startup302 competition attracted 125 startups from Delaware, the Philadelphia region, the United States and countries including Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Nigeria, Uganda and Bangladesh. These teams competed for a prize pool totaling $170,000. 

Horn Entrepreneurship reaches far beyond the confines of the University of Delaware and through an unexpected lens - the Diamond Challenge. This global youth entrepreneurship competition engages more than 1800 teens annually from more than 30 countries. Leading the Diamond Challenge is a new team member at Horn, Maggie Nelson.

Horn began its summer in April with Diamond Challenge Summit semifinalists and Ice cream. UDairy' Moo Mobile was founded in partnership with Horn Entrepreneurship in 2013.

The summer founder teams at orientation on June 6, 2022, await a full 12 weeks ahead of them.

This summer six teams have been selected to participate in Horn Entrepreneurship's Summer Founders, a 12-week pre-accelerator program for student ventures.

The Summer Founders opportunity provides its participants with a combination of training sessions and resources, coaching, mentorship, and events to facilitate their venture's journey from idea to launch. At the end of their training in August, the teams will be prepared to present for demo day, where each team will pitch their ideas to members of the local business community.