Stories & Updates

Although the first winter frost hasn’t blanketed the ground, it is time to plan for summer 2022. For many student entrepreneurs, the summer presents an opportunity to work on your startup unencumbered by class work. But the summer presents a problem: work on your startup, get a job that pays or try to manage both. And what if you need the summer to earn course credits or an internship?

Horn Entrepreneurship held its 2021 Fall Pitch Party virtually this past Wednesday. In this event, students are able to pitch ideas for business ventures with the possibility of winning awards and prizes.

This fall, Horn Entrepreneurship is trying something new - Class Champions.  Class Champions are liaisons between Horn and Entrepreneurship majors. Their objective is to inspire their peers to get involved in opportunities, programs and events relevant to them.

Horn Entrepreneurship’s Venture Development Center (VDC) serves as a resource for inventors, technologists and creatives working on entrepreneurial projects. It is known for bringing entrepreneurs’ startup dreams to reality, as a gathering spot for problem solvers & out-of-the-box thinkers and a place where a lot of fun stuff just happens. 

While the summer heat leads many to long lazy days, two University of Delaware students and one alumna spent the summer of 2021 working diligently to advance social justice and equality of opportunity through their startups. The three changemakers participated in the inaugural Advancing Equity Thru Entrepreneurship Summer Internship Program (ETE), a program designed to support mission-driven social innovators and entrepreneurs as they develop projects and ventures supporting underrepresented and under-resourced groups.

Photo by Evan Krape

Seventeen research teams will participate in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) Sites program to assess the commercial viability of their academic research, university intellectual property, or any STEM-related technology. The 20th cohort to enter the program at Horn Entrepreneurship started their five-week series of workshops and market research on October 5.

Do you have a unique idea for a potential business and want to get feedback, exposure, and funding to further develop it? If so, Horn Entrepreneurship’s Hen Hatch competition could be a perfect opportunity for you! Through the Hen Hatch startup funding competition, UD students are able to share their business concepts with accomplished industry professionals, making connections, gathering feedback and gaining experience all the way through. On top of the value that the feedback and experience offer, the top teams selected by our panel of judges will receive a combined total of over $50,000 in funding and prizes. Start your application today!

The Blue Hen Proof of Concept program (POC), Horn’s startup incubator, was awarded $50,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC). 

Horn Entrepreneurship and E-Club will be hosting the 2021 Fall Pitch Party virtually on October 20 from 6-7:30 p.m. The Pitch Party is an event hosted each semester in which undergraduate students pitch a startup idea in 90 seconds for a new business, innovation or invention in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.