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.

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

Meet John Cusick. Joining the Horn Team as a Lead Mentor, John plans to utilize his love for coaching young entrepreneurs and his Gore experience in bringing technology to the market.

University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and Horn Entrepreneurship are proud to announce the 37 2021 Blue Hen 17&43 Award winners.

By Tracey Bryant and Catherine Zandonella, Princeton • August 25, 2021

Horn Entrepreneurship’s Summer Founders Pre-accelerator came to an end with Demo Day on August 19, 2021. However, the founders continued progress towards more successful startups never ends. The unique experience of Summer Founders increases the possibility of students launching viable startups and social ventures, all while gaining valuable advice that will provide dividends in the coming years. Summer Founders includes all aspects of an accelerator except a financial investment, with cohort members receiving guidance from experienced entrepreneurs, advisors and mentors. The founders are also paid stipends to allow them to fully focus on their startup pursuits as long as they continue to demonstrate progress, much like how they might need to sell an investor on progress to get a next round of funding.

Milestones can be celebrated as a measure of accomplishment. For the Horn Entrepreneurship Summer Founders, they have reached an important one of being at the halfway point.

Individual progress is dependent on their biggest challenge of “getting out of the building” to meet potential customers and learn how valuable their startup solution is, or how it could be appreciated even more. By this measure, they have collectively made 442 visits, in-person locally or somewhere in the USA, virtually. The best personal growth measure is what they each find from one another. The pre-accelerator program is designed to collaborate and that is why on a daily basis, they work together to advance each other's product potential.