Stories & Updates

The University of Delaware's Entrepreneurship Club brought creativity, energy and a little friendly competition to the Venture Development Center (VDC) on Wednesday, October 28, for its Fall Pitch Party: Pitch Perfect. Students took center stage to share their entrepreneurial ideas, compete for cash prizes and prove they had what it takes to deliver a pitch-perfect performance.

Who doesn’t love free food and insightful conversation? Free Lunch Fridays are returning this semester at Horn, offering a weekly speaker series featuring entrepreneurial leaders from the community. Come for the free lunch and stay for the conversation. Each Friday gives students the opportunity to hear firsthand from entrepreneurs and professionals as they share their experiences, lessons learned, and advice.

Social innovation is often the result of collaboration, but the efforts of one person dedicated to furthering a cause can truly make a difference. That’s what the young entrepreneurs and their chaperones from across the globe gathered to celebrate at the 2026 Limitless World Summit, an annual conference hosted by the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship that offers secondary school students the chance to hone their entrepreneurial skills and win funding for their business and social ventures. Epitomizing that potential was the 2026 Emerging Innovator of the Year: Soneesh Kothagundla, an 18-year-old health advocate from Georgia, USA.

The pathway to positive world-change isn’t a journey one should take alone, but rather hand-in-hand with like-minded visionaries — that’s what young entrepreneurs from 13 countries and 20 U.S. states learned firsthand at the 2026 Limitless World Summit, a conference hosted by the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship for high school students to learn and grow together as leaders in business and innovation.

On Wednesday, February 18, entrepreneurship majors, Delaware Innovation Fellows, faculty, and staff swam over to the Venture Development Center (VDC) for the biannual semester kick-off event. Sponsored by REEF@UD, this year’s “Under the Sea” theme transformed the VDC into a cozy coral reef, complete with an inviting spread of sea-themed goodies like shark-cuterie and sea breeze spirals. Hosted by the Student Experience team, the gathering launched a swell of lively networking, anchoring new connections and a tide of camaraderie.

The final round of Hen Hatch featured four teams with widely divergent concepts: straws that change color to discreetly reveal spiked drinks, an app for women to manage chronic health conditions, a clothing line that supports animal shelters and autonomous robots that look for leaks in water lines.

This October, The Siegfried Group, LLP (Siegfried) and Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware (UD) honored Geoff Woods, author of #1 international bestseller The AI-Driven Leader and Founder of AI Leadership, with the 2025 Siegfried Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership. In a private dinner and award ceremony at Wilmington Country Club, Woods was celebrated for his groundbreaking approach to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) as a thought partner and commitment to getting in the driver’s seat in a rapidly evolving digital landscape – learning and wielding the emerging technology to spark exponential progress.

Four teams advanced to the final round of Hen Hatch, UD’s premier startup funding competition, at the 2025 Blue Hen Innovation Fest on December 4. These finalists will compete to find out how much of the $50,000 prize pool will help them advance their ventures.

On Wednesday, April 23, UD’s Venture Development Center (VDC) was buzzing with energy, creativity, and big ideas as students took the spotlight at the annual Spring Pitch Party—this year themed “Ideas in Bloom.” Hosted by the Entrepreneurship Club and Horn Entrepreneurship, the event welcomed more than 80 students, alumni, and supporters for an evening of fast-paced pitching, community, and celebration.