Stories & Updates

Meet Glen Gaddy joining the Horn Entrepreneurship Team in a new role as Managing Director of the University Launch Fund. Gaddy plans to utilize his extensive experiences as an entrepreneur and innovator from both his corporate and academic roles. He comes to Horn as the Managing Member of long standing angel investor group, Robin Hood Ventures, and serves as chair of Mid Atlantic Diamond Ventures, the leading quarterly early stage pitch forum in the Mid Atlantic.

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.

This article is part of a series describing how UD Horn Entrepreneurship assists teams in moving their inventions and innovations into the marketplace, a process known as commercialization. A customized blend of resources, including training, mentorship, and funding, is provided to each team through the Blue Hen Proof of Concept Program. Additional mentorship and support is provided by Horn Entrepreneurship partners including the Office of Economic, Innovations and Partnerships and Delaware’s Small Business Development Center.

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

Horn was awarded a sizable grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s SPRINT (Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology) Challenge to expand a signature offering, the Proof-of-Concept (POC) program.

Read the full story on UDaily.

University of Delaware startups GetPotluck and TheraV won a total of $40,000 at the 2021 Startup302 competition, a Delaware-based funding competition for technology-enabled startups led by underrepresented founders.

The MakerGym got off to a quiet but impactful start this past spring semester with the introduction of the Make It Happen Challenge. The inaugural cohort successfully completed work that further advanced their innovative product ideas. The challenge is designed to assist those students with design, funding or fabrication help and to gain access to the training, tools, materials and mentoring needed. The Make It Happen Challenge is co-presented by the UD MakerGym and Horn Entrepreneurship in both spring and fall semesters.

With environmental problems persisting and increasing around the globe, entrepreneurs and change makers are working on new and bold ideas that can tackle the world's foremost sustainability challenges.

University of Delaware student teams were awarded more than $5000 to use in design, prototyping and fabrication of their projects.

The inaugural Spring 2021 Make It Happen Challenge showcased students from across the University with one thing in common: a desire to bring their ideas to life. The Challenge, presented by UD MakerGym and Horn Entrepreneurship, is a University-wide, semester-long student design competition that provides grants for making and innovation, targeting ideation, proof of concept, prototyping or small batch production. In addition to financial support, students receive training, tools, materials and mentoring.