With its new Summer Founders Program, the University of Delaware’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship is supporting the efforts of eight UD student teams to develop their business venture ideas.

On Fridays throughout this summer, the Summer Founders Fridays series will highlight one venture and how its creators hope to impact the world.

The first creator to be highlighted in this series, UD senior Jason Bamford has always had a vision. As a child, he loved to take apart various appliances and put them back together. This passion for understanding the way things work eventually translated to a major in biomedical engineering at UD.

Since then, Bamford has built a wide range of experience, including research with hydrogel polymers, 3-D printing of biological tissues and working with children with cerebral palsy. All that he lacked was a background in business.

Bamford had an idea forming, and in order to put it into action he needed that essential experience. The Summer Founders Program was there to provide it.

The program -- a 12-week pre-accelerator used to validate members’ novel business models -- provides students with stipends while they work to develop their ventures. Participants have weekly mentoring and educational sessions, progress meetings with philanthropic investors and access to free and discounted services at the Horn Program’s Venture Development Center.

Bamford used these resources to put together his business concept, Geoswap, a location-based data sharing and unlocking platform.

In other words, Geoswap is a map that improves social interactions through applications like Snapchat or Dropbox. Bamford’s goal in developing this program is to unite communities together.

To accomplish this objective, Bamford hired development teams in India and the United States. The U.S. team is currently building a hybrid version of the app, compatible with Apple and Android platforms, which will reportedly be finished in the next few months.

When asked about the Summer Founders Program, Bamford said, “It’s been amazing. I absolutely love it.”

The program, he said, “gives you an amazing network and group of people who are constantly pushing each other.”

Bamford added that college is an excellent time in life to enter high-intensity collaborative environments like the ones provided by the Horn Program.

“You can totally screw it up and you’re only in your 20s,” he said. “You can make mistakes at a young age and learn from them.”

About the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship

The Horn Program ignites imaginations and empowers world changers through entrepreneurial education.

The program’s offerings emphasize experiential learning, evidence-based entrepreneurship and active engagement with entrepreneurs, business leaders and members of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Participation in Horn Program courses and co-curricular activities empowers students by providing them with the knowledge, skills, connections and access to resources needed to successfully manifest innovation and thrive in a rapidly changing world.