Amanda Bradford will serve as one of the keynote speakers during the Diamond Challenge Youth Entrepreneurship Summit on April 13, 2018 in the University of Delaware’s Clayton Hall.

“I’m excited to empower young rock stars,” said Bradford. “Getting out there and reminding people that they can do or be anything if they put in enough blood, sweat and tears is a top priority of mine.”

Bradford is the CEO and founder of The League, a dating app that combines data and social graphs from Facebook and LinkedIn to offer users privacy from coworkers, more context about potential matches and a curated community of ambitious singles. Users are able to set specific preferences for the type of partner they are looking for, and The League will only create matches with other users who meet these preferences.  

“To me, equalism is not forcing women to message first or to be in control,” Bradford said. “It is encouraging our users to seek intellectual equals and give them a platform that facilitates connecting based on more than just looks and attraction.”

Before founding The League, Bradford received her bachelor’s degree in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007, and received her MBA from Stanford in 2014. In the past she has held technical roles within companies such as Salesforce.com and Google.

“Amanda has a unique perspective as a woman in Silicon Valley,” said Julie Frieswyk, manager of youth programs at Horn Entrepreneurship. “During [her education] she developed her idea for The League and managed to make it happen as a woman amongst a sea of men.”

As a woman CEO, Bradford said she recognizes that she holds an important role and level of responsibility to maintain visibility in society while effectively running her company.

“Our society sorely lacks women role models in high-ranking positions, and it’s our responsibility to make sure society’s youth has ample role models to look up to in all industries and professions, and this concept of girl job and boy job is completely eradicated,” said Bradford.

Bradford will use her knowledge and expertise from founding her own startup to address the next generation of entrepreneurs during the summit, which is a three-day conference that provides students, educators and supporters from around the world with the opportunity to develop new skills while energizing their entrepreneurial spirit. The summit allows for attendees to learn from world-class speakers, entrepreneurs and mentors. Bradford’s speech will focus on how to launch a venture.

“Whether that be an app in my case, to clothing, products, et cetera, launching anything is very similar to throwing a party, and everyone knows that the key to a great party is an even more epic pregame,” said Bradford.

The three-day conference, which will take place April 11-13 at UD, is part of the Diamond Challenge, an entrepreneurship competition for high school students from around the world that offers more than $100,000 in prizes.

“I’ve both taken courses on startup experience and lead the Diamond Challenge, which teaches evidence-based entrepreneurship and I found [Amanda’s] approach to starting her business 100 percent aligned to what we teach,” said Frieswyk. “She is able to present that story in an interesting way that captivates an audience and also provides some great lessons.”

Bradford is one of two keynote speakers already announced to speak at the summit, with the other being Entrepreneur magazine Editor-In-Chief Jason Feifer. Additional keynote speakers will be announced as the event approaches.

“I’m excited to be bringing world-class leaders to this year’s summit,” said Frieswyk. “I believe the attendees will go home with more knowledge about startups and navigating that world, while also feeling empowered with their new networks and experiences.

If you are interested in attending the Diamond Challenge Youth Entrepreneurship Summit, click here to fill out the application.

About the Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.