Hen Hatch

UD's Premier Startup Funding Competition

Entrepreneurial students make connections, collect feedback on ideas and compete for startup cash and prizes totaling $50,000. 

View full competition details

Eligibility

All University of Delaware undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled at least half time are eligible to apply. There are two competitive tracks:

  • Pre-revenue ($0 in revenue)
  • Post-revenue ($1 or more in revenue)

Revenue, for the purpose of this competition, is defined as consideration provided by a customer for value created by the startup as well as equity investment. Revenue does NOT include sweat equity, grants, donations, awards, or stipends.

Process

Preliminary Round

Participants submit a 3-5 page written business concept for evaluation by seasoned entrepreneurs, investors and business consultants.

Semifinal Round

The 10 most promising business concepts in each track present a 7-minute pitch and answer questions from entrepreneurs and investors.

Final Round

The 3 most promising business concepts in each track present a 7-minute pitch and answer questions from entrepreneurs and investors in front of a live audience.

2022 Schedule

 

August 1, 2022

Hen Hatch registration opens

Sept. 16, 2022

Registration and submission deadline

Oct. 7 & 14, 2022

Semifinal round presentations

Dec. 1, 2022

Final round presentations

Registration Notes

Allow up to 30 minutes to complete the registration process. Include the following information as it applies to your track:

  • You will need names, email addresses and phone numbers for all team members.
  • Student participants will need the following information for all team members: Student ID#, major(s), minor(s), expected graduation month & year.
  • Alumni participants will need majors and graduation years for all team members.
  • Faculty and staff participants will need department and title for all team members.
  • You will be required to submit a file containing your written concept; you will have an option to submit a logo.

Finalists

Pre-Revenue Track

  • Share Wallet, led by Jason Bangser, BE '22
  • Supremely Sweet, led by Santha Rani, AS '22 & Esha Shah, AS '23
  • Navigating Access, led by Amanda Zicherman, BE '23

Post-Revenue Track

  • Pick-Up Sports, led by Michael Meola, BE '23
  • Up Cycle Design, led by Sierra RyanWallick, BE  '23
  • Stemmer, led by Samuel Goetz, EG '21

Pre-Revenue Track

  • Blue Tusk Technology, led by John-Carlos Saponara
  • CyberSecLabs, led by Casey Rock, Jason Reynolds and Dylan Martin
  • Nuvensus, led by Mason Faust, Henry du Pont and Markos Zerefos

Post-Revenue Track

  • Alchemize Fightwear, led by Maya Nazareth
  • Backyard Gig, led by Suryanuj Gupta and Shahroze Ali
  • GetPotluck, led by Abu Kamara and Hope Vega

Student Track

  • 360 VR Technology, led by James Massaquoi and Sury Gupta
  • The SEWcial Cafe, led by ChaCha Hudson
  • SolveABET LLC, led by Jonathan Wood

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • CATX Inc. led by Bruce Bowman and Gilberto Schleininger
  • RiKarbon, led by Basudeb Saha and Sarah Wenyon
  • Patient Sortal, led by Kenny Eck

Student Track

  • D150 Fueling, led by Bailey O'Brien, Samuel Bacharach and Amedeo DeLuca
  • IntraText, led by Jamie Levy, Kerry Schwartz, Kristen Brokaw and Gina Gesualdi
  • Lyapunov Technologies, led by Anthony Rossi and Duanyi Wei
  • Wilminvest, led by Joel Amin and Bryce Fender

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • OPS, LLC led by Lee Beauchamp, Matthew Beard, Tai Nguyen and Timothy Gantzhorn
  • Smartbooks, led by Courtney Hewitt, Rossiny Beaucejour, Garry Johnson and Taji Hardwick
  • Veramorph LLC, led by Paul Godfrin

Student Track

  • Geoswap, led by Jason Bamford, Keith Doggett and Jordan Gonzalez
  • Revive, led by Avalon Greene, Palina Ivanova, Emma Lynch and Rachel Weinberger
  • Influencia, led by Danilo Vicioso

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel (now TheraV), led by Amira Idris
  • Strados Labs, led by Nick Delmonico
  • TenantU, led by Jacob Jeifa, Wilson Hu, Krzysztof Czerwinski and Alex Carr

Student Track

  • JADE Biotech, led by  Elizabeth Soulas, Daniel Charytonowicz, John Lowman and Allison Lisberg
  • Curing Cube, led by Farhad Baqi, Seyar Baqi and Edward Bayley
  • Joost Wafel Co., led by Joost Elling

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • Strataca Systems LLC, led John Erbey
  • NERDit NOW, led by Jonathan Hoxter
  • Flip, led by Chris Lin

Student Track

  • The Practice Set, led by Keith Doggett and Jordan Gonzalez
  • ProjectedU, led by Benjamin Rapkin and Austin Crouse
  • GoHappy, led by Elpiniki Apostolaki-Iosifidou

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • SimUCare (now Avkin), led by nursing faculty member Amy Cowperthwait and researcher Amy Bucha
  • Art Preservation Index, led by alumna Emily MacDonald-Korth
  • GoShare, led by alumnus Shaun Savage

Student Track

  • ShopTutors, (since pivoted to LendEdu) led by Nathaniel Matherson and Matt Lenhard
  • Udwell, led by Yael Bloom and Tali Cohen
  • Board to Death, led by Chris Melillo and Krista Adams

Alumni, Faculty and Staff Track

  • PenguinAds, (now Carvertise) led by Mac Nagaswami
  • Jaggery, led by Asmita and Anand Atre
  • Grasshopper Talent App, led by Liz Brenner, Nicole McCabe and Deb Stambaugh