(Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles about participants in the Horn Entrepreneurship Summer Founders program.)

AndAgain is one of six student teams in Horn Entrepreneurship Summer Founders program. AndAgain is a clothing venture searching for unique uses of existing denim to create personalized jeans and jackets. Through the Summer Founders program, student founders Morgan Young, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2018, and Greg Harder, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, Class of 2018, have used the 12-week program to explore market validation and build a scalable and repeatable business model in the hopes of moving into successful execution.

“I fell in love with sustainability and sustainability in fashion after taking a few courses,” said Young, a co-founder who doubles as a model for the apparel. “AndAgain is a sustainable apparel company focusing on upcycling denim and offering unique and personalized denim wear that fit our customers perfectly.”

AndAgain has made connections with thrift stores such as Goodwill to obtain pre-existing denim. Finding connections in the industry is crucial to assessing the pain points in the desired market and developing the unique value proposition to potential customers. Utilizing the pre-existing material increases the sustainability of the apparel company while making extremely beneficial cuts to massive textile waste. The pair of Young and Harder hope to refine their vision during Summer Founders.

“At Summer Founders we hope to gain a clearer focus for AndAgain and the future vision while learning the steps to make AndAgain much bigger than today,” said Young about their goals.

Harder added: “We really want to nail down who our customer is.”

About Summer Founders

Summer Founders serves as Horn Entrepreneurship’s premier startup pre-accelerator. The 12-week program provides student teams with resources and support from experienced entrepreneurs and faculty in addition to free and discounted services from the Venture Development Center. Through participation in Summer Founders, students receive a stipend while working full time on customer discovery and idea validation. Summer Founders concludes with Demo Day, a day to present and pitch the progress of the ideas to successful local entrepreneurs in the community.

About Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn Entrepreneurship ignites imaginations and empowers world changers through educational offerings that emphasize experiential learning, evidence-based entrepreneurship and active engagement with entrepreneurs and other members of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through participation in Horn Entrepreneurship offerings, students gain the knowledge, skills, personal capacities, experiences, connections and access to resources needed to successfully manifest innovation and thrive in the rapidly changing world.