WilmInvest, D150 Fueling and O-P-S win Hen Hatch 2018

There were three big winners at the University of Delaware Horn Program’s annual Hen Hatch pitch competition, thanks to a tie that put both WilmInvest and D15o Fueling in First Place in the student track. Alumnus Lee Beauchamp, of the College of Engineering’s Class of 2005, led his startup, O-P-S, LLC, into first place in the Alumni/Faculty/Staff track.

The finals were held at The Queen in Wilmington, where a full house watched the seven finalists give seven-minute pitches, followed by a five-minute Q&A from a panel of judges made up of top business leaders based in Delaware.

The final results for the student track:

• 4th Place: Intratext, an ebook application that combines interaction and text for more engaging reading experiences that targets the four primary learning styles. This team includes Jamie Levy, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2018, Kerry Shwartz, Lerner College, Class of 2019, Kristen Brokaw, Lerner College, Class of 2018, and Gina Gesualdi, Lerner College, Class of 2018.
• 3rd Place: Lyapunov Technologies, an application that merges the field of control systems of engineering with the finance to provide technology-driven financial services that innovate risk management. This team includes Anthony Rossi, Lerner College and College of Engineering, Class of 2018, and Duanyi Wei, College of Engineering, Class of 2018.
• 1st Place: D150 Fueling, a fueling innovation system that sends fueling professionals to refuel business vehicles at a customer’s lot, saving them money, reducing employee downtime and providing customers with complete and accurate records of their fuel usage. This team includes Bailey O’Brien, College of Engineering, Class of 2018, Samuel Bacharach, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, Class of 2019, and Amedeo DeLuca, College of Engineering, Class of 2018.
• 1st Place: WilmInvest: a project that aims to reduce both homelessness and vacant properties in Wilmington by renovating and provides supported housing environments for third party community-based organizations. This team includes Joel Amin and Bryce Fender, both from the Lerner College, Class of 2019, and Demetrius Thorn, unaffiliated.

Results for the alumni/faculty/staff track:

• 3rd Place: Veramorph, a drug delivery company developing materials for more effective oral delivery of poorly absorbed drugs in order to form partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Paul Godfrin, College of Engineering, Class of 2015, developed this concept.
• 2nd Place: SmartBooks, a children’s book publishing company that utilizes smart technology to personalize children’s books through an avatar creation app. This team includes Courtney Hewitt, Lerner College, Class of 2011, Rossiny Beaucejour, College of Engineering, Class of 2014, Garry Johnson, Lerner College, Class of 2018, Taji Hardwick, Lerner College, Class of 2018.
• 1st Place O-P-S, LLC, supports drinking water infrastructure systems to help reduce violations enabling water operators to invest in their infrastructure instead of paying violation restitution costs. This team includes Lee Beauchamp, College of Engineering, Class of 2005, Matthew Beard, unaffiliated, Tai Nguyen, unaffiliated, and Timothy Gantzhorn, unaffiliated.

The $100,000 prize pool included the main awards, as well as smaller awards. We’ll be keeping an eye on these finalists as they continue to grow their ventures.

Congrats to our award winners!!!! #HenHatch pic.twitter.com/fGUlN7iMUA

— HornEntrepreneurship (@udhorn) April 25, 2018