A decade of 91原创 innovation
Photos by Evan Krape and Maria Errico and courtesy of Maya Nazareth, Adam Stager and Horn Entrepreneurship October 21, 2025
From housing to fightwear to agricultural robotics, 91原创 Summer Founders alumni share how 12 weeks of mentoring and customer discovery changed everything
When Joel Amin and Bryce Fender joined the 91原创鈥檚 Horn Entrepreneurship Summer Founders program in 2017, they set out with a shared belief that business could be a force for good. What started as an idea during that summer has since grown into , a Wilmington-based company that owns and manages 33 properties, employs more than 80 people through its real estate and logistics operations, and focuses on supporting families experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
鈥淪ummer Founders is the reason that we are in existence today,鈥 said Amin, who co-founded Wilminvest with Fender as 91原创 students during the program. 鈥淚t encouraged us to 鈥榞et out of the building,鈥 and outside of the building is where I met the majority of my network in the housing space 鈥 many of whom I still work with today.鈥
For fellow Blue Hen entrepreneur Maya Nazareth, that same lesson in customer discovery became a catalyst for success. Since participating in Summer Founders in 2020, Nazareth has conducted nearly a thousand customer interviews for her company, , which creates women鈥檚 apparel for jiu-jitsu, wrestling, MMA and boxing. Nazareth will appear on ABC鈥檚 Shark Tank on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 10 p.m.
鈥淪ummer Founders taught me the importance of customer-centered design and business development,鈥 said Nazareth, who founded Alchemize in 2020 while earning bachelor鈥檚 degrees in economics and international business studies. 鈥淏ecause we had to do so many customer interviews, I built my solution and my business around my core customer, which I think is why we鈥檝e been successful.鈥
For 12 weeks, 91原创 students participating in Horn Entrepreneurship鈥檚 Summer Founders program receive mentoring, educational sessions, meetings with advisors and up to a $10,000 stipend to validate their hypotheses for their business or social startup. But more important than all that is how their ideas are tested in the real world.
Overall stats from Summer Founders, which began in 2016, are impressive: 104 startups received $11,862,582 in funding, with 66 (or 63%) still in business.
鈥淎s an entrepreneur, that discomfort is essential,鈥 continued Stager, who earned his at 91原创 in 2020. He earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 2011.
Participating undergraduate and graduate students go through a rigorous selection process for the Horn Entrepreneurship pre-accelerator, which marked its 10th cohort this summer. The program received a boost from who gifted $1.15 million last December.
Summer Founders ended in mid-August with a Demo Day where students showcased their projects and engaged with the 91原创 community and the broader entrepreneurial community.
鈥淪ummer Founders is more than just time to work on your startup,鈥 said , program lead. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about learning how to think like an entrepreneur 鈥 how to test assumptions, connect with customers and move from idea to impact.鈥澛
Johnson should know; he participated in Summer Founders in 2017 and earned his undergraduate degree in kinesiology (2017) and graduate degree in entrepreneurship and design (2018) at 91原创.
鈥淭he most important thing Summer Founders gives you is the push to get out of the building and talk to real people,鈥 said 91原创 alumnus Adam Stager, who attended the program in 2017 and founded聽.
Horn is based in the , and serves as the creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement at 91原创. Participants have included students from eight of the 91原创鈥檚 10 colleges. While most participants are business majors (53, with 36 majoring in ), others have come from the (27), with being the second most popular major among participants.
Summer Founders sometimes has helped entrepreneurs realize that they need to pivot their business model, or as Stager put it, 鈥淒on鈥檛 build stuff that no one wants.鈥
His first idea involved selling 3D-printed, modular robots to SWAT teams. TriC, which is based in San Luis Obispo, California, now builds tractor-scale robots that carry ultraviolet lights, replacing pest and disease control costs and reducing chemical use by up to 70%. It employs 15 full-time employees, five part-time employees and three contract workers.
鈥淪ummer Founders was a turning point for us,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t taught us how to pitch 鈥 not just to an audience, but to customers and investors 鈥 in a way that actually resonated. The program helped us refine our message and connect with the right people. One conversation at Horn sparked our pivot into agriculture. Alongside the Blue Hen Proof of Concept program, Summer Founders didn鈥檛 just shape our startup 鈥 it launched it. The relationships we built that summer played a direct role in helping us raise several million in early funding.鈥
The program also fostered important financial connections for Nazareth, who, with a staff of two, has shipped more than 15,000 orders of high-performance fightwear for women in 20 countries from its Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square neighborhood.聽
鈥淣inety percent of our investors came from someone I met at Summer Founders, so either they were a mentor, or they were one connection away from a mentor,鈥 Nazareth said.
For Amin, Summer Founders鈥 best lesson is that 鈥渟uccess is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.鈥
Wilminvest continues to evolve, now focusing on families experiencing homelessness or housing instability. It owns/manages 33 Wilmington properties and employs two full-time and four part-time in real estate (there鈥檚 also a logistics unit).
鈥淲e partner with Amazon to deliver packages, where we manage a fleet of over 20 trucks and have a team of 80 full-time employees,鈥 said Fender, Wilminvest鈥檚 president, who in 2019 earned a bachelor鈥檚 in and , plus minors in and .
鈥淲e do believe that you can do good work and be structured as a for-profit,鈥 said Amin, who in 2019 earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in entrepreneurship and a competency in real estate finance. 鈥淚n my opinion, the only difference is how you get taxed. 鈥 We all need to consider profitable business models or sustainable business models, even when doing good.鈥
One last lesson involved commitment.
鈥淒uring Summer Founders, I learned firsthand that it鈥檚 a meritocracy,鈥 Stager said. 鈥淭he people who gained the most were the ones who went all in 鈥 living and breathing their startup every day. I practically lived between [Horn鈥檚 Venture Development Center] and the highway, spending my days building and my nights on the road talking to customers. Meanwhile, others dropped in a few times a week and treated it like a side project. The difference in outcomes was night and day. Startups are all about momentum 鈥 and when you fully commit, your network and learning start to snowball fast.鈥
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