Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship

This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!

Founders: Jared Lindhurst ’24, Business Management & Supply Chain Management, Julian Medrano ’24, Economics

DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?

Lindhurst: We are a locally owned and operated Landscaping company located in Anne Arundel County. We offer a variety of services including lawn mowing, junk removal, yard cleanups, and mulching. We work to create a better community one house at a time.

Medrano: Your Landscapers LLC is the best landscaping team serving Anne Arundel County, Maryland! This was an opportunity for my business partner and me to gain business experience, and it has transformed into a fully functioning business.

DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?

Lindhurst: The ability to create my own hours and control my own future.

Medrano: My biggest influence is undoubtedly my mother. She is currently the co-owner of two businesses (a cleaning company and a mobile notary business) and she recently quit her job to pursue her businesses full-time.

DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?

Lindhurst: Your Landscapers was created to let our customers know we represent them and
the community.

Medrano: Jared and Max (former co-owner), and I just wanted to come up with a simple name that could easily be recognized by our community. I take full credit for thinking of “Your Landscapers LLC” (you can tell how creative I can be).

DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?

Lindhurst: Building our brand and name reputation. This is done by putting our best effort into all the work we do and letting our quality of service speak for itself.

Medrano: The most important thing I am working on is getting a grant for our business, to fund our next big purchase which is a stand-on mower. I am working closely with my mom, who has many connections from her cleaning business.

DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?

Lindhurst: My drive to step outside of my comfort zone along with the ability to support myself now and in the future.

Medrano: I am motivated by achievement. I believe that I can accomplish many goals with this business and this makes me constantly strive for improvement.

DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Lindhurst: Never close a door that hasn’t been opened yet. Allow yourself to take risks and grow from the experience.

Medrano: I would say that business is all about dedication. If you are willing to work through the hard times, then you will often be rewarded for your effort. Also, connections are a big thing in business! It isn’t always about what you know, since who you know could be more impactful.

This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!

Founder: Dominic Sims ’24, Business Management

DC: Which Dingman Center programs have you been involved with?

Sims: I am currently a Dingman intern for Student Programs. I have been a part of the Terp Startup Accelerator, and I have attended quite a few networking events. My venture has been a part of Terp Marketplace and the New Venture Practicum Course.

DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?

Sims: My venture is a community. The community emphasizes inclusion, collaboration, and education to reduce the stigma around plant-based medicine. We hope to spark a conversation between two people, to educate one another about how this medicine could potentially help them. We are not encouraging people to use the medicine, but to open their minds and get rid of prejudices.

DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?

Sims: My biggest influence on my startup is myself. My brand is centered around my personal values and my hope to change the world by listening to others and not judging before we hear their story.

DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?

Sims: The name Under the Radar came from my liking of making an impact without being in the spotlight. The graphics on the clothing are meant to be discreet and flying under the radar is another way to say discreet.

DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?

Sims: Right now I am focused on getting people to join the community. I have been passing out flyers and encouraging everyone to follow the venture’s Instagram @clothing.utr

DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?

Sims: What motivates me is to create generational wealth and break the cycle of working and still not having money. I want my future kids to not share some of the experiences that I’ve gone through. I also want to help people who may feel as though there is no solution to their health problems or do not want to use opioid medications. My goal is to build a community where people feel as though they can be themselves without feeling stuck in one category.

DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Sims: The advice I would give other entrepreneurs is to not be afraid to take risks. We often feel like we have to have all the answers before we address the problem but making that leap can be the best teacher. Failure is a step closer to success, so don’t view it as a negative but a step closer to your goal. Also, take everything with a grain of salt and make strategic decisions for yourself. You know how you want your business to look and it is best to fail on your own terms rather than fail on someone else’s.

This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!

Founder: Saurabh Chapagain’25, Technology Entrepreneurship

DC: Which Dingman Center programs have you been involved with?

Chapagain: I have been involved with the New Venture Practicum. This is my first semester at UMD, I transferred in from UMBC. I plan on doing the Dingman Pitch Competition as well as the summer Terp Accelerator Program.

DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?

Chapagain: BetterU is making the world a better place by promoting healthy habits with our app that gamifies habit-building and encourages people to become their best selves in a fun and social way. Users can join tribes, earn points, and compete to stay consistent and accountable for their self-improvement journey.

DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?

Chapagain: I built BetterU to solve the problems I was facing in my own self-improvement journey, specifically with staying consistent. My goal was to create something that would help people stay consistent with their habit-building efforts and find joy in the process.

DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?

Chapagain: I wanted the name to be something that would describe the outcome for people using our app. So I went with “BetterU”, because we help you become the better you!

DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?

Chapagain: We are working on getting our app shipped to both the App Store and Google Play store. We have been in closed beta since early September and believe that now is the right time to give the public access to our revolutionary app.

DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?

Chapagain:

Building things that will help make the world a better place is what drives me. 

DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Chapagain: Talk to customers, build fast, and be relentless.

This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!

Founder: Reid Xu ’24, Economics

DC: Which Dingman Center programs have you been involved with?

Xu: I am part of E-Fund, BMGT 461 Entrepreneurship, BMGT 468R Fearless Founders, and Startup Shell.

DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?

Xu: Dream of Coffee (DoC) is a specialty coffee social hub that embodies the fourth wave of coffee and connects people through great coffee. It aims to bridge the gap disconnect between regular coffee drinkers and the world of specialty coffee by making specialty coffee more accessible and affordable while inspiring more people to start making their own coffee.

DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?

Xu: The firm belief that coffee connects us, and it is so much more than just a commodity.

DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?

Xu: When I was first creating a name for my venture, I thought that it had to be catchy, has to have the word “coffee” in it,  and has to have a cool logo. After some sketches and an all-nighter on Adobe After Effects, the name/logo – Dream of Coffee was born, and the acronym “DOC” is easy to say and remember and makes up a coffee cup, which is the logo. 

DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?

Xu: I’m looking for more specialty coffee roasters and companies to be our partners, and I’m doing it by actively searching and reaching out to different businesses.

DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?

Xu:

1. My passion for specialty coffee and making a positive impact on the industry through my venture 
2. The fact that my venture is connecting people with specialty coffee and each other. 
3. Bringing a vision/an idea gradually to life

DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Xu: Believe in your idea, do your research, and inspire others to join your team 

This semester, the Dingman Center will be conducting interviews with the 11 student startups participating in our in-person New Ventures Practicum!

Founder: Ben Blaine ’25, Business Management

DC: Which Dingman Center programs have you been involved with?

Blaine: Surprisingly, this is my first time involved with the Dingman Center. I had attended the Pitch event last semester and was fascinated by it so I decided to research more about the center and came across the course Fearless Founders which I am currently enrolled in. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a business/idea who is looking to take that next step and is lost on how to do so.

DC: In two to three sentences, how would you describe your startup?

Blaine: Billz is an app-driven platform that intends to completely change how consumers interact and receive receipts. We plan to be a centralized platform through which you can manage all your in-store and online purchases and completely eliminate paper receipts. Billz will grant users the ability to monitor and track purchases, returns, expenses, and any other purpose that a receipt may have while also incentivizing users.

DC: What or who is your biggest influence on your startup?

Blaine: Definitely my Dad. He has always evaluated any business idea that I would go to him with from the perspective of an investor. He always pushes me to take chances and encourages me to never let an opportunity slip away.

DC: How did you come up with the name of your venture?

Blaine: Unfortunately, it was not one of those “wow” moments where it all just clicked. I kind of just started brainstorming for a name that was one syllable and just stuck with Bills with a Z. Billz.

DC: What’s the most important thing you are working on right now and how are you making it happen?

Blaine: We are currently working full-time on getting our MVP (first iteration) developed to be shared with friends and family. We are working closely with a high-end development team to make sure that all timelines and milestones are achieved to get to our next capital raise round.

DC: As a student business owner, what motivates you?

Blaine: I am really motivated to create something that will leave a lasting impact. I want to feel as if I am contributing to whatever I am working on and truly innovating society. The world of startups is rigorous and complex but it can also be extremely satisfying. Balancing both student and work responsibilities is tricky but it enables me to maximize my productivity levels daily.

DC: If you could give advice to any aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Blaine: Just go. Stop thinking about it or dreaming about what could be. If you believe in it, there is no better time in life than now. I won’t deny that some steps are daunting and seem as if they can never be resolved but the only way anything can be accomplished is by continuously improving.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to announce its fourth cohort of the Terp Startup Fellows program, made possible by a generous donation from Dingman Center board member Bill Boyle ’81. This program was created due to the success of Terp Startup Accelerator, the center’s eight-week summer program which has been running for eight years. Terp Startup Fellows aims to further advance the most promising student startups and selects student founders from the accelerator program who have demonstrated a strong commitment to their ventures and the ability to innovate as they push toward commercialization. The Dingman Center has named three Terp Startup Fellows ventures for the 2023-24 academic year: Wise Cities, Mindgrasp, Korion Health, and Platybase.

The founders of these three ventures will receive up to $20,000 in non-dilutive funding, coaching, and co-working space to work on their businesses for 10 hours a week with the Dingman Center. These founders have all been heavily involved with the Dingman Center’s programs and have all participated in the Terp Startup Accelerator. The founders have also w966.on several awards and accolades outside of the university through the entrepreneurial community.

Throughout the next year, the Dingman Center team including Tsega Tadesse Belachew, Lottie Byram, MPH, Michael Hoffmyer, MPA, and Alex Onufrak ’21, will work directly with the selected fellows and their ventures.

“During the last few years, the Terp Startup Fellows program has provided individualized support and funding for our most advanced founders,” said Belachew, director of venture development at the Dingman Center. “The fellowship has enabled founders to grow their ventures by capitalizing on initial business traction and securing additional funding. We are excited about a strong and diverse cohort of founders this year leading technology ventures that are working to solve problems across industries: mental health, food delivery, and architecture.”

Student ventures selected to participate in the 2023-24 Terp Startup Fellows

Korion Health, founded by Akshaya Anand 23′ and Anna Li, is developing an electronic stethoscope and guided user interface to allow anyone to record their heart and lung sounds independently from the comfort and convenience of their own home. Korion Health has accomplished several milestones, most notably the submission of its non-provisional patent. This past summer, Korion Health grew a large community of over 900 supporters and surpassed its crowdfunding goal, raising over $150k from 176 investors. Additionally, Anna and Akshaya received top awards in several pitch competitions such as the Johns Hopkins Healthcare Design Competition and Terp Startup Demo Day. They are also finalists in the American Heart Association and BNY Mellon UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge pitch competitions. Live Streaming of the American Heart Association pitch competition will be available on Oct 19!

Mindgrasp, founded by Thai Cao ’24 and Shayan Khanlarbeik year 22’, is a platform that aims to make learning easy, fun, and accessible for students. Mindgrasp provides a suite of tools that will personalize your learning experience – granting you the ability to create AI-powered flashcards, notes, and quizzes, and get answers based on any content you upload. Mindgrasp had its official launch in November 2022 with 0 subscribers to their platform. Since then they have reached 15k+ active subscribers. Mindgrasp has amassed over 50 million views on social media and plans to refresh its entire product to service even more of its total addressable market.

WISE Cities, founded by Marie Brodsky ’24 and Katherine-Aria Close ’23, is a women-run startup creating accessible technology for seniors experiencing social isolation to connect with their communities. The team completed the design and development of their Version 1 web platform and is now onboarding their first cohort of older adult users, community centers, and local businesses. WISE Cities participated in the Terp Startup Accelerator, working full-time on the venture. WISE Cities won 3rd place in both Pitch Dingman and the Do Good Challenge, Top 10 in the US in the Smith Draper Competition for Collegiate Women, and 2nd place in the TiE DC University Pitch Competition. The venture earned the award for “Most Potential” in the international U21 RISE Sustainability & Social Innovation Showcase.

Platybase, founded by Colleen Baldwin and Olivia Bruno, is a HIPAA-compliant visual diary that celebrates milestones between families and providers of autism care centers while increasing behavioral outcomes, creating community, and allowing center operations to emerge competitively from a historically analog industry. Platybase is a company founded exclusively by disabled women, for the disability community. With approximately 500 users actively engaged on their platform and three organizations utilizing their services, Platybase has established a substantial user base, demonstrating its value and relevance in the industry. The successful development of both iOS and Android mobile applications, as well as a web portal, showcases their commitment to accessibility and convenience for users across various devices. Notably, each new product release has proven to be a catalyst for increased engagement rates, underscoring Platybase’s dedication to continuous improvement. Furthermore, the heartwarming testimonials from caregivers and parents, highlighting specific stories of how Platybase has enhanced the individual care of children, serve as a testament to its real-world impact and the trust it has garnered from its user community.