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.