By: Hannah Smith
Starting a business can be tricky, but the Terp Marketplace is a great way for students to share and sell their products and services to the University of Maryland community.
The Terp Marketplace is an event held once a semester by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in Van Munching Hall; this semester it was held on Wednesday, Nov. 20. The marketplace gives the university community an opportunity to learn more about other students’ business startups.
The market features many student startups, selling everything from granola bars and baked goods to apparel and student services.
ModBars is a granola bar company that attended the event. They make 100% natural, customized snack bars, catering to different people’s dietary restrictions.
Jeff Su, a junior finance and supply chain major, is one of the founders of ModBars. He says ModBars were inspired by his own dietary restrictions.
“My senior year of high school, my friends and I had nothing else better to do with our time. We were all student athletes too. And me personally, I have a very bad tree nut allergy, so I can’t eat a lot of protein bars,” Su said. “And four months down the road, we came up with a new protein bar that a lot of people loved, and we just started increasing our product line.”
ModBars has a variety of flavors with original names, such as Booty Fruit, Cinn-full, Gold Rush, javaStrip, Milky Whey, the King and Viking Whey. One bar is $2, or you can get three bars for $5.
“The whole idea is that we cater to what you guys want,” Su said. “If you have a gluten allergy, or you’re vegan, we can cater to that, but we also have a normal standard product line that you would see at a typical grocery store.”
Another startup business that attended the event, Edullo, is designed to help students through their high school journey when applying to college, and later helping those students get jobs after college. It’s a freelance marketplace where students can sell their services to other students throughout the nation.
Eric Patel, an operations management and business analytics and mechanical engineering junior, is the president and founder of Edullo.
“It’s an opportunity for students to make money and also an opportunity to give back,” Patel said. “It’s helping students develop skills and learn stuff while buying services at a very affordable cost.”
Patel said that he was frustrated with his educational environment and the rising cost of tuition. With Edullo, students can set their own time and schedule to offer other students their skills and services they need to succeed in school.
“Our motto is we’re here to level the playing field in education,” Patel said.
The different categories they provide services for include AP courses, entrance exams, design and art, formal science, business, engineering and technology, social science and college and careers.
Students that either want to attend or showcase their startup business can participate in the Terp Marketplace in the spring 2020 semester.
Photo by Startaê Team on Unsplash
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