Although his journey in QUEST has just begun, David Molot (Cohort 35) has already exemplified principles of design thinking with his startup hotglue. hotglue first started off as a project by Hassan Syyid, and David joined the team this past March as his co-founder. At a high level, hotglue is a data integration tool to get customer data into business to business (B2B) apps.

David is a sophomore Marketing and Information Systems major, and Hassan is a sophomore studying Math and Computer Science. The two met through University of Maryland’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (EIP) and became closer through mutual friends. When speaking with Hassan and David, their cohesive dynamic was apparent. David explained that his role is more so developing hotglue’s strategy and business vision, while Hassan is focused on technical development. However, David emphasized that it’s important to receive Hassan’s input while making business-focused decisions. Similarly, Hassan values David’s insight on technical development decisions. 

As for hotglue’s technology, Hassan described it as “a tool for developers built on the Python ecosystem, which provides a data pipeline without worrying about maintenance.” Hotglue started off as a tool that users download and maintain themselves, but has since shifted into a more seamless experience where the backend is managed for users. The inspiration for hotglue first came in the summer of 2019, when Hassan was collaborating with the developer of an accounting software startup and identifying solutions. Following, he took over the startup, transforming it as his own and later asked David to become his co-founder. 

There is a lot of promise regarding hotglue’s future, and the two are willing to do the work necessary for success. While managing being full-time students and both having summer internships, they still put consistent hours into its growth each week. Hotglue has been recently accepted to be debuted on AppSumo, which is a company that partners with tech companies and provides deals on their products. Because of AppSumo’s popularity, David and Hassan are anticipating to receive a lot more customers, and in turn, invest more of their time into hotglue. A dream for the pair is to have hotglue become a full-time job in the future. They are hoping to get accepted to Y Combinator down the road, a tech incubator in California known for funding companies such as Dropbox, DoorDash, and Airbnb. This additional funding would be a large step in making David and Hassan’s dream a reality. 

The QUEST community proudly recognizes David’s accomplishments as a part of hotglue and will be here to support him through its continued development. Check out hotglue’s website here,and be on the look out for their release on AppSumo!

The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked conversations within corporations and universities about systematic racism. While these conversations serve as a starting point, how can communities grow toward productive activism in a sustainable way? This summer, Advaith Bantval (Cohort 34) participated in the Shell Makeathon to address this issue. His team’s project, Verse, won first place in the Social Impact category.

Over the course of three weeks, Advaith’s team designed and developed a prototype for their project. “We built the basic framework for a service called Verse,” Advaith said. “We weren’t expecting to win, but the competition was motivation to work on a cool project we were passionate about. The goal is to facilitate better dialogue between people of different backgrounds, primarily placing an emphasis on minority voices that may not be heard in a professional or university setting.”

Verse has three pillars: learn, serve, and engage. The Learn tab would be populated by experts and professors from the point of view of those in communities. The Serve tab shows users opportunities to support community organizations through donations or volunteering. The Engage tab allows users to interact with each other and have conversations.

The inspiration for Verse came from conversations about diversity occurring throughout UMD. “We were inspired at the time by the town halls being facilitated by university departments,” Advaith explained. The team reached out to stakeholders, such as UMD’s Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, to gain insight into what could be drastically improved about D&I in the workplace. “This really gave us a basic grounding of what we needed to do in our service as a whole.”

Advaith believes Verse’s achievement can be attributed to incorporating the voice of the customer into the design. “I think one of the reasons why we were successful is because we didn’t dive right into the development of the product based on the first idea that came into our minds. We wanted to understand the perspectives of the people this product would be rolled out to. Before I had taken [QUEST course] 190H, I wouldn’t have thought to interview different people or send out surveys to understand the voice of the customer.”

After the successful development of Verse during the makeathon, the team plans to officially launch by the end of this semester. “We want to deploy Verse as a pilot to see how it would work in an actual setting. We want to have people populate the website to see the impact,” Advaith said. “Hopefully, we will run it through a university department, maybe a living and learning community. We’ve been meeting consistently over the last few weeks to get on track and hopefully roll it out by the end of the year.”

Visit verse.umd.edu to check out the prototype for Verse!

A global pandemic disrupting normal life obviously isn’t ideal, but Hrithik Bansal from Cohort 34 was able to use the disruption as an opportunity to make a difference. He set up a business-to-business mask manufacturing venture called All Time Protection (https://alltimeprotection.com) in India this summer. All Time Protection has supplied over 3,500 masks to businesses around New Delhi since its inception in summer of 2020. They offer 100% cotton-based fabric masks, which are sustainable thanks to their ability to withstand multiple washes and be used. They are not only good for the environment but are far more comfortable to wear than the commonly available non-woven surgical masks.

All of this started in May, when Hrithik had to go home to New Delhi, India during the initial coronavirus outbreak. His internship plans had fallen through, unfortunately, because of the pandemic. He decided to start this venture as a way to get some experience. Initially, the motivation for him was to start an entrepreneurial venture that would help him sharpen his skills, specifically in the real-world business environment. However, as he explained, “When I started narrowing down the niche I was going to be focusing on, i.e. masks, and the way I was going to be doing it, i.e. empowering rural women, it became more than just a business opportunity. The biggest incentive for me became the fact that the work I was doing was actually benefiting a community of society, a community which is largely underrepresented, not only in India but also all over the world.”

Given the pandemic was at a peak, and the market validation for masks was positively present, he decided to dive into the world of masks. Initially, the idea was to produce reusable masks and sell directly to consumers. However, after briefly entering the retail space, Hrithik realized it would take a significant investment of time and resources to break through the noise and compete with the pre-established name brands. He instead decided to go with a B2B model, where he would offer customized and reusable cotton masks to businesses directly. The unique value proposition is that instead of having a big manufacturing unit that would take excess amount of monetary resources to set up, his team outsourced it to small units with a handful of tailors all over the national capital region of New Delhi, India.

To actually bring this into execution, he tapped into his network and found a connection who was involved with setting up cottage industries, specifically independent women tailors working from their homes in remote areas to support their families. This gave him access to a spread out web of ‘mini-manufacturing’ plants, or ‘captive-units,’ to get masks manufactured on a per piece basis.

There were a fair share of challenging moments. Initially, due to excess supply in the market, getting through all the noise and actually establishing a name in the market was tough. The competition was fierce as Hrithik was “competing with other industry leaders who were able to offer rock-bottom prices, with their large, independently owned manufacturing units.” Another challenge he faced was educating the customer about the masks as well as dealing with myths and misconceptions about their effectiveness, as there was a lot of misinformation circulating about them.

Hrithik has had a lot of fun being able to “learn by doing” this summer, as he’s dived into dealing with a lot of people, managing resources, and empathizing with clients. In his own words, “Realizing that what I’m doing is not only helping society by providing sustainable masks, but also empowering a community of people who may have been hit financially by the pandemic the most, gives me a sense of great pleasure and expresses my gratitude towards the hard working humans of society.”

Hrithik was able to leverage the skills he picked up in QUEST course 190H effectively. The class gave him a host of tools which proved very useful as he went about the planning of this venture. Market and financial analysis helped him gauge the market, identify the potential target demographic, and see whether it would actually be financially viable. The presentation tips also helped him a great deal in making the pitch decks of his masks for potential clients.

As for the future, Hrithik thinks this business wouldn’t be feasible for longer than a couple of months until a brand established its majority presence in the market. While there is an opportunity for All Time Protection to do that, Hrithik himself wouldn’t be as heavily involved due to his academic obligations. He’s handed over control to his associates for now. As he says, “For the future, although I don’t see myself manufacturing masks specifically, I’m always happy to keep my options open and welcome any opportunities that may come my way!”

Ally Merwitz (Cohort 33) has never been one to turn a blind eye towards a great opportunity or a chance to help people. So when the finance student with an aptitude for inspiring social change spoke with the COO of One for the World (OFTW), she knew something great could come from their connection, and she had just the idea: form a partnership with UMD. She may have had a full plate then, but some ideas are like fine wines or a 401(k); they only get better with time. 

Ally’s connection with One for the World began at the Smith School’s Center for Social Value Creation, where students and faculty work to create a positive impact through business. This often comes through connecting with non-profits in the industry, including One for the World, an organization applying the philosophy of effective altruism to optimize the impact a donation of one percent of a donor’s income can have. Effective altruism is a pretty cool concept– it’s essentially getting the most bang for your buck through the lens of social good. We often make donations without a second thought of how the money is really used to make a difference or what costs it may go to cover; all we know is it saves lives or feeds the hungry. One for the World takes a different approach: donations are dispersed to organizations maximizing the impact of a dollar identified by GiveWell, another non-profit. This may be through feeding the most people at a given time or ensuring enough medical resources reach those in need to save the most lives. This is effective altruism at work, and together, GiveWell and One for the World’s partnership is not only saving lives but relentlessly tackling global poverty one percent at a time. 

Fast forward to spring 2020, and there’s no better time to start a chapter at the University of Maryland, which would be one member of a global collegiate network. Collegiate chapters welcome guest speakers to campus while also helping students take the pledge to give one percent of their income following graduation. In Ally’s words, “It’s about pledging now to help when they can, for about the price of a cup of coffee a day.” Throughout the summer, Ally will be publicizing, recruiting, and building a firm foundation to build a movement of philanthropy upon as president of the budding organization. If you’re interested in learning more about One for the World, thinking about joining Maryland’s incoming chapter or executive board, or want to sign up for the group’s mailing list, click here!

Spring hasn’t only brought new opportunities to help others, but the perfect balance of self-exploration and growth to go along with it as well. After years of suspense, Ally finally had a chance to crack open J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, although her recommended read has to be Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Stevenson’s book inspired her to take an interest in the power of law to help those without the resources to help themselves. Not long after turning the last page, Ally found herself reaching out to QUEST alumni who have broken out of the business, engineering, and computer science fields to learn more about their experiences and how they found themselves where they are. Her experience networking has proved priceless, and helped her to take an interdisciplinary approach to not only her work, but also her career path as she continues her journey. Ally’s seasoned networking skills have also benefited the greater QUEST community through her work with QUEST Corporate. She’s a part of the team framing next year’s events through a design thinking approach, and they want to hear from current students! Share your thoughts in the QUEST Corporate survey here!

With a busy semester ahead, Ally is truly making the most of her summer, putting the cherry on top with an internship in GE Aviation’s Aviation Finance Division in Cincinnati. Here, she’ll be paired with a mentor before breaking into data collection on an assigned topic. Once she’s received her data, she’ll be undertaking a personal project which she’ll later scale to fit corporate needs and present to a board of directors. She’s sure to have plenty of opportunities to apply everything she’s learned in QUEST to her work over the next few months!

It’s been quite the adventure, and although it’s barely halfway through, there have already been enough twists and turns to keep her searching for the next step. Ally’s advice to anyone uncertain about what they want to do in the future? 

“Don’t be afraid to try something new and expand your horizons. You never know what might pique your interest and where that will lead you. Pushing yourself beyond what you think you are capable of gives you the chance to accomplish more than you could ever imagine.”  

There’s no time like the present to dig down and do that thing you’ve been waiting to do or learn a little bit more about something new. Never be afraid to jump into it– you just might love where your next chapter leads you.