SG Head Launches BetterBoo Gift App

During the first week of classes, students took the role of walking advertisements by wearing T-shirts promoting BetterBoo.com, a social network-driven marketplace created by senior and Student Government President Nick Chmura.

Chmura, who always had trouble choosing the right gifts for friends and family members, came up with the idea last November to create an app on Facebook that allows users to share their wish lists with friends.

The app makes buying gifts a social experience that takes the guesswork out of choosing a present. A BetterBoo user fills his personal gift directory, known as his “Box”, with items from Amazon.com that can be published on his profile. Gifts can be bought directly through the app, and as an Amazon affiliate, BetterBoo.com as a company gets four to 15 percent of each sale, depending on the number of sales made that month, what the product is, its vendor and how much each item costs.

Chmura presented his idea for BetterBoo.com at a Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization conference in November 2010 where he placed within the top 12 in the pitch competition. BetterBoo received an investment in March, and when the app launched on Aug. 1, it had over 600 users in its first 20 days.

“I’m definitely the biggest critic of BetterBoo,” Chmura said. As he continues to improve the site, he plans to market it more so it can grow beyond his networks at UT and in his home state of Ohio.

“I’ve had to learn a lot of things on my own while creating BetterBoo,” Chmura said. The finance major is taking his first entrepreneurship course this semester, but he said that up until now, a lot of what he has learned has been by trial and error.

“I’d really encourage anyone interested in starting their own business to pursue it now,” he said.

“College is an amazing time to start a business. You’ve got a lot of free time, and there are people all around you that you can go to for help and advice.”

Chmura explained, “There are a lot of investors looking at start-up tech companies.”

At this point, BetterBoo.com’s biggest competitor is the Amazon Wish List, but Chmura said even that does not provide the sharing capabilities that BetterBoo does. With the simple plan of “making the wish list social,” Chmura hopes to enhance the convenience of online gift giving.