Every college student attending a school in the University System of Maryland is required to fill out a Degree Completion Plan (DCP) if they have earned at least 45 credits.

This requires students to work with faculty and staff advisors each semester to fill out forms with the courses they have taken and what courses they plan to take to ensure a timely graduation.

Andres Londoño ’24 and Matthew Dibbern ’23, felt like the process was outdated and could be streamlined.

“The problem is that DCPs are filled out on Excel spreadsheets. This can lead to incorrect courses being filled out and taken, surprises from students on graduation timelines, and advisor fatigue from manually editing and correcting individual plans,” said Londoño.

While studying at Towson University, Londoño and Dibbern felt a responsibility and an opportunity to apply their skills as software developers to create a streamlined solution that would allow students to fill out DCPs, ensuring they are taking the courses needed for their degree.

Together, along with a faculty co-founder, the duo founded DegreeMap. This app streamlines the degree completion plan process for college students and their advisors to plan, track, and manage degree completion plans.

The DegreeMap team took part in the 2024 StarTUp Student Accelerator with a different venture. However, they said the lessons learned that summer carried directly into DegreeMap.

“The program gave us the business fundamentals, customer discovery skills, and confidence to validate an idea,” said Londoño. “With DegreeMap, we’ve applied that knowledge to secure funding, build a working prototype and gain early interest from multiple universities.”

In 2025 alone, the DegreeMap team won $80,000 in non-dilutive grants and has seen tremendous product growth.

They were one of two Towson University student-led ventures that took home $50,000 at the inaugural Maryland Student Venture Showcase.

In August, DegreeMap was an awardee of the Baltimore Innovation Initiative (BII) Pilot Program. This TEDCO fund supports students and faculty innovation in Baltimore, helping early-stage startups move toward commercialization.

Londoño said the support lets his team focus on creating a tool that can scale from Towson University to other USM institutions. “For us, it’s critical fuel. we’ll use it to keep building DegreeMap, expand our development capacity, and invest in legal and tax services to make sure we’re growing on a solid foundation.”

DegreeMap is exiting the initial development stage and entering post-MVP and are speaking to universities about the product and what their advising needs are. “We’ve also gained strong interest from advisors at multiple universities, which gives us early validation that we’re solving a real market need.”

Although they exited the StarTUp Accelerator in 2024, they still call the StarTUp at the Armory home base, running their business out of a second-floor office. They say the space is a great place for entrepreneurs and that the community that surrounds them there is incredible.

“We’re surrounded by talented entrepreneurs at all stages, and there’s a genuine spirit of collaboration and a willingness to help one another. Being in this environment pushes us forward, gives us access to valuable feedback, and keeps us motivated knowing we’re part of Baltimore’s growing startup ecosystem.”

The StarTUp at the Armory has been a part of DegreeMap’s journey since their undergradudate days. “We’d come here just to study because of the atmosphere. The team was welcoming, the space was inspiring. We’re excited to see more students take advantage of it today. You never know what ideas will spark when you’re surrounded by great minds.”