Our story
Updated 2 months ago
BetterCampus started in 2020 as one high schooler's dark mode for Canvas. Six years later it's used by over 2 million students.
A pandemic side project
George built the first version in 2020. He was in high school, stuck at home, and staring at Canvas for eight hours a day. So he wrote a Chrome extension that added dark mode.
Other students found it. He kept going — themes, better navigation, tools Canvas didn't have — building through 2021, 2022, and 2023, most of it from a dorm room at the University of Maryland.
Going viral
In early 2024 it took off on TikTok. #BetterCanvas spread, and thousands of students installed it in a matter of weeks.
Two founders
Jake found George later that year. He had spent his career in education technology, including a stretch at Deloitte's Business Innovation Group and work that saved students more than $7 million in tuition. He came with one idea: this should be much bigger.
They teamed up in mid-2024. George brought the product and a student's instinct for what actually helps. Jake brought the plan to get it to everyone.
The name change
It was called Better Canvas for its first four years, because Canvas was all it did. It's BetterCampus now — it works with Google Classroom, Brightspace, Blackboard, and Moodle too, and the name needed to stop promising less than the product delivered.
Where it stands
Over 2 million students across more than 500 universities. Still free to start, and still built around what students actually asked for.