For Jacqueline Deprey (B.S. ’20, computer science; B.S. ’20, operations management and business analytics), a personal loss and a passion for problem-solving inspired Perpetua, a digital toolkit designed to simplify estate settlement.
From her first coding experience in high school, Jacqueline Deprey (B.S. ’20, computer science; B.S. ’20, operations management and business analytics) has always been drawn to the problem-solving power of computing.
“I don't know that I ever loved coding, but once I understood the impact it could make on other people, I just developed a passion for it that I couldn't give up,” she said. “And that's what motivated me to major in computer science at Maryland.”
This year, leveraging the software engineering and business expertise she built over the past decade at the University of Maryland and beyond, Deprey turned her passion for computing into a business.
She and Shruti Das (B.S. ’21, computer engineering) co-founded the tech company Perpetua, which takes on one of life’s daunting—and often heartbreaking—challenges: settling the estate of a lost loved one. The company’s digital toolkit is designed to answer the tough questions families face when a loved one passes away.
“How can we help families capture both the financial and emotional value of the things their loved ones leave behind? We tried to use technology to basically create a playbook,” Deprey explained. “Perpetua helps families and advisors track down and gain access to the known and unknown online accounts of those who have passed, whether that means bank accounts, medical records, insurance policies, social media, a pension plan or even a life insurance policy you might not know existed. It finds the accounts, subscriptions and assets tied to a life and shows you exactly what to do next.”
It’s not the business Deprey envisioned launching as a student, but after her family experienced this pain firsthand, she couldn’t turn away.
“This problem is just calling me,” she said. “I can't think of anything more impactful to be doing with my time.”
Charting a course
For Deprey, UMD was a part of her life long before she became a college student.
“Both of my parents were Terps, and I remember, even as a small child, knowing the Maryland fight song just as well as I knew the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said.
From day one at UMD, Deprey knew she wanted to pursue computer science and business. Participating in the Gemstone and QUEST Honors programs helped her decide on a path for the future.
“I wasn’t sure if academia or industry was going to be my path after college. I found that I really loved being in Gemstone, getting to do hands-on research that was making an impact. Working on an interdisciplinary team allowed me to learn from students who were different from myself, and we were able to build an assistive device to help children with learning disabilities, which was very cool,” she said. “Then through QUEST I was able to work hands-on with different companies and do similar interdisciplinary teamwork, but through an industry lens, which helped shaped the kinds of problems I wanted to solve after I graduated.”
At Maryland, Deprey stayed busy and involved. Active as a tutor and teaching assistant in what is now the Computing Catalyst, she was also a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, a campus tour guide and even president of the table tennis team. A junior-year internship at Dropbox landed Deprey a full-time job after graduation, working first as a software engineer and later as a senior product manager.
An academic BOGO—and a search for solutions
In 2024, with ambitious plans for her future, Deprey headed to Columbia University to earn her MBA and a master’s degree in engineering.
“Because I had stopped hands-on coding as a software engineer, I wanted to sharpen the technical skills I had first built at Maryland. And when I looked at people who had the influence that I wanted later on in my career, I noticed many of them had those 3 letters next to their name: MBA,” Deprey explained. “I jokingly describe it as a BOGO. I’d get to understand how AI works under the hood and increase my business acumen all at the same time.”
While at Columbia, a sudden family loss changed everything. When a close relative passed away, Deprey saw the devastating impact it had on her entire family and the challenges they faced trying to settle the estate. Still dedicated to tackling tough problems, Deprey knew she had to do something.
“Seeing how stressful this estate process is, I kept thinking there has to be a better way,” Deprey said. “At Dropbox I built systems that helped organizations manage employee accounts after someone left a company—what should be preserved and what should remain private—and I couldn't help but think, if there's a solution out there that helps with departed employees, why isn't there a solution that's helping families when they have departed loved ones?”
Months later, after countless conversations with estate lawyers, legal experts, tech companies and a host of people who had struggled through an estate settlement themselves, Deprey and Das created Perpetua, an online toolkit designed to make the process easier.
“Perpetua’s direct-to-consumer offering is twofold,” Deprey explained. “For those who want to plan ahead, there is a free guided playbook that takes about 20 minutes to complete. Think of it as a practical companion to your legal documents that you can share with someone you trust. For those who have recently lost someone, Perpetua helps families track down and find the accounts tied to their loved one’s online presence and get access to them after the person has passed.”
It’s problem-solving software Deprey wishes her own family could have had when they needed it most. Though building Perpetua has been a challenging and sometimes emotional journey, she’s grateful for the invaluable learning experiences at UMD that helped make her problem-solving platform a reality.
“To be able to help others is really what drives me, and I'm so fortunate for the foundation that Maryland gave me that helps me do that in such a tangible way,” Deprey said. “Whether it was the technical skills needed to code products like this or the business insights needed to bring Perpetua to market, knowing I could ease someone's burden, even just a little bit, in their time of grief means the world."
