Founder Parade: Zach Sims, Codecademy
Zach Sims is the co-founder of Codecademy (http://www.codecademy.com), a program I was recently informed of by one of my students. His co-founder is Ryan Bubinsky. Codecademy provides free online lessons that teach programming. Zach observed that there was a lack of programmers in the United States, and during his experience as an employee with GroupMe (https://groupme.com/) at the start up phase, was frustrated with his own lack of programming knowledge, and was continually having to teach and reteach himself. He wondered why he hadn’t learned in Middle School, and from this frustration was born the idea of Codecademy, to help the young and old learn programming. Lessons are created by users, using the Codecademy course creator platform, and they have included a rating system, so that they have core approved courses, and additional courses for experimentation. I’ve joined and am enjoying the learning, and have recommended to an advanced programming student that he begin creating lessons.
Business Insider (2012) calls Zach Sims a 21 year old Columbia drop out, but Sims’ LinkedIn page identifies his education as being Columbia University in the City of New York, major Political Science, and does not mention that he did not complete his degree. He has a long list of societies and activities at Columbia, including being a founding member of several organizations. He has been a Director of Content Development for Rev2.org, he founded New School Politics, a blog for politically active teens, and has a long list of other writing, consultant, and managing roles.
While information about his personal background is not readily visible, it appears that Sims has a passion for learning, creating, and making positive contributions. His article in Time Business (2012) speaks passionately about the need for programmers in the United States, the ready availability of jobs, and the role of programming in the 21st Century economy. He is clearly hard-working and active, ready to work on a variety of different teams, and explore possibilities and necessities for the future.
The Codecademy team is made up of Sims and his co-founder Ryan Bubinsky, who teaches development at Columbia on weekends. Bubinsky shares Sims’ concerns for the lack of programming in popular educational choices and options of students, and, along with Sims, is dedicated to helping people learn programming for free.
These two entrepreneurs confirm for me that the best ventures come from people who are professionally active in a field and observe a need for that field. They did not create Codecademy to fill a niche or increase notoriety or wealth. They created Codecademy because they saw a gap in education that they could fill, in the interest of helping Americans (and interested persons of any other nationality) to be better educated to meet the needs of a 21st Century workforce. They are both practical, and from the heart: they believe passionately in what they do, love what they do, and want others to be able to do too.
References
Dickinson, Boonsri. “Meet The 21-Year-Old College Dropout Who Founded Codecademy And Wants To Turn Everybody Into A Coder .” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc., 01 Feb 2012. Web. 14 Jun 2012. <http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-01/tech/31011903_1_programming-platform-dims>.
Lindberg, Oliver. “Ryan Bubinski on Codecademy.” .net. Future Publishing Limited, 07 Feb 2012. Web. 14 Jun 2012. <http://www.netmagazine.com/interviews/ryan-bubinski-codecademy>.
Zach Sims, . “Codecademy Founder: why everyone should learn programming.” Time Business. Time, n.d. Web. 14 Jun 2012. <http://business.time.com/2012/06/08/codecademy-founder-why-everyone-should-learn-programming/>.
Zachary Sims, . “LinkedIn.” . N.p., 2012. Web. 14 Jun 2012.
My apologies for my shocking lateness, I considered skipping it and hiding, but the exercise was too worthwhile to miss. 🙂 Chelsea
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
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