Bethany & Jon welcome a full house to the Beyond Coding Classroom.
Last night I sat in on one of the Beyond Coding’s classes hosted at Stack Exchange. An innovative new program to help bridge the knowledge gap between learning to program and finding a job as a programmer. The best part of the event was getting to witness the evolution from idea to execution.
A few months ago I learned about the program from Bethany, Marketing Manger of Stack Overflow Careers at Stack Exchange. Bethany was thinking about how to put action against many issues she cared about. She’s been an active voice at Stack and in the USV Portfolio on creating diverse and inclusive work environments. She’s professionally and personally passionate about helping people find a rewarding career in programming. On top of that, she’s a proud New Yorker who recognized that investing in the ecosystem early is the best way to support the future of a Tech community here in NYC.
Bethany had a vision and she’s made it happen. She’s been hard at work with countless others to get this program off the ground for this summer.
Today, Beyond Coding sets out to equip emerging computer programmers in New York City with professional skills needed to help them succeed in their first job working with code. The program launched June 11th, as a direct response to the City’s Tech Talent Pipeline efforts to grow NYC’s local tech ecosystem. Beyond Coding is free to participants due to the support of a joint partnership among six companies in New York City’s startup ecosystem: Crest CC, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Trello, and Stack Overflow. Full disclosure, you’ll recognize 4 out of the 6 are part of the USV Portfolio.
As you see in the photo above, there was no shortage of interest. The program received so many applications that they needed to split the attendees into two cohorts. The curriculum is the same for each class but the split was mostly decided by their current education path. The program last night was filled with college students and recent graduates, most between the ages of 20 to 25. The second cohort is composed of students switching careers, who hover between the ages of 30 to 45. Students in both cohorts represent all neighborhoods, ethnicities, genders and beyond. Everyone is there to do the work, learn from others and collaborate.
The courses focus on learning the necessary skills to land a job in the next 6-18 months. Everything from learning about data and it’s importance in any tech job, to building a github and Linkedin profile to be visible in the talent market. Some of these steps may seem like a no-brainer to those already in the industry, but when you’re an outsider with few peers working in the industry, it’s all new. This environment of interactive learning, collaboration, turning in homework assignments on time, and providing feedback to peers is a learning experience too. Each component adds to making these talented developers workforce ready.
Last night’s course focused on learning how to learn. A lot of software engineering jobs aren’t just looking at the skills you have, they are looking for your ability to acquire new skills. Jon did a great job helping students discover their own motivations, learning styles and passions through an engaging lecture that included group participation, sharing with peers, videos and stories of his career in tech. The three hour course had everyone participating and collaborating in a way that few classrooms do.
Individuals working on their own assessments before they share with their peers.
Participants recording their stories, motivations and learning styles.
I was impressed with the course, but even more so by the students. I took part in a peer discussion with two engineers entering their senior year of a computer science degree. A young woman and man who both realized the way they got interested in computer programming was through video game cheats and making edits to their Xanga blogs. They didn’t know it was programming, it was just looking up how to write commands to make the site or game do what they wanted. They both grew up with computers as far back as they could remember. That sentiment surprised me as I reflected on my own experiences. I had learned how to hack to get my video games to work but my family didn’t have a family PC until at least 3rd grade. What a difference a decade makes in access. It will be great to see the impact these early start engineers has on the future of the web, the problems solved by software, and the potential for fun.
I’d bet on everyone in that room. If you’re a startup hiring for great entry level engineering talent, you can too. Sign up to participate in the hiring fair at the end of the summer on their website.
I’ve been thinking about information on salaries ever since Gary, Christina, and Leland’s SVA Class on Entrepreneurial Design. On that Saturday, I met with Rachel, a designer and student who was building a project around the Wage Gap. She wanted to help empower employees, especially designers, to get fairly compensated.
The current wage gap has two sides to it, the companies providing the compensation and the individuals asking for the compensation. Some companies have a compensation range and then rely on employee negotiations to set salaries. Other companies, which now includes Reddit, decide on the compensation and do not take negotiation from the employee into consideration.
Given these two scenarios, the wage gap still exists because employees aren’t negotiating to their potential salary or companies are not determining pay fairly.
As an individual, it’s hard to know where you net out. Should you try to negotiate for more money? What is the fair market value of your time? If you are returning to the workforce from school or home, what should your salary expectation be? There are a lot of questions but not a ton of great resources to get clear answers on the topic.
Thankfully, Rachel has taken this on as her mission for Let’s Talk About Pay. She’s created a resource dedicated to opening up the compensation questions in order to create more transparency and confidence for those entering the workforce. If this is a topic you care about, I’d encourage you to participate:
Calling all NYC Engineers: Teach Computer Science to NYC Students
A problem that many technology companies face is a high demand for engineering talent but a low supply. One of the key ways to solve this over time is by teaching more students computer science. In addition to retraining the existing workforce, the supply of engineers also relies on a getting K-12 students started today.
One of the top organizations working towards this mission is TEALS (Technology Education And Literacy in Schools).
It’s a grassroots program that recruits, trains, mentors, and places high tech professionals from across the country who are passionate about computer science education into high school classes as volunteer teachers in a team teaching model where the school district is unable to meet their students’ computer science (CS) needs on its own. More info here.
I was introduced to TEALS through Fred’s work with their organization. We were also fortunate to have Nathaniel share more information at our last USV Engineering Leadership Summit. Which, of course, included break out sessions on talent pipelines and building a diverse team, two things TEALS is all about.
Volunteer, even with a full time job: TEALS is now knee-deep in our volunteer recruiting cycle. They are looking to find ~60 engineers who want to teach CS and help a school launch their CS program. The time commitment will fit with your work schedule, including a few hours a week before the office even opens. Full time engineers are encouraged to apply.
A great developer I know started building an app and now has more traction than he expected. He’s trying to figure out how to sustain the development by expanding his team. Cash strapped to pay salaries, he’s considering raising money to continue expansion of the app.
We’ve been going back and forth on how to navigate terms for an early stage fundraise so I thought I’d share some of those ideas here.
Equation to calculate valuation: 1) How much of the business are you willing to give up? Typically 10-20% in a seed round, but can be less if you need less money. 2) How much money do you need to get you through the next 12-18 months? or to prove the next big milestone so you can fundraise for your next round. You may be able to get profitable off of one fundraise, but if not, think ahead for how much money you need to buy you the time you need to prove progress. 3) Valuation is this equation : Valuation = money you need /% you’re willing to give up. If it’s $75k / 12% = $625,000 valuation, $700,000 post money
If it’s 100k / 10% = $1M valuation, 1.1M post money.
Determining if it’s a fair valuation:
1) Valuations are usually based on the future value of the company after you take this money. So the company may not be worth $700,000 today but with $75k of capital, you’ll be able to get it to that value.
2) How do you determine the value if you don’t have revenue to base the ‘worth’ off of? This is the tricky part. Danny Crichton provides a deep analysis in his “Complete Quantitative Guide To Judging Your Startup” (thanks to Stash for sharing) but even with lots of data, it’s still up to the investor. Serial investors or institutions should have a rough benchmark of traction, potential and growth that they can make an offer on valuation.
Don’t forget the big picture From my VC & entrepreneurship experience, early stage valuations are more of an art than a science. A few things to remember when doing the fundraising dance:
- You can always raise less money. For example, if you only need $50k to get to your next milestone, take the $50k in January and use that money to build the business. By August you may have great traction, revenue or engagement metrics that place a higher valuation on the company. You may decide to raise $250 - $1M at that point.
If you raised more money earlier, you may have sold equity at a higher cost than you needed to. In this example, if the valuation on your company was $500k in January, if you raised $50k you’d be selling 10% of equity. If you tried to raise $250k in January, you’d be selling 50% of your equity, not a good idea.
- You might not need venture capital now. There are ways to bootstrap, find alternative sources of capital and further prove your idea today. Mark Suster does a great job covering this point here. Many alternatives cost zero equity.
- Think about your future rounds. Fundraising isn’t just about the capital you raise today, it’s potentially a piece of a longer path. The valuation, capital and time that you negotiate for now will impact your next fundraise. If your valuation is too high now, it’ll be more difficult to negotiate a higher valuation down the road. If your burn is too high for the amount you raise, you may not have enough time to grow the business. The early investors you work with may not be willing or able to invest in future rounds. This will impact your strategy for your next raise.
- Keep your cap table clean. If you have a messy foundation, it gets harder with each round to clean it up. Make sure equity is properly allocated, accounted for and setup with vesting schedules to keep team members and advisors properly engaged. Equity may seem cheap early on, but it feels much more expensive once you start selling it to investors. I’ve made this mistake in the past and it’s an expensive one to learn.
- Valuation is set by the person writing the check. You may want a certain price, but it’s only possible if the market is willing to pay it. This is a negotiation, so figure out what the market wants. There are tradeoffs between “easy money” and “smart money” so don’t forget to evaluate what you’re getting in return from the investors.
