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CEO: Learn to write code, or else [Boston Herald]
(Boston Herald (MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 16--Zach Sims, co-founder of free Web programming-tutorial website Codecademy, dropped by Boston rewards-program software company FreeCause yesterday to kick off its initiative to have all 45 of its non-technical employees learn to write code.
FreeCause CEO Michael Jaconi, 29, cold-called Sims about two weeks ago after being inspired by FreeCause's parent company, Japanese Internet giant Rakuten, and its "Englishization" program to teach its employees English.
"They were like, 'This is what we want to do, can you help us?' " Sims, 21, told the Herald. "I was like 'yup.' And then it's minimal effort on both sides for an awesome outcome."
Jaconi calls the effort "Codinization," and said it's a way to increase the collective IQ of the company.
"I was looking at Rakuten's success with the Englishization project, and I said, 'I think we can do this,' " he said. "JavaScript coding is a language, just like English."
The idea is to improve communication between technical and non-technical employees. By the end of the year, each employee should be able to contribute a feature to FreeCause's service. Jaconi said the response has been enthusiastic.
"I don't want to say I'm going to fire people if they don't succeed, but I hope that everyone succeeds," Jaconi said. "And I plan on having everyone succeed."
The six-person Manhattan-based Codecademy, which has more than 1 million users, isn't ready to talk revenue -- but it does plan to generate it at some point. It plans to roll out courses in other programming languages, partly user-generated.
"We didn't have any plans to do something like this, but it's the perfect fit," Sims said.
brendan.lynch@bostonherald.com
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(c)2012 the Boston Herald
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