GE 163: How Codesmith Acquired Its First 20 Students for $120 Who Went on to Earn an Average Salary of $103K (podcast)

Hi everybody, today we have Will Sentance, CEO and Cofounder of Codesmith, a software engineering immersive program that prepares graduates for roles as software engineers at top companies.

In today’s interview we’ll be discussing what makes Codesmith different from other bootcamps, how they leverage a lot of customer/student acquisition from Meetup, and why the average salary of their graduates is $103,000.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Codesmith Acquired Its First 20 Students for $120 Who Went on to Earn an Average Salary of $103K TRANSCRIPT

Episode highlights:

• [3:52] – Getting into a top program like Codesmith can change your life.
• [6:11] – Codesmith is an intimate community – brilliant, exceptional, and playful
• [7:23] – Will is trying to build software engineers that are also future leaders
• [8:04] – Acceptance in Codesmith is competitive and only 1 in 15 are selected; they also offer free classes for junior level developers
• [13:50] – Codesmith costs $17,200 but they also offer scholarships for people with disadvantaged backgrounds
• [14:51] – Top programs enable people from any background to be part of the coding world
• [15:41] – Scholarships and Meetup.com help with acquisitions
• [16:03] – Reviews also helped a lot, especially on high ranking sites – Quora has also been very helpful in getting the word out about Codesmith
• [18:06] – The magic of Codesmith was the community and getting people inspired

Resources from this interview:

• Codesmith
• Twitter @willsentance
• Buffer Open Blog
• Will@Codesmith.io

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