I'm currently working through week six of Phase 0, and I'm so, so sad that DBC isn't going to last. I did tons of research about different bootcamps, but ultimately I chose DBC because I wanted to be a part of a program that has such a commitment to being a corrective force in the embarrassingly un-diverse tech world.
It really is incredible that the thing you created has empowered so many students to both maximize their ability to learn and gain more agency in such an inequitable society.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. I'm glad I decided to dive into this while DBC was still around. (And now I should probably get back to work with attributes and modules...)
I was at DBC around the time of the sale and you're full of shit. You checked out, drove tons of taleneted people away (Michael, Lachy, Tony, Jesse, Keith, Zee, Myles, to name a few), and then decided you were bored with bootcamps.
You were in it for yourself and it would have been better for everyone if you could have admitted it. Sounds like you're still believing your own stories.
Kudos to you for hiring and inspiring an amazing team. Too bad you didn't know what to do with it.
It's true. Those instructors were all amazing, but Kaplan started asking them for their college transcripts to determine their pay scale (lol), and they realized the fight has already been lost.
You abandoned DBC and set up a competitor. A lot of people got screwed over while you raked in a ton of cash.
You may not be responsible for the decline of DBC, but part of the reason it is crap now is because they expanded to like 30 locations. I'm almost certain that's the model you pitched to Kaplan because you sold right after the New York Campus opened.
Hey Shereef, alumnus here. Don't listen to this; I attended right after the Kaplan acquisition, and everyone was very transparently working to keep the mission and values you started with alive.
I'm sure you made out with money but that doesn't mean you sold out the mission. This person is just upset they didn't get a job at what was an awesome institution.
Thank you for this. I remember reading this 5+ years ago. It was the catalyst for me dropping out of college, and eventually made my way up to SF to go to DBC. A hell of a journey, and it all started with a post on some forum.
Edit: I also didn't realize you're the DBC founder? I owe you so much and i owe my entire career (thus far) to DBC and the entire industry you started with some crazy idea of teaching people to code in a couple months. Thank you for everything you have done.
With a 6 year vesting schedule a new employee is 'buying' 0.1% worth of shares for 30k in salary. A 30MM valuation, or 5X the 6MM cap on the convertible note.
I don't know how Github runs, but it sounds nothing like Holacracy. The author is confused (as are many people on this thread).
Six months ago, I switched my company (over 50 full time employees in 3 cities) to Holacracy.
I'm here to tell you that I'm 100% convinced that it's a huge step forward in terms of any organizational system I've come across.
There's nothing 'flat' or 'manager-less' about it. It's a complex and intricate system that leads to greater clarity, less politics, and better distributed decision making.
Accountabilities are clearer, meetings are more efficient, and more voices are heard. Holacracy explicitly avoids design/decide by committee.
If you're running a company with more than 10 employees, I highly recommend you take a serious look at Holacracy. It's the best decision I've made by far, and I'm never going to work for, or start another company without running it this way.
If you're earnestly curious, drop me a note and I'll be happy to talk about it more with you.
I have been very surprised at the discrepancy between the level of dialogue.
When the discussion on HN is around almost anything, I find myself often learning, and surrounded by comments that are smarter, and more informed than any I would find in the real world.
When it comes to gender issues though, I think we as a community in general tend to be pretty behind.
I truly love HN. More than any other place on the interweb, this one has impacted my life in very real ways. I do however, cringe when the topic veers towards sexism. I think we can do better.
> I have been very surprised at the discrepancy between the level of dialogue.
I haven't been. Without doubt there are some brilliant minds on HN, but even this populace is not immune from "believing first, proving second". The group writ large tends to fall into that trap on different topics than most people, but it falls eventually. Not just regarding sexism in tech either; there are others.
Also. Not a box. zomes.com