Zach Sims
Sims in 2012
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Codecademy

Zach Sims (born 1990) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Codecademy. He currently serves as the CEO of the company.[1][2]

Biography

When Sims was 13, he started to email manufacturers with the idea to build a waterproof iPod case.[3]

Sims later entered Columbia University with the class of 2012,[4] as a political science major.[5][6]

During his junior year, he realized that most of the students did not have the skill set relevant to their job search.[7] He also worked for GroupMe, founded by his college friend Jared Hecht, after seeing him demo the application at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010.[3] However, he was frustrated with the lack of effective programming courses.[8] As a result, he decided to teach himself coding with the help of his friend Ryan Bubinski, who he met while working for the Columbia Daily Spectator.[4] The two built the first version of Codecademy to teach Sims how to program.[7]

In 2011, Sims and Bubinski were accepted into Y Combinator's summer program. That summer, Sims launched Codecademy with Bubinski and dropped out of college, a year before graduation.[8][9] In 2011, the startup was the runner-up of TechCrunch's Best New Startup awards, losing to Pinterest.[10][11] During the first weekend of the launch, it attracted more than 200,000 users and had 1 million users by the end of 2011.[12] As of 2021, Codecademy has a user base of 45 million.[8]

In 2013, Sims was named one of the finalists of the Time 100.[13][14] In 2015, Sims attended the World Economic Forum.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Zach Sims". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  2. ↑ Sankaran, Lakshmi. "No one's too young to have an impact: Zach Sims, co-founder, Codeacademy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  3. 1 2 Zhang, Maggie. "9 Startup Lessons From The Founder Of Codecademy". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  4. 1 2 "An Online Platform for 21st Century Literacy". Columbia College. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  5. ↑ Sankaran, Lakshmi. "No one's too young to have an impact: Zach Sims, co-founder, Codeacademy". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  6. ↑ "Columbia Daily Spectator 8 October 2013 — Columbia Spectator". spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  7. 1 2 3 "The man with 26 million students". BBC News. 2015-01-24. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  8. 1 2 3 Luce, Ivan De (2021-02-05). "Codecademy founder Zach Sims is coming for your developers". www.businessofbusiness.com. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  9. ↑ Kennedy, John (2014-07-24). "The interview: Zach Sims, co-founder, Codecademy - Careers | siliconrepublic.com - Ireland's Technology News Service". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  10. ↑ Dickinson, Boonsri. "Meet The 21-Year-Old College Dropout Who Founded Codecademy And Wants To Turn Everybody Into A Coder". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  11. ↑ "Congratulations Crunchies Winners! Dropbox Is The Best Overall Startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  12. ↑ Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (2012-07-02). "30 Under 30: Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, Codecademy". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  13. ↑ "How Zach Sims Grew A Successful Business – CanadianSME". Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  14. ↑ Staff, TIME (2013-03-22). "Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski: The 2013 TIME 100 Poll". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
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