While studying political science at Columbia University, Zach Sims looked on with frustration as peers—graduating with lots of student debt and few workplace-ready skills—struggled to find jobs. In 2011, before what would have been his senior year, he dropped out to help start Codecademy, a free, interactive web platform designed to help teach even the most unlikely candidates programming languages likes JavaScript.
Mr. Sims, now 23, and his co-founder, Ryan Bubinski, 24, a Columbia graduate, have proved particularly adept at heralding coding as a résumé must-have in a digital economy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City declared he would learn to code via the platform. Codecademy has attracted millions of users, has drawn $12.5-million in venture-capital funds, and employs 22 people, Mr. Sims says, although it has yet to generate revenue. (The co-founders remain coy about possible revenue streams but say they are in the works.) <Read more.>
