---
title: Bloc
kind: company
role: Cofounder & CTO
years: 2012 – 2017
status: sunset
summary: >-
  Cofounded the first online coding bootcamp. Scaled to 110 employees and 37
  reports before acquisition.
links:
  - label: Wikipedia
    url: 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloc_(code_school)'
tags:
  - cofounder
  - education
  - rails
  - growth
order: 3
---

Cofounded Bloc in 2012 — the first online coding bootcamp, before "bootcamp"
was the standard pattern. We rejected the brick-and-mortar model: no fixed cohorts,
open enrollment, mentor-driven curriculum, flipped-classroom approach borrowed from
Khan Academy. Anyone willing to put in the hours could enroll.

By the time we were acquired by Thinkful in 2017, we'd scaled to 110 employees,
with 37 in my org spanning engineering, design, and curriculum. Most of what I
know about hiring engineers, developing managers, and surviving venture-funded
hypergrowth, I learned in those five years.

Some of the lessons are in [the essays](/writing) — the bootcamp placement-rate piece
in [Extrapolating from one number](/writing/extrapolating) is from that era.