Kito.co pitches, and later wins, at Wyncode Academy's Pitch Day 6, in front of a record crowd at The Lab Miami. Photos provided by Wyncode.
By Juha Mikkola
As a truly global city, Miami needs an economy that is as strong and diverse as its people. This requires that its workforce is equipped with the skills of the 21st century to attract and retain companies that create the jobs and opportunities that help build a robust middle class. In 2015, this increasingly means knowing how to write code — the language behind the technologies that fuel our daily lives. At Wyncode we’re doing our part to build a workforce that is helping transform South Florida from a tourist destination to a leader in global innovation, commerce, and entrepreneurship.
Our nine-week coding bootcamp equips students from all walks of life (most of whom had little to no prior programming experience) with the computer programming needed to launch their careers as web developers with long-term growth potential or their own start up companies from scratch. Miami was just named the country’s second leading startup city and the 28 graduates of our most recent cohort embody the spirit of South Florida’s new economy behind this accolade.
At Thursday’s Pitch Day VI, the newest class of Wyncoders presented the web applications they built with their teammates—after learning Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS and JavaScript over the last three months—to a panel of judges who selected a winner, as well as a standing room-only crowd of nearly 300 members of Miami’s tech community. The exciting web apps that were presented last night are paving the way for a more vibrant and innovative community. Among the apps presented were:
- * Cluborate.co: A social network for activist groups and social causes
- * TheBulk.co: A crowdsourcing tool for shoppers to purchase in bulk
- * Wynning.co: An online life coach and project management tool
- * Cookio.co: An Uber for personal chefs
- * Libro-Club.co: A social network-based book club
- * Parlayvous.co: Online raffles to help non-profits fundraise
- * Tailorup.co: One of our WynTank submissions, our program to connect Wyncoders with local entrepreneurs, made by Wynwood jeans maker Caveat, is a personalized tailoring service right in your mobile phone.
- * Kito.co: Kito helps landlords better manage their properties and tenants
- * MDCPE.co: Another WynTank submission, MDCPE.co integrates with Miami-Dade County’s API to help users procure estimates for building permits
- * Delight.co: An online dating app integrated with Yelp to help you plan your next date created by graduates of Wyncode’s part-time iOS program
At the end of the evening, the panel of judges, which included Jeff Fudge – VP of Technology at Sato Global Solutions; Cristina Solana – Sr. Web Developer and User Interface Engineer at Enspire Commerce; David McVicar – Independent Ruby on Rails Consultant at Living Social, Metro Star Systems, and Mobikaze; Josh Perez – Software Engineer at AirBnB; and Chris Alper – Director of PDIS Training and Employee Development at Ultimate Software, selected Kito.co, which was created by Sean Selleck, Ariel Peralta, and Angelica Rodriguez, as the best presentation of the night.
A highly educated workforce is the backbone of a strong society and economy. This is precisely what we work toward everyday at Wyncode as we seek to achieve Miami’s true potential. This is why the true winners of Pitch Day VI weren’t just the students; it was our entire community.
Juha Mikkola is co-founder of Wyncode Academy.