What brought you to study at Le Wagon?
Having worked in commerce for most of my professional career, in large companies such as Casino Groups and other smaller startup initiatives as project leader, I was always in contact with development teams, working closely on product development and product roadmaps, but always with a business perspective and never with a product development perspective.
That lack of insight into the inner workings of the product made me go out and look for ways to learn more about product development and programming skills, not only for corporate product management, but also for my own startup aspirations.
I looked online, and did a few online courses, but knowing myself, I knew that I’d have to get my hands dirty with an in-person classroom course, and it would have to be intense and full-time for me to get the full benefit.
Did you have any concerns before joining the bootcamp? How were you reassured?
My biggest worry was spending that much on a two month course. So I did some quick math, breaking the cost down per hour, and comparing it with post-grad studies of the same time frame. It seems short, but it’s 360 hours, the equivalent of an MBA or other post-grad courses here in Brazil that are usually drawn out over two years. All that squeezed into and intense 9-week period.
So the cost seemed reasonable, as it was still cheaper than said post-grad courses, but was it good? I did the logical thing and looked for all the reviews I could find, and spoke to alumni and the founders in Brazil.
I looked for the negative reviews, and looked, and looked, but to this day couldn’t find any substantial. I was reassured that I was making the right decision, so I decided to take the plunge.
What was the best part of your bootcamp experience?
Besides going from zero experience in development to building a fully (well, almost fully - always a bug here and there) functional MVP of a product, what you take away from the bootcamp is being part of an international community of enthusiasts that took the same journey as you and followed it down all different kinds of paths. You’re part of an alumni of thousands all over the world that are online and accessible to help you with your problems, and you can help them with theirs.
Also, on a more personal note, you look at problems with a new perspective, always thinking on a technological way to solve it, shorten processes, thinking about database structures that could automate boring tasks whether it be in the office or at home.
What was the transition out of Le Wagon like? What are you up to?
Coming out of Le Wagon I was leading the digitalization initiatives of a major printing operation, providing print-on-demand solutions for major retailers like Amazon and helping startups like Clube de Autores sell through the major online marketplaces. And in my spare time, building out the bugs in
Numooh the product we developed in the last two weeks at Le Wagon.
After a few months we enrolled our startup, that connects out-of-home media sellers with buyers and agencies, in Startup Farm, one of the leading accelerators in Latin America and were selected as one of twelve out of a group of hundreds of startups applications.
What was the most valuable takeaway from Le Wagon for you?
For me the idea that you can solve almost any problem with technology is the biggest point that has stayed with me. The ability to look at complex business, or life in general, problems and abstract on how a technological solution could solve it is definitely something that has stayed with me, and will always stay with me.
How did attending at Le Wagon help you start your own business?
Well, I built the first version of the product in two weeks (with very little sleep and lot’s of coffee) at Le Wagon, together with three other students. You can watch our
product demo here. Then continued working on the product with two of those three, and one of the partners is an Alumni. So, we’re 100% founded in Le Wagon, and keep tapping the community with our doubts and use the experience to make a better product and a better company. Besides that, Le Wagon is a very product-centered bootcamp. So we are naturally a product-centered startup.
Who would you recommend a coding bootcamp to? Why?
I think I would recommend Le Wagon to anyone that has dreamed of building their own startup, building their own software or anyone that wants to be in the builder’s team in the future. If you’ve ever had to put a bid on a freelancer site, or had to read through a development specification sheet with a mysterious price tag at the end with all those endless milestones, and wish you’d had the knowledge to say that that made no sense whatsoever, then I’d highly recommend it.
But you really have to want it, it’s not easy, you’ll dream about lines of code, and solutions will come to you in the middle of your shower, but it was without a doubt one of the most gratifying experiences I’ve ever had.
