Dear Students, Codaisseur is bankrupt

Dear students, prospective students, graduates, hiring partners, and many, many friends and business relations,

Eight years ago, I started Codaisseur from my background as a developer and CTO because of my mission to bring more people into tech and because I wanted to change the way the tech industry thinks about juniors. Back then, we were in an economic crisis too, and many people were unemployed in The Netherlands at the time. Codaisseur grew fast because our proposition with a “job guaranteed” was something many people were looking for. Over the years, 1,500 students followed a course with us in some capacity, and more than 700 Codaisseurs graduated and found work as junior developers, designers, and cybersecurity specialists. Some of you who started as juniors are now seniors, managers, or CTOs. Some of you have started freelancing or even started your own tech companies.

Junior developers are a common part of any tech team now. We are the #1 code academy in The Netherlands, not just because we were the first. Even this year, Codaisseur was proclaimed “Best IT educator in The Netherlands”. Besides us, dozens of alternatives offer ways for people to get into the tech industry. Indeed, you could say we succeeded way beyond my expectations in my initial mission together. This makes today’s message extra hard for me to deliver.

The reason I started writing to you today is that our Codaisseur adventure has come to an end: we are bankrupt. The main reason is that since COVID hit us, we never fully recovered, and due to talent shortages, signups remained much lower than before. Before COVID, we had 100 students on site; today, only 20. It’s been all but a perfect storm for Codaisseur since early 2020, which eventually led to bankruptcy last week. I will write a series of posts about the things that happened at a later time, but with this post, I want to let you know what this means for our students, prospective students, graduates, and hiring partners.

To start, my deepest apologies for the silence from our end that may have affected you. The past few weeks have been filled with uncertainties, and it was unclear what would happen and what we were allowed to tell you and what not. My first priorities have been with the current students and the team to ensure they were least affected by everything going down.

Graduates

First, I want to thank you all for your contributions to this tremendous accomplishment called Codaisseur because you gave us the reputation we have right now. Because of all of you, it means something to have been awarded a Codaisseur Certificate! And nobody will ever take that away from any of us.

In practical terms, nothing much will change for you. Those of you in the job search period will still be supported. We will still collect your tuition fees from you or your employer. The fees will go to the receiver, who is appointed by the court to see that Codaisseur’s debts are paid. If you have any questions or concerns, you can now email us at [email protected] again.

It has been a tremendous privilege to teach you something and, in return, get your undivided attention and unwavering motivation. You have shown us every day what humans are capable of if they set their minds to it. We have never made it a secret that every single one of you learned in just a few weeks what took me ten years to learn. I salute you!

Current Students

All current students of classes #62 and #63 were informed by me last Friday that they can finish their course and job search period under the same terms and with the same teachers. They were very understanding and supportive, even of me and the members of the teaching team, who were present and are, as you can imagine, emotionally affected by all this.

It was incredibly heart-warming (and painful) to hear your praises and supportive comments. We are determined to deliver you the best we have to offer: the full Codaisseur experience.

Prospective Students

All future start dates are cancelled. Most of you have paid through STAP, so we have informed UWV of the cancellation so the budget can be spent elsewhere. For those who paid out of their own pocket, you are formally a Codaisseur creditor. Unfortunately, by law this means that you probably won’t get your money back from the receiver. I am working on a plan to refund you through other means, of which you will be personally informed in due time. Please bide with me, though, as these things take time to arrange.

I am very sorry that this has happened to you. I know many of you have cancelled plans, quit jobs, or otherwise disrupted your daily lives to arrange for you to attend our courses. This is not how we wanted this to play out, and I understand that you may be angry, sad, and disappointed. We want to help you find alternatives if you are open to it. Please email us at [email protected] if you are interested in that or drop me a PM here, and I will see what I can do.

Hiring Partners

None of this would have been possible if you hadn’t trusted our judgement over the years. It is your organisations, your jobs, and your continued guidance of our graduates that made the story of the junior developer in The Netherlands a success. In practical terms, nothing changes if you are paying off debts to Codaisseur. We will still arrange that. The fees will go to the receiver, who is appointed by the court to see that Codaisseur’s debts are paid. If you have any questions or concerns, you can now email us at [email protected] again.

Especially in these trying times of talent shortages, I understand that your business may be affected by Codaisseur’s bankruptcy. However, I hope that you are not considering setting up your own academy now. Many have tried and failed to set up internal academies. And not for lack of skills or trying, but because running a school and developing courses is specialised work. The Codaisseur team decided to stay together to create curriculums tailored to your organisation, so you don’t have to.

Team

Codaisseur has always been about the people. Students always came first for everyone in daily life, but also, as a team, we have been tremendously close. It was an emotional time. Many of us found a second (or even first) home on campus and shared many once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Our current team is sticking together, but we remember that we stand on the shoulders of many exceptional colleagues that helped build Codaisseur. Since October 1st, most of us have started working for a new company called Techmongers. The rest joined the Kyna team, an online learning platform I have been building quietly with a small team over the past year. With these new companies, we take our first steps in a new direction.

What's Next?

For me personally, it has been an incredible journey with many highs and lows. The success of Codaisseur from the start has been a truly humbling experience. I have always felt very personally involved with everyone involved. I feel really sad that the company we built is now gone and how this affects others. But we can look forward too. Excitedly even.

From now on, I will divide my attention between Techmongers and Kyna . This decision has been made possible by two ex-Codaisseurs I am humbled by every day: Lisa Scorzon at Techmongers and Miriam Tocino at Kyna. With them running the day-to-day operations at both companies, I can be sure everything is taken care of in my absence (like when I’m writing long blog posts). Together, we will make the next steps in closing the talent gap in tech — but better!

What will happen to Codaisseur? It will live on! In all of us, in the Techmongers and Kyna teams, and, of course, as what it has always been: a proof of quality, as a certificate that means something. That’s why we built the Techmongers Software Engineering major on parts of the Codaisseur curriculum, and its graduates receive a Codaisseur Certificate for their efforts. For now, I have no other plans for it, but we are brainstorming about it, and if (when!) we find a way to help people like we used to do with Codaisseur, I will bring it back.

Cheers,

Wouter de Vos – Founder & CEO, but mostly Proud of Codaisseur

Credits

Credits to some of our colleagues over the year, who helped contribute to it's success:

Matthew LaPorte, Rayta (she/her) van Rijswijk , Andrew Harrison , Janja ?erne , Miriam Tocino , Benjamin Udink ten Cate , Vincent Oord , Rory Koehein , Ton?i Gali? , Joost Elfering , Thijs Cadier , Ruben Timmerman ?? , Jovana Tokic , Reindert-Jan Ekker , Valentina Colombo , Michiel Rueter , Rein Op 't Land , Kelley van Evert , Arien Kock , Bram Koot , Irene De Nicolo , Lisa Scorzon , Jeroen Bruinsma , Miloud Ourahou , Zuzana Blystanova , Johan K. , Peter Bruun , Pieter van den Wall Bake , Paul Tondeur , Anna Liebermann , Tadeusz ?azurski , Thimo Jansen , Tjin Au Yeung , Michal Fasanek , Mike Farrell , Arno Fleming , Tanja, Boris P. , Mimi Magusin , Dorus Verhoeckx , Milan ?? van den Bovenkamp , Karla Evelize , Aliénor de Haan , Pierr?t Josepa , Alex van Noord , Mohammed Loukan, Nino Durante , Marcel Otto , Anke Bos , David Stephenson , Eszter Sz?ll?si , Steven de Lange , Swen Mulderij , Yuyang X. , Alexandra Munteanu , Matias Garcia , Danny van der Jagt , Ania Rudkovska , David L. R. , Vandana Sudhir , Sander Wijker , Maria Taxiarchi , Maria Wassenaar , André Silva , Diana de Block , Domenico Gemoli , Floortje Vriezema , Francesca Nardocci CPCC, CPQC , Hande Kahraman , Haoming Y. , Jasper Henken , Mattijn Lahuis, Hannah Park , Jeroen Houben, Marc Schenk, and Rosa Faber .

I am sure I forgot a few names here, and for sure, I can't name all the 1,500 students, but please consider yourselves in this list, please! So, so many wonderful people have been involved over the years. I keep thinking of more people, so if you are one of them, please know I send you loving thoughts. ??