The Night Class That Helped Found A Startup

Welcome to another edition of The Hustle: A weekly newsletter from LinkedIn where we spotlight the ups and downs that many workers have to take on their way up the professional ladder.

The subject of this week's edition is startup founder Ryan Chan, who helps answer the question: What does starting a company after work hours look like? For Chan, the answer came via a combination of a night class at a community college, a cost-effective living arrangement, and admittedly getting "super lucky" in the job market.

In an interview, he elaborates on all three of those factors, gives advice to others who want to make dramatic changes in their careers, and talks about his goals to provide software tools to deskless workers.

What does your company, Upkeep, focus on?

We develop software for maintenance teams. The most common use case for one of our customers is if you're at a manufacturing facility and a piece of equipment breaks down, you'll basically use Upkeep to snap a picture, create a work order, shoot it over to a facility manager, and he'll be able to prioritize that ticket and send out a technician to go and fix.

(Photo courtesy of Ryan Chan)

Before graduating from college, what did you see yourself doing afterwards?

I had no idea... I actually had three majors at one point. I went in as a chemical engineer. I wound up choosing another major of business econ and I was basically contemplating going to med school at the same time.

What was your first job after college?

I was a process development engineer. My entire day was thinking about how to improve the manufacturing line and make our manufacturing line go from 20 feet per minute to 21 feet per minute, because if you were able to make the manufacturing line go faster, then we would net the business more revenue. They'd be able to produce more goods and sell more goods.

How long after graduation did you decide to change course?

This was about a year and two months after college when I decided to leave my [first] job. Basically, I taught myself how to program and my very first project was Upkeep, actually.

How did you teach yourself how to program?

My apartment was, I want to say, half a mile away from Santa Barbara Community College... And I basically did this class from a community college three times a week. It ran from 6 P.M. to 10 P.M. three days a week, and I learned a little bit from the actual class, but what it forced me to do was set a timeline and goals for myself.

You know, I had homework, I had projects, I had finals. That really had this forcing function to get me to learn and have some deadline attached to it, and that's actually how I learned how to code.

How were you able to keep developing your skills after that?

I basically took this class for about six months, and after that class of six months I got very lucky. I got hired basically as a junior iOS developer after those six months, maybe let's call it after seven months, and I got super lucky that this group basically took me in... So even after [only] six, seven months of programming, they took me in and said, "hey, we're going to teach you." You know, obviously I got paid as well. It was a full time job. Very fortunate, very luck for that opportunity.

How did that opportunity help you build Upkeep?

So, I was getting paid to learn how to code and basically started building Upkeep on the nights and weekends. And that's really what allowed me the financial freedom to continue building Upkeep but also learn how to be a better developer, a better engineer and also learn how to build a business at the same time.

What was most crucial to being able to save the money necessary for a startup?

One of things was, hey, I didn't have any money. My girlfriend at the time — now my wife — was still a student, so we really didn't have any money. We were living, both me and my then-girlfriend now-wife, were living in my mom's garage. You know, it was kind of just what he had to do... I think that's one of the key reasons why we were able to have the luxury of being able to quit my job.

What's your advice for people who want to try something new in their careers?

I think the misconception of people is that you have to quit one thing in order to do a second thing... When I was looking at jobs, when I was thinking about my career path, I was working as a chemical engineer but I didn't say, "I'm going to quit my job as a chemical engineer to learn how to code." I basically took on two of these experiences at the same time. I learned how to code on the nights and weekends, and I had my full-time job.

So I think my biggest advice is try it out first. Commit to doing basically more work. I know that it's more work, you know, you're going to have to do additional time after nights between 6 P.M. to 10 P.M. But make the commitment to try it out before you leap into the deep end.

(Photo courtesy of Ryan Chan)

What's Upkeep's aim for the future?

We're investing in the less tech savvy groups that are typically given the most difficult to use software — which is kind of this crazy paradox to me. Our goal it to make amazing software for maintenance teams around the world, increase their productivity, and give them something delightful that they want use.

For more from The Hustle, check out last week’s interview with Auntie Anne's president Heather Neary, and subscribe to the series to be notified each time a new article is published.