
WeWork has bought Flatiron School - lquist
https://www.fastcompany.com/40484965/wework-just-bought-nyc-coding-bootcamp-flatiron-school
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dtjon
Also interesting, and related, that the Flat Iron School was fined for almost
a half million dollars for fraudulent salary claims and operating without a
license [1]

[1] [https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-
announces-37...](https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-
announces-375000-settlement-flatiron-computer-coding-school-operating)

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SOLAR_FIELDS
Probably a good move all around, WeWork gets the devalued product on the cheap
and Flatiron founders exit and the company can say that under new management
things will be different

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pcarolan
Is this how we’re defining success now?

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scoggs
I know it's completely impossible to decouple things like money and economics
from education but as someone who obtained a degree with a focus in education
and also has over a decade of experience working with young students it really
hurts me to know that our youth are starting off, usually, on the wrong foot
because adults are always playing politics with education.

The way we define success. The ways we measure knowledge and success in
students. The entire system from education on upward needs a good long looking
at. Under our current way of doing things (I can only speak for the US) we've
realized that throwing money at a problem is not the only solution but so long
as delivering "results" is the metric by which grants and money is given to
school districts we will always run into people stopping at nothing to meet
the qualifications for such endowments.

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MarketingJason
As a Director of a coding bootcamp operating out of a co-working facility,
this looks exciting for WeWork. We had considered WeWork for a campus now that
there are two planned in Houston. It's still an option for us moving forward
(heh, or maybe not with this news?) but cost and timing has stopped us from
pulling the trigger up until now.

TBH, a vast majority of our students find their employment with companies
outside of the co-working space. It's value to our students and school has had
more to do with offering a collaborative and exciting environment to the
students as well as affording our school more flexibility regarding classroom
spaces/sizes and basically allowing us to keep costs down versus building out
our own space. The service layer of a co-working building (cleaning, kitchen,
IT, and so on) are invaluable for smaller organizations like ours.

It will be interesting to see if WeWork uses this as an added service for it's
members - in which case, it will need to be very flexible in it's curriculum
to match it's course to the needs of members across a huge number of
facilities. Or, if it keep more of the Flatiron approach and attracts students
outside of WeWork - and how that works with things like fees, parking costs,
membership, and if they meet member hiring needs.

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brooklyn_ashey
Anybody know how "Galvanize" is doing in NYC? They have a similar model, and
from what I've heard-- they had to fire 11% of their employees nationwide to
"adjust". I also heard that they aren't getting enough numbers in their
classes in NYC to warrant hiring real full-time faculty-- I think they just
have two instructors and some contract help. (I knew someone who applied to be
a teacher there, semi-recently.)

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grandalf
I've worked with Flatiron grads and the ones I've worked with were
significantly higher caliber than typical bootcamp grads. Here's why:

\- They all had high powered professional careers before deciding to attend
Flatiron. In a sense, the deck is already stacked in favor of these kinds of
people succeeding, because they are generally successful in the things they
pursue.

\- The project phase of the boot camp is set up to show off skills to
potential hiring managers. I have attended these and have been impressed by
the big picture view of the grads. They understood the project, the tech stack
involved, the product level objectives, etc. Again, this is partly because of
the high quality students going through, but I found that many of them had a
very mature outlook on their projects.

\- The founders and core team at the Flatiron School are all very passionate
about teaching and creating a system that embraces well rounded learning and
not just whatever hot buzzword will get someone an interview. In working with
Flatiron you get the impression that unlike most boot camps it will still be
there in a few decades.

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joekrill
Obviously anecdotal, but I've had similar experiences. Granted I haven't
really worked with any _other_ bootcamp grads, but we have a handful of junior
developers who've attended Flatiron and they're all really great. They're way
better than a lot of so-called "senior level" developers I worked with
elsewhere ( _cough_ financial industry _cough_ ). I've been extremely
surprised and happy with all of them.

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tootie
Soooo, now if you rent office space it comes with wifi, a coffee maker and
some interns?

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numbsafari
And probably some heavy handed sales tactics. Recruiters are already some of
the most obnoxiously aggressive sales people... why make them your landlord?

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elliottcarlson
To be fair; that doesn't mean that recruiting has to operate under the same
status quo. It could end up that way, but it could also open up the doors to a
friendlier way of recruiting.

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snissn
Interesting piece of history - General Assembly (a well known coding bootcamp)
- used to be a shared workspace company. So there is some interesting
relationship between the two types of businesses ( as one previously pivoted
to the other, and now this acquisition).

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elliottcarlson
A little extra history; Avi Flombaum started teaching at General Assembly
(when GA was still a co-working space, and provided an event space etc that
accommodated education programs) prior to founding Flatiron School. The
following year GA closed down their co-working space to focus on education.

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eightysixfour
A lot of the code schools are struggling due to the expense of desirable real
estate, I could see how WeWork and a bootcamp may have a combined advantage
here.

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dba7dba
WeWork is already paying for real estate. Add coding training as a bonus and
they will attract a lot more office space users.

For potential coding bootcamp, it makes so much more sense.

Pay $1500/month for some classes but still have to find distraction free space
to practice (for a lot of people, not easy to find).

Or pay $450/month and get 24/7 access to an office space and the may be pay
extra $100/month for a specific coding class? Totally doable.

Just having 24/7 access to a real office will be big boost to anyone learning
to code.

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dba7dba
I spent a few weeks working out of a coworking space about a year ago.

As I was sitting there typing away, it dawned on me that the place reminded of
a college library, but better with coffee/snack being allowed.

I can't think of a better place to learn how to code than a coworking place.
With so much energy of people working away, you will be energized to
work/learn and not waste time youtubing. And you have other coders you can ask
for help. Wasn't that the promise of bootcamp anyways? Keeping out the
distractions?

Hopefully WeWork won't try to keep the old Flat Iron School way of charging
$1500/month training. Instead they should grant anyone who uses WeWork
facility the added bonus of (free or with a minor fee) attending Flat Iron
School coding classes.

Maybe ask a locally based dev to offer service as a tutor to Flat Iron School
attendees in return for reduced/free private office space. Students can come
into the enclosed office hour during set hours. I can see even some devs
volunteering for this as a way to network with future hires.

Asking someone to pay the $1500/mon for coding training while still having to
find a place to study (starbucks sucks for this purpose) is not feasible. But
asking someone to pay $450 a month for a dedicated desk (with 24/7 access) and
grant the option of attending a bootcamp with a little bit extra fee? I think
that's a very good option. Try the service for 1-2 months, and if not working
you can quit. Without being burdened with big debt. And you have experienced
devs and other students in the office locally that you can network with.

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swyx
i think this is the best possible outcome for Flatiron and frankly a scoop for
them versus some of the other bootcamps out there (i went to another). so
congrats are due to them and whoever wrangled that deal.

There's a broader question of whether the industry is consolidating after the
high profile closures this year. Can and should bootcamps survive long term as
independent entities? Is the influence of VC money forcing bootcamps to have
bigger ambitions than they "naturally" should have (vis a vis other trade
schools which are typically small and local?)

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avremel
on the mark, lots of "pivoting" going on in the bootcamp scene.

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cefthurston
Well, I think pretty much any and all acquisitions make sense for WeWork.
Arguably the most over-valued company in the world IMO. When that happens -
diversify or wave hands faster. Acquisitions do both.

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tschellenbach
Interesting, so that's a similar approach to Galvanize. Wonder what type of
synergy they see here.

