Meet Liz, Co-Founder of Course Report
We know that researching a school is about more than scrolling through a database. That’s why Course Report features reviews, application tips, and interviews with founders, students, and instructors to equip you with all the details you need to choose the coding boot camp that’s right for you.
Course Report was founded in 2013 by LivingSocial alumni Adam Lovallo & Liz Eggleston. While at LivingSocial, they saw Hungry Academy come to fruition and were inspired by the program’s success in transforming bright employees into entry-level developers in just about six months. As the bootcamp model continued to gain steam, so too did the need for a third-party resource for their students. With a little seed money and a lot of love, Course Report launched in December. Course Report is fortunate to be advised by Jay Weintraub, Aaron Batalion, and Tim O’Shaughnessy
Liz handled internal communications for LivingSocial’s Ops teams, where she worked with Adam in 2012 (although they’ve been buds for longer). In her spare time, Liz sells breakfast tacos to unsuspecting Northerners and blogs about it.
Liz and some of the Course Report team with a picture of Co-Founder Adam’s cats, the Course Report mascots.
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How did you get started with Course Report? What led you here?
I worked with my co-founder (and dear friend) Adam Lovallo at LivingSocial for a few years. We both saw the Hungry Academy produce pretty stellar junior developers for LivingSocial, so that was our first exposure to “bootcamps.” As the space continued to grow and evolve, Adam came to me with the idea for Course Report- I thought it was an interesting space, I was psyched to be able to interview people and write for a living, and I knew I could learn a lot about content marketing in the process.
What is your favorite thing about the work that you’re doing?
Working on very specific project is a nice change in pace- we’re able to set clear goals and take some risks to reach those goals. There aren’t many people who think about the coding bootcamp industry 24/7, so we’ve become experts to some extent on the subject, and I love obsessing about this space! Also, it is a blast to work on a project that is doing a direct service to people and exists at an important time in education. Working in this space also gives me footing to work on other issues that I’m passionate about, like getting more women into STEM. That’s a lot of favorite things.
What is your educational background?
I graduated from Indiana University with a BA in English.
If you could do anything differently about your education, would you?
Honestly, I know a lot of people say they would take programming classes earlier, but I would have focused entirely on humanities. I graduated pre-med even though halfway through college I realized I wasn’t passionate about it.
What is the importance of learning code in today’s workforce?
Well, these bootcamps have proven that learning to code can lead to a really great career. But even non-technical people can benefit from coding. From a journalist who can manipulate data to communicate more effectively to a product manager who can better manage a team of developers, learning what’s going on under the hood is quickly becoming important, even a requirement, in the modern workforce.
What kind of content do you feature?
Course Report features a few different types of content. First and foremost, we’re a resource for potential bootcampers, so we feature a lot of Q&As with students, alumni, bootcamp founders, and instructors. Anyone who is associated with a bootcamp and can provide some perspective for a future student, we want to feature! We’ll occasionally have guest posts from folks in the community who write about anything from Choosing your First Programming Language to Smaller Bootcamp Markets etc. Lastly, we periodically publish research reports about the bootcamp industry in general.
What are some of the goals of Course Report?
What is the main purpose and why is it important? Finding a bootcamp is a huge decision and it’s a different process for everyone- location may be crucial to one person and price may be the deciding factor for another. There are currently 145 bootcamps in our directory- the average person may know about 10 of those. We want to make that search easier!
Do you have some favorite interviews or content you’ve featured in the past?
Definitely- it’s always great to interview someone and keep up with their success afterwards. I love talking to strong, entrepreneurial women who use their bootcamp education to make a difference. I had the pleasure of talking to Rachel Warbelow a few months ago- she was a teacher who founded a college prep middle school in Las Vegas, then went to Dev Bootcamp over her summer break to learn to code and automate the processes for that school. Now she’s working as an instructor and Pedagogy Lead at Turing School with Jeff Casimir. It’s so neat to see teachers learning to code and improving systems within education. Another was Alyssa Ravasio, who went to Dev Bootcamp and founded HipCamp, a campsite booking site. They just raised 2MM!
Having the opportunity to talk with leaders in this industry is always a thrill; chatting with Jeff Casimir or Dave Hoover are automatic high points of my week.
What is your favorite thing to do in New York in your free time?
I moved to New York about a year ago, and love exploring and finding ways to make this huge city feel like my own. I bake on the weekends at Milk Bar, tutor with 826NYC, and am currently addicted to ClassPass, so if you can’t find me, I’m probably at Pilates.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I was a debate nerd in high school, so I definitely saw myself as a lawyer.
What is your favorite book, and when was the last time you actually picked up a hard copy of a book?
There’s an amazing bookstore in my neighborhood that is filled floor-to-ceiling with real books- no prices, you just haggle with the owner. I think he keeps the store open until he’s ready for bed, so I pick up books there late at night- I just started a collection of short stories called Museum of the Weird, but my favorite book is A History of Love by Nicole Krauss.
You get to have afternoon tea with whoever you want! Who is it?
Ooh that’s a good one. Robert Krulwich is definitely towards the top of my list. I love Radiolab. Since this is a fantasy, though, I choose Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers.
If you could order any food and have it in front of you right now what would it be?
Breakfast Tacos from Chacho’s in Houston, Texas. If you’re not a Texan, you probably have a gross misunderstanding of what breakfast tacos are. They’re magical.
What is something you’re really excited about right now?
I’m excited to see how this industry evolves! We’re about to release our next research study as well, on the types of companies bootcamp grads are working for now, so we’re excited to publish that.