The Iron Yard | News

News about The Iron Yard, hot off the press.

[tiynews]

Exit Event: Shopping, Voting, Volunteering, Travel, School Lunch Made Easier by The Iron Yard Class Two

Students at The Iron Yard code school, powered by Smashing Boxes, took on some compelling projects during the fall semester of code school in Durham. They chronicled the learnings and developments at a mid-December pitch night before potential employers.What do you think?

Because many startups out there are hiring, and many investors are curious about the talent and ideas in this region, we've got their pitches below. These students make up class two of Ruby on Rails Engineering. Most students in class one, which graduated in August, have found jobs and are busy practicing their new skills in the workplace.What do you think?

Check out the pitches:

Read the full post (and watch the videos) on ExitEvent.

[tiynews]

StartupGirlNC: The Iron Yard: Showing off stellar coding talent on Demo Day!

This is a great article by Reagan Reynolds (@StartupGirlNC) about The Iron Yard’s Demo Day in Raleigh-Durham.

For those of you who do not yet know, The Iron Yard is a coding academy with locations in 11 cities in the Southeast, and their mission is BIG. They don’t just educate their students in coding, they also teach business culture in a way that prepares coders to enhance startups and SMBs and communicate with other genres of work to solve global issues. Sounds too good to be true? Yep. It is incredible.

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the Demo Day presentation for The Iron Yard‘s graduating class here in Raleigh-Durham. Let me say, first, that I was absolutely thrilled to see such incredible coding education right in the heart of NC! The students entered the course with beginner’s experience in coding (if any at all) and came out three months later with marketable web products that stunned and amazed.

Having little background in coding, I was eager to speak with a few of the students and their teachers about their experience and to test the waters, well… for myself, of course! After the Demo Day presentations I don’t think there was a single person in the audience that wasn’t interested in adding coding to their bucket list.

You can read the full post on Reagan’s blog. 

[tiynews]

Hatching the Upstate’s startup future

This is a great article from the Upstate Business Journal talking about Greenville, SC's startup culture. They mention The Iron Yard Academy as a critical component of the ecosystem.

During my tenure as director of the Clemson MBA program, I have closely followed the development of – and partnered to varying extents with – individuals from the NEXT Innovation Center, Iron Yard and its subsidiary CoWork. These groups have slightly different approaches and missions, but all do a great job of finding innovative ways to support startup companies – particularly those in the tech sector – with office space, networking opportunities, investor support and mentorship. In addition, the Iron Yard Academy offers intensive three-month courses in coding, Web design and mobile engineering which help attract young creative professionals to the Greenville area.

Read the full article on the Upstate Business Journal website.

[tiynews]

Release: Disruption Doubles in Size, Welcomes New Partners (including The Iron Yard)

We partner with Disruption Corporation in the Washington, DC area and they just announced exciting news about their space as well as their relationship with The Iron Yard.

ARLINGTON, Va. (Dec. 15, 2014) – Eight months after opening its doors, Paul Singh’s Disruption Corporation has doubled the square footage of its headquarters and attracted two unique partners, giving both their first-ever presence in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The expansion cements Disruption’s position as a connector of venture capital and private market investment opportunities in the U.S. and beyond.

...

Also moving in to Disruption’s headquarters is new partner The Iron Yard, a coding academy that already has outposts in Charleston, Atlanta, Austin, and other locations in the Southeast. Training is full-time for 12-weeks, and aimed at working professionals, veterans and students.

Read the full press release on Disruption's website.

[tiynews]

The Iron Yard Graduates Inaugural Coding Classes in Tampa Bay

The recent graduates from The Iron Yard’s Tampa Bay campus presented final projects ranging from a personal fundraising tool to an app that lets you find drinks based on your preferences and favorite them. The graduates are now pursuing jobs as developers and launching freelance careers—and they are ready. Each student has learned the fundamentals of not only their chosen programming language, but how to think like an engineer, plan and estimate projects, work in a team with other software developers and learn new skills through research.

Many students are well into their job searches and have begun conversations with a wide range of local software leaders, including SavvyCard, ParableSoft, MadMobile, T. Rowe Price, HCI Group and recruitment firms like Cyber Coders. Graduates are finding the job market very welcoming, and some have even begun the interview process only days after graduating. Students and companies alike are excited about The Iron Yard filling the talent gap and growing the already-strong tech community in Tampa Bay.

Read the full story here.

[tiynews]

Iron Yard Graduates Build Curriculum for Tennessee Code Academy's Digital Pathways Program

Two Iron Yard graduates, Austin Cleek and Katy Campen, have been working with the Tennessee Code Academy and 100 Girls of Code to teach short-format code classes to kids across the state of Tennessee and other states in the Southeast. Most recently, those same students built the curriculum for Digital Pathways, a code camp licensing program.

Today, Tennessee Code Academy launched Digital Pathways, their new code camp licensing program. The initiative empowers communities to place students in an engaging, real-world environment in which they are challenged to create with computer programming.

The Digital Pathways program aims to make it easier for a community to conduct weeklong coding and digital literacy camps. The group trains a local instructor, provides camp supplies and offers application and payment processing. Treehouse just announced a formal partnership with Digital Pathways to provide discounted online learning for any student who attends these camps.

Read the full press release: Tennessee Code Academy Launches Digital Pathways for Communities

[tiynews]

Columbia Campus Director Outlines What Sets The Iron Yard Apart

The Iron Yard - Columbia Campus Director Giovanni DiFeterici recently spoke with Technology Advice's Clark Buckner about what makes The Iron Yard special.

DiFeterici neatly summarized what The Iron Yard is: “an intensive three-month training program to teach people production-ready skills in the web design industry.” As one of its newest campuses, The Iron Yard Columbia will launch its first web design course on January 5, 2015.

According to DiFeterici, there are three substantial facts that set The Iron Yard apart from similar coding schools or online training:

highly experienced teachers

a focus on teamwork and production skills (i.e. real-world issues)

adept career placement

Check out Unmatched Style's story for full details on each point and to listen to the interview for yourself!

[tiynews]

Accelerator Clinches Story of the Year

South Carolina journal GSA Business asked its readers to select their favorite story of the year, in preparation for their annual Newsmakers roundup.

An overwhelming majority of readers chose our coverage of The Iron Yard business accelerator as the GSA Business story of the year.

Read about the competition here.

[tiynews]

Austin, Texas Welcomes The Iron Yard to Thriving Tech Community

The Iron Yard - Austin will launch its first cohort of classes in January. 

“I'm excited about attending The Iron Yard, because I know I'll be immersed in 12 weeks of intense learning,” says Charles Leuker, a student enrolled in the upcoming January Front End Engineering course. “They guide the process so that at the end we will have a kick-butt new skillset that provides a doorway into the innovation economy. I also look forward to learning with like-minded students who are eager to learn programming and put those skills to use.” Before applying for The Iron Yard, Charles was a hospital administrator in the military and ran a lifestyle clothing brand.

Students aren't the only Austin residents excited about the launch of the school. The Iron Yard has already begun to build an advisory board of companies and officials who are excited about hiring graduates and bolstering an already-robust tech economy by creating (and attracting) high-paying development jobs into the area.

Broadway World fills in the gaps--read more and find out how to apply today!

[tiynews]

The Iron Yard Joins D.C. Community in Crystal City

Crystal City’s Disruption Corporation, on the 10th floor of 2231 Crystal Drive, is planning to play host to a 12-week immersive computer coding class in January.

The “coding bootcamp,” is an academy byThe Iron Yard and costs $12,000. It offers three courses: rails engineering, which teaches Ruby on Rails for building “fast, production-quality full-stack apps;” mobile engineering for building iPhone apps; and “front-end engineering” for designing websites.

“We really want the students to meet the needs of the existing community,” Kim said. “The Iron Yard started as an accelerator, but we realized there wasn’t enough talent even for the startups to come out of the accelerator. So the academy launched as kind of accessory.”

Find out more from ARLNow and technical.ly and learn how to apply today!

[tiynews]

Greenville Offers Nurturing Community for Startups

The Iron Yard is part of a thriving community in Greenville, SC that provides an attractive homebase for new companies.

Communities with accelerators, incubators and technical training programs often become the new home neighborhoods for businesses that are started. Managers of the Greenville Small Business Development Center and startup sector hubs like Next Innovation Center and The Iron Yard say they are seeing many of their entrepreneurs, including those attracted from other regions, stick around.

Read the rest from GSA Business.

[tiynews]

Spartanburg Native Develops App to Improve Corporate Wellness

Rally Fit is a social media app that collects data from wearable activity tracking devices and enables employers to develop competitions that encourage employees to make healthy choices. The goal is to help organizations “rally” their troops to stem climbing health care costs and wellness-related productivity losses.

“We want people to get pumped up about getting healthy,” Gene said. “We’re all about making corporate wellness fun.”

Gene came up with the product earlier this year while completing his work in the Iron Yard’s Academy, a three-month coding school designed to mold aspiring software engineers into professional junior-level programmers.

Read more in The Washington Times and in The Post and Courier.

[tiynews]

The Iron Yard Orlando to Offer Ruby on Rails Intensive Training

Located in the Church Street Exchange Building, The Iron Yard opened its Orlando campus on Sept. 22nd of this year with a course in Front End Engineering. In January of 2015, The Iron Yard is increasing its offerings with a course that focuses on back end engineering: Ruby on Rails. A relatively young language that has gained significant traction in recent years as a result of its versatility, Ruby (on the Rails framework) is now used by such giants as SoundCloud, Shopify, Groupon, Square, and Airbnb. Orlando has a seen a growing demand for Ruby on Rails engineers, and it is this market for jobs that The Iron Yard plans to tap into through its immersive training program.

Read the complete press release here. 

[tiynews]

The Iron Yard Atlanta Relocates Downtown

The Iron Yard - Atlanta is relocating to a historic building downtown. 

The Iron Yard will occupy almost the entire top floor of the M. Rich Center, where more than a century ago Morris Rich started what later became Rich's Department Store.

"Entrepreneurs love moving into spaces that already have history," said Iron Yard partner John Saddington.

For more information about the move and the building, check out the article on the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

[tiynews]

The Role of Startups in a College Town

Marty Bauer, Managing Director of The Iron Yard Accelerator, recently wrote for GoUpstate.com.

As a college town, it is vital to the success of Spartanburg to recruit and retain the next generation of jobs that 21st century graduates desire. While large manufacturing and distribution centers are important, startups must not be overlooked as opportunities that can grow jobs to support the talent that is graduating from the seven local colleges and universities.

These startup companies recruit skilled workers that fill empty storefronts, live in apartments downtown and frequent restaurants that line Main Street. The residual effect of investing time and resources to support these startups is enormous over the next generation.

Read the full story here!

[tiynews]

Accelerator Graduates 9 Companies from Digital Health Accelerator

After 13 weeks in the trenches, the nine companies housed at the Iron Yard took the stage at the Chapman Cultural Center on Thursday evening for Southeastern Demo Day, the digital health accelerator's final pitch event of the season.

The startups, all focused on solving specific problems in the health care industry, presented their companies, their vision and the benchmarks they would need to meet in order to succeed. The entrepreneurs talked about what differentiates their products from their competition, the partnerships they've established in Spartanburg and around the country, and the level of funding they were seeking from investors to take their business to the next level.

Find out more about the companies on GoUpstate.com!

[tiynews]

The Iron Yard to Launch Campus in Columbia

The Iron Yard is partnering with SOCO, The Columbia Coworking Community. Classes will be taught at the SOCO location at 823 Gervais St., Suite 220, in the Vista.

“This class is a three-month boot-camp-style learning experience with a focus on producing hire-ready employees on the other side,” campus director Gene Crawford said.

Crawford believes this partnership with the Iron Yard’s code academy will fit well with the co-working community.

“It benefits our community in that we will help foster and create more professionals who can do the job of a web designer at a high level,” Crawford said. “There are so many open job positions and projects that there simply isn’t enough people to fill the roles.”

[...]

“We see huge opportunities to grow the coding talent base in Columbia, S.C. With a massive student population, a growing tech startup community, and ever increasing global demand for technical talent, there has never been a better time to learn how to code,” Peter Barth, CEO for the Iron Yard said.

Read more at IslandPacket.com!