I volunteered at Hackbright for multiple classes. I supported the mission - more diversity in tech - with my personal time for hours per week. However, after a while, the idea of an army of unpaid "volunteers" to mentor students seemed at-odds with the school's startup growth and profit goals. Their policy on recruiting graduates even seemed to imply that we could owe them money if we hired a student.<p>I don't regret having helped Hackbright for free. I helped some ambitious students enter the tech world and begin new careers. It just saddens me that many of the shoulders on which this for-profit institution stood were ignored.
$18M for a 25 person company that raised seems like an acquhire. I wonder how much of the goodwill & volunteers that kept Hackbright going will transfer over to Capella.<p>Disclaimer: I have a hackbright grad on my team (she's great) and a few friends who've done the program (and are mostly happy).
My HR team sent us an email last week that they are proud to have recruited 'all women internship team' .<p>Definitely a profitable move to fund women's coding school given chances of graduates getting hired at entry level is higher for women.
One positive about this: Capella is an accredited school, meaning that there may be a way to allow Hackbright students to take out government backed student loans for the program, or even get Pell grants. Many students currently rely on outside loans, and would benefit from lower interest rates and grants.<p>The cynics among us will of course acknowledge that that makes it much easier for Capella/Hackbright to make more money.
So how does one estimate valuations for a coding school anyway?<p>Their funding doesn't seem to be listed on CrunchBase, but $18M is substantial, more than an acquihire, which suggests there's something I'm missing.
Reposted to avoid trolls:<p>Do they accept transwomen?<p>How about people who don't identify as either gender?<p>Do they set themselves up as arbiters of who qualifies as a woman, and, if so, what criteria do they use?