The email sent out to alumni (closing paragraphs elided, in consideration of the character count):<p>"I am reaching out to let you know of some very sad news. After considering all of our options, we have made the heartbreaking decision to wind down DBC operations. In other words, DBC's final cohort will start on July 17 and will graduate in December 2017.<p>Campuses will officially close on December 8, 2017, as we are committed to providing our currently enrolled students with full delivery of the program, including seeing them through the entire curriculum and providing at least six months of career support for these students after graduation.<p>Please know that we did not come to this decision lightly, and it is one that deeply affects us all. We’re so proud of what our students, alumni, DBC team (past and present), and community and employer partners have accomplished over the past five years. But despite tremendous efforts from a lot of talented people, we’ve determined that we simply can’t achieve a sustainable business model without compromising our mission of delivering a high-quality coding education that is accessible to a diverse population of students.<p>DBC has been committed to providing access to careers in technology since 2012, pioneering a new industry, and championing a radical form of education -- one focused on hands-on practical training over theory. This talented community of over 3,000 is proof positive that the educational experiment we launched five years ago could make a real difference in people's lives when combined with the passion and grit of our students. If our staff is the heart, you all are the soul of DBC. You and your continued work in the industry will keep DBC’s spirit alive."
(I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor, a competitor.)<p>DBC launched an industry. Early students/staff went on to start Hack Reactor, App Academy, and Hackbright Academy. Early students/staff of Hack Reactor went on to found Zipfian Academy (acquired by Galvanize -- went on to lead Galvanize's education efforts), Codesmith, and a half-dozen other bootcamps. I'm sure AA and HB alums went on to pass the gift on in their own ways.<p>DBC also launched several thousand careers. I attended a coworker's birthday happy hour today, and I told a story of a former student that brought me to tears. DBC launched an industry where real lives get changed in real ways. Staff and alums alike participated in a very personal transformation.<p>DBC was a rock in a pond and its ripples will extend past where its story ends today. I can't speak for DBC, but they were probably struggling (like the rest of our sector) with growing past the bootcamp industry's early days, when starry-eyed optimism clashed with the operational realities of a highly-regulated industry. Kudos to everyone that tried, and there were many that poured their hearts and wallets out.<p>Staff/students/mgmt/etc -- reach out if I can help. shawn@hackreactor.com<p>For nostalgia's sake, here's the HN post where Shereef launched DBC: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3267133" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3267133</a>
As a former employee I have to say that Kaplan did a very fine job keeping the company afloat when it would have otherwise collapsed years earlier. I know the story of an evil corporate takeover is a tempting one, but that's not what happened here. Frankly, I was astounded at just how massive a bet they were willing to make on us. More than once they provided an influx of capital while Dev Bootcamp's leadership attempted to find a sustainable business model. In the nearly four years I was there they exerted <i>shockingly</i> little influence over DBC, and largely left it up to us to figure out how to make this work.<p>DBC failed because <i>DBC</i> failed, not because Kaplan made us fail, and I think it's important to own that. Without their deep pockets our quirky, beautiful, compassionate little place of learning would have fallen apart a long time ago. As far as I'm concerned, Kaplan bankrolled an amazing thing far past its expiration date, and gosh am I glad they did, because I had a blast.
As a former employee I have to say that Kaplan did a very fine job of running the place into the ground. Kaplan management managed to take an industry leader with first mover advantage and completely squander it by myopically focusing on quarterly profits. They really should have switched to a pay-after-getting-a-job tuition model that schools like AppAcademy offer. That would have simultaneously better met the mission of serving diverse students (students who can't afford $17,000+ and living in an expensive urban area for almost five months) and improve long term outcomes.<p>The pay-after-getting-a-job model creates virtuous cycles, because the schools that implement it suck up the most prepared students. Schools not offering that model end up with the leftovers after admissions to the top schools.<p>Arguably colleges and universities should also adopt pay-after-getting-a-job but that would probably hurt their bottom lines substantially. It definitely creates the correct alignment of incentives for the school to educate well.<p>Pretty amazing too, considering Kaplan has very deep pockets and could easily have financed the slight lag in revenue switching to models would have required. To me it just reeks of old-school short sighted corporate management thinking.<p>For a bootcamp to not adopt pay-after-getting-a-job just shows that they lack faith in their own product. Funny because many schools end up having to hire lots of their alums as a way of bolstering their employment numbers.<p>On a closing note, huge props to all the extremely hardworking teachers and students who went through DBC, they made it an amazing place despite all hardship. I made many of my most meaningful relationships there and I witnessed tremendous transformations in people.
Even though a direct competitor with DBC I just wanted to say: solid team and leadership; we respect everyone there, especially in pioneering the market in the early years.<p>It was in DBC's NYC campus that I did my first LGBT advocacy event. Still remember the passion of the students and instructors two years later.<p>I know I speak for everyone here when I say I’m sorry to see a leader and organization leave the community.<p>- Team Thinkful
darrell@thinkful.com
This is truly a sad moment. I was part of DBC's first cohort in Chicago, and was so inspired by its capacity to transform lives that I founded something similar, Code Platoon, a nonprofit coding bootcamp for Veterans. DBC literally changed the lives of thousands of people. Strictly from a job training perspective, I can think of no training model that does a better job at addressing underemployment. The good news is that many great coding bootcamps followed DBC, and the model will continue to thrive.
Kudos to the school who started it all, and the vision behind it. Thinking about the future, and the million of people who could benefit from learning coding, is DBC going to open source their curriculum?<p>I think they should consider it, and I think that they could reach out to Free Code Camp to see if they can do something together. Hope to see this happening!<p>From the European side - <a href="https://codeworks.me/" rel="nofollow">https://codeworks.me/</a>
So sad to see this. DBC is one of my largest clients and despite all the crap bootcamps take, I saw them first-hand transform lives and careers. End of an era. Incredible careers team, incredible instructors, incredible students, terribly sad and shocking development.<p><3 Amir @ skilledinc.com
(Current Teacher at DBC)<p>First, thank you all for the positive feedback. It means the world to us. Most of the teaching staff only found out about the decision a day or two before it became public, so we are only recently processing this. Trust me when I say that the gratitude that we're seeing...I'm just not sure what we would do without it.<p>Second, for our remaining cohorts, I want to give you an idea of the sentiment of the teachers at the moment.<p>We see this as an opportunity to go out on a high note. We know this is our last chance to have a deeply positive influence on students' lives. We don't want to squander that privilege.
(I'm founder and CEO of coding bootcamp, We Can Code IT)<p>Dev Bootcamp pioneered an industry that has changed lives. It's not an easy business to compete against the "We've always done it that way" mentality, and they did it well for 5 years. They were well-respected and will be missed. Hats off to them for maintaining their principles, passion, and giving it their all! I always appreciated that they focused on inclusion and diversity in technology. I'm sad about that loss, but We Can Code IT promises to continue carrying that torch.
Why did they shut down?<p>This whole page is long on emotion, not that that's not important, but very short on facts.<p>Regulation? No tenable business model? Couldn't charge enough to pay instructors? etc.
I haven't actively followed DBC's trajectory but as a long time CS educator I've long said that education doesn't scale in the way that other tech sector initiatives scale, particularly if you want to maintain quality.<p>I'd really be curious to hear more about the obstacles to maintaining your quality that helped lead to this.
DBC was really inspiring for me. Just before we opened the 1st coding bootcamp in Tel Aviv (@Elevation Academy) I came for a visit and they were so open, generous and helpful. Thank you for the breakthrough and the hard work!
This makes me really sad. DBC changed my life dramatically. I wasn't a fan of some of the changes/decisions they made over the last few years, but I would be in a much, much worse place overall without DBC.
I would love to buy it and give it another go. Wonder how that would work and how much it would cost, and if it's even an option. Seems a shame to see it close.