<story><title>Dev Bootcamp is shutting down</title><text>The email sent out to alumni (closing paragraphs elided, in consideration of the character count):&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;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&amp;#x27;s final cohort will start on July 17 and will graduate in December 2017.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;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.&amp;quot;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>shawndrost</author><text>(I&amp;#x27;m a cofounder at Hack Reactor, a competitor.)&lt;p&gt;DBC launched an industry.  Early students&amp;#x2F;staff went on to start Hack Reactor, App Academy, and Hackbright Academy.  Early students&amp;#x2F;staff of Hack Reactor went on to found Zipfian Academy (acquired by Galvanize -- went on to lead Galvanize&amp;#x27;s education efforts), Codesmith, and a half-dozen other bootcamps.  I&amp;#x27;m sure AA and HB alums went on to pass the gift on in their own ways.&lt;p&gt;DBC also launched several thousand careers.  I attended a coworker&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;DBC was a rock in a pond and its ripples will extend past where its story ends today.  I can&amp;#x27;t speak for DBC, but they were probably struggling (like the rest of our sector) with growing past the bootcamp industry&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;Staff&amp;#x2F;students&amp;#x2F;mgmt&amp;#x2F;etc -- reach out if I can help.  shawn@hackreactor.com&lt;p&gt;For nostalgia&amp;#x27;s sake, here&amp;#x27;s the HN post where Shereef launched DBC: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=3267133&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=3267133&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Dev Bootcamp is shutting down</title><text>The email sent out to alumni (closing paragraphs elided, in consideration of the character count):&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;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&amp;#x27;s final cohort will start on July 17 and will graduate in December 2017.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;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.&amp;quot;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>SlyShy</author><text>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&amp;#x27;t afford $17,000+ and living in an expensive urban area for almost five months) and improve long term outcomes.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></comment>