We were lucky to catch up with Marcelo Ricigliano and Alejandro Sánchez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcelo and Alejandro, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

When Covid started shutting down everything -pretty much- we were a Coding School entirely focused on In-Person education. We did not have any methodology or structure for Online classes. Suddenly, however, we were forced to change, adapt or fail. In-person was no longer an option and with ongoing classes and new investments made to open new locations (Spain in particular), we were faced with the possibility to -also- shit down and wait. We didn’t and we switched everything. We -almost- started from zero. We created the methodology, a new way to deliver more content, exercises, and projects; we hired more instructors, we invested more in marketing, we tried many different video class platforms; we asked our students to be a part of the change, we got feedback, we failed in the first few days, but after a couple of weeks, everything was running back business as usual. We even created a new product: Coding Mentorship forever. As a student, once you become a part of 4Geeks, you will have access to senior and coding mentorship for the rest of your life (no additional costs whatsoever).
Since then, we have grown 4x and currently, we have 3 new programs, +2500 graduates, and 10 different locations running in the USA, Latinamerica, and Europe.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Founded in 2015 with campuses in the US, Latinamerica, and Europe, 4Geeks Academy is a coding school devoted to delivering premium program experiences. What started off as an internal project to train new developers, has now flourished into a full-time passion. 4Geeks Academy is based in the U.S. with programs available in 10 campuses, with over 2500 graduates, partnerships and universities working with us, and a community of committed graduates that get better jobs and salaries after completing their programs with us.,

Have you ever had to pivot?

I graduated as a Lawyer back in 2008. In 2009 I got a scholarship to take an LLM (and Master’s Degree) from the University of Stockholm. In 2010 I graduated as an International Commercial Arbitration specialist. I went back home, met my friends working in startups (a new concept for me), and I became their Lawyer. A few months after, they appointed me as the CEO of the company we had back then: Vikua. We were named -a a few years later- as one of the top 50 most promising Startups in Latam.
In the meantime, I have also failed with other startups. In 2016 I joined 4Geeks Academy which is now my biggest professional achievement: a top coding school that has been recognized and awarded many times, but most importantly, that’s trusted by our students, alumni, and network of organizations that keep believing in what we are building for the future of coding education.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://4geeksacademy.com/
• Instagram: @4geeksacademy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4geeksacademy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/school/10358874/admin/
• Twitter: @4geeksacademy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/4GeeksAcademy

Image Credits
Every photo and rights attached to them belong to 4Geeks.