We are delighted to share some exciting news — DEV has made its first acquisition, and it could not be a more perfect partnership.
We are welcoming in CodeNewbie, a small company with a huge impact on the software ecosystem. It's an organization that is synonymous with community and inclusion in the software industry. I have personally been involved with CodeNewbie in one way or another since I was a true green newbie myself, and I can't possibly count how many people in our industry have been positively affected by this organization.
CodeNewbie was founded and operated by Saron Yitbarek, someone whom Jess, Peter and I have come to know well. She is among the most talented and hardest working individuals in all of tech. The organization operates a lively Twitter chat and all-around Twitter presence, along with some of our industry's most finely produced interview-style podcasts, The CodeNewbie Podcast, The Base.cs Podcast and other specialty shows. CodeNewbie also runs the best software conference around, CodeLand. It is an annual conference hosted in New York City, and I have personally been to every one of them over the years. I can't get enough of the speaker quality, the attention to detail, and the authentic commitment to community.
More information on CodeLand 2020 below
Saron has done a magnificent job building CodeNewbie to date, and we are so happy to welcome her influence into our organization. She will continue her work producing community-oriented events and podcasts. Saron will also be joining DEV’s Board of Directors as an observer. We look forward to benefiting from Saron’s input at all levels as we grow DEV and CodeNewbie together.
CodeNewbie is an incredible initiative in every way, and our singular focus through this acquisition is to help it thrive. We plan to keep every important part of the CodeNewbie operation humming along, while taking on the kind of new projects that were never feasible while it was just Saron plus one or two additional team members.
Important to know
Since DEV is already very newbie-friendly, we want to assure you that we are a vibrant ecosystem of developers that span all experience levels. We have product adjustments in mind right now to ensure a more relevant and enriching home feed for all users. You can already adjust your experience level in /settings/ux. We have more shipping in the upcoming weeks.
Through CodeNewbie, we also intend to launch new and exciting campaigns designed exclusively for newbies. We expect that this approach will benefit newer folks in our industry, while also allowing us to highlight these activities for exactly who wants to most take part.
Above all, we will focus on keeping things rolling along for both DEV and CodeNewbie, because each initiative already has a lot going on independently.
Original podcasts
Our organization is now responsible for producing and releasing the amazing podcasts started by CodeNewbie — The CodeNewbie Podcast, Base.cs, and other specialty shows. We can't wait to help improve these already awesome shows, and we’re also looking forward to producing new shows for developers of all skill levels. Saron and our new Senior Podcast Producer, Levi Sharpe, have high standards and great taste, and we look forward to making the most of their talents.
For more on Levi, check out his “Welcome” post:
CodeLand
We are excited to announce that the fourth annual CodeLand will take place July 23 and 24 of this year, hosted in New York City.
🗽 CodeLand NYC Website ✨
CodeLand is a community-first two day conference featuring talks and workshops from some incredible speakers. Having attended each of the previous three events, I can say without a doubt that this is my absolute favorite code conference, and is amazing for developers at every stage of their careers. The talks are mostly technology-agnostic and focus on big ideas and core skills, while the workshops are designed to help attendees stay up-to-date with important movements in the software industry. They will be led by some of the industry's best teachers.
I know that I’m no longer an unbiased third-party, but I just have to reiterate that the talks are amazing, the workshops are thoughtfully curated, and I've never met anyone who didn't leave inspired and meaningfully educated after attending.
The CodeLand CFP is open and tickets will be available soon.
We will be releasing tickets in batches, so be sure to enter your email at CodeLandConf.com to get notified as soon as the first early-bird tickets are made available. If you’re committed to attending this first DEV-driven CodeLand, please don’t wait to grab your ticket once they are made available. We expect a full house, and we don’t want anyone left disappointed who was dead-set on joining.
One last note
DEV is built by newbies. Our first hires were all working their first coding job, and we have had many many engineers make DEV their first open source contribution. Every developer was once new, and our career is a windy path where we need all the help we can get. CodeNewbie exists because we need the broader community in order to make strides individually. We cannot wait to hire more newbies in the future on to the DEV Team, and we look forward to helping newbies all over the world shed impostor syndrome and do big things in code.
Top comments (55)
To add to all of this, I just have to say that I'm not sure where I'd be in my career without CodeNewbie. I was truly a newbie myself when CodeNewbie first started and it was my connection to the broader coding world. I really didn't know any other software developers in my personal life.
CodeNewbie has absolutely been an inspiration for so much of what we've done at DEV. Getting to work on their initiatives alongside Saron is a dream come true.
Congratulations to the DEV and CodeNewbie teams. Looking forward to the exciting things that are gonna be coming out of this great partnership.🔥🔥
I can't re-iterate this last point enough. CodeNewbie has already positively impacted so many people across the world, and we're humbled by the opportunity to continue and expand this work. As we all know, learning and growing through community is critical to making progress in this industry. To that end, ensuring that everyone feels welcome and supported must be one of our highest collective goals.
The more that we learned about CodeNewbie as a company and operation through this process, the more impressed we became. Saron is an incredible entrepreneur, and she's built an amazingly well-run operation. We're so excited to continue all the great work that she has started. Expect big things from DEV + CodeNewbie going forward!
The first time I met Saron, we were meeting with Ben to discuss civic tech and how we could make an impact. What came out of that meeting was a non-profit called "Make a Diff" (get it? 😏), where we organized events for less technical people to learn about security best practices.
Through that joint effort, we experienced how excellent it is to collaborate with Saron and how precisely aligned our values are, through and through.
Bringing DEV and CodeNewbie together is truly a dream come true.
tfw two of your FAVORITE companies join forces 🥰
so excited for this power team and collaboration!!
This is amazing news!! Congrats to the team 🎉
Yay!
How amazing is this! Two great development communities coming together!
That's really awesome!
What a great news!
Saron has been a great source of inspiration and motivation for me and, perhaps, for others too.
Someone here on DEV recommended a podcast,
The Command Line Heroes, back then in a particular post. I subscribed to the podcast and I must confess that it's the first podcast I found that 'speaks to me' directly. I became so emotionally attached to this podcast to the extent that it became a source of motivation for me, whenever I feel like giving up on coding.Very recently, I also joined the
Base.cspodcast and I must tell you that, as a CS graduate, I found this podcast to be a great refresher to me (I even learnt lots of things that either I didn't know or I understood not).So I feel like I'm the most happiest person to have read this very impressive and historical announcement!
My two favorite places on the internet have combined forces! 🚀 So amazing!! I can’t wait to get my ticket for Codeland, last year was my first time attending (attending any code conference for that matter) and I just had so many good vibes.
Woo!
What wonderful news!! I can see so many great things to come with CodeNewbie joining your team. Congratulations!