Scaling Codebar: 27,000 people over 11 years

Introduction and Background (0m00s)

Kimbley Craig introduces herself as a software developer and trustee of Codebar, whilst mentioning she's five and a half months pregnant and sharing her love for mountain sports and her dog Pixel. She outlines the talk structure covering Codebar's origins, scaling challenges, sustainability and reflections.

"I am gonna talk about growing Codebar over 10 years, but actually this talk title is wrong. It's actually 27,000 people over 11 years."

"I am from Southampton just down the road. I am a software developer and director and trustee of Codebar."

"What else could two software developers call their dog? Pixel."

Who Codebar Are (3m37s)

Codebar is described as a charity running free programming workshops for minority groups in tech, using a unique one-to-one pairing format rather than classroom teaching. The format evolved from their first workshop when they noticed students weren't asking questions in a classroom setting.

"We're Codebar and we are a charity and we run free programming workshops for minority group members in tech."

"Our workshops are quite unique in that it's not a teacher classroom format. We tried that the very first one."

"And we basically just asked them, we said, 'Why aren't you asking questions?' And people just said they were nervous and scared. So, we instantly changed the format."

The Why Behind Codebar (4m42s)

The founders started Codebar out of frustration at being the only women on their teams and seeing the lack of diversity in tech. Statistics are shared showing women make up 46% of the UK workforce but only 20% in tech, with even lower numbers for Black women.

"We selfishly started it because we were so tired of being the only women on our teams."

"We were simply just tired of being the only women on our teams and we didn't just want to moan about it, we wanted to actually do something."

"We also looked at our teams and they were all white. And we said this is a problem."

Getting Started (6m48s)

The initial priorities were simple: finding space with tables, chairs and internet, and building a basic website for RSVPs. They decided to move locations each workshop partly out of curiosity about different tech offices, which accidentally helped attendees feel comfortable when later interviewing at those venues.

"We just want a space where people can come and learn."

"We were nosy and we were all actually quite new to tech back in 2013."

"I think a big part of me securing that job was 'cause I'd been to the office before."

Scaling Accidentally (10m01s)

Codebar's growth was unintentional, starting when Rosa Fox from Brighton couldn't afford train travel to London workshops and asked to start a Brighton chapter. This snowballed into 45 locations globally, including dedicated virtual chapters post-pandemic.

"Scaling for us as I mentioned right at the beginning is quite interesting, because it was actually never our intention."

"I really wanna keep coming to Codebar, but I can't afford the train travel to London."

"And then it just snowballed from there."

Challenge 1: Team Composition (12m13s)

The founding team being all software engineers and friends became both a blessing and curse, as they lacked crucial skills in charity management, finance and marketing. This led to difficulties when becoming a charity and managing growth.

"Your blessings can become your curses."

"None of us knew how to run a charity. None of us knew how to do financial reporting."

"Diversity in your leadership team is key. And I'm not just talking about gender, the way people look, but actually knowledge."

Challenge 2: Being Universal (19m01s)

Codebar's commitment to being for everyone everywhere made grant applications difficult, as grants typically require specific demographics and locations. Despite this challenge, they refuse to change their inclusive eligibility criteria.

"We never said, okay, like let's stop growing."

"We can't say, 'We are an LGBT-based community based in Brighton, so we want a grant to help those people,' because we are for everyone and everywhere."

"There is no lesson because we're not gonna change, we're not gonna change the eligibility criteria."

Challenge 3: Building Custom Software (21m30s)

Creating their own platform gave complete control but became difficult to maintain, particularly when Ruby updates were delayed for two years. They've never found existing software that meets all their specific needs.

"It's amazing that we have full control over our website and managing attendees and everything."

"But it's just such a pain to maintain."

"We've just never found a bit of software that enables that."

Being Sustainable Through Community (23m01s)

Sustainability comes from constantly involving the community in decisions, from workshop timing to podcast artwork, making volunteers and organisers feel ownership of their chapters, and building partnerships with companies and conferences.

"Every single opportunity we have, involved the community."

"We want them to feel like it's their chapter."

"Partnerships could be with companies, other organisations or conferences has been really, really key as well."

Reflections and Lessons Learned (28m24s)

Key reflections include the importance of measuring impact (though they still struggle with this), keeping people as the absolute priority (now legally mandated by their charity status), empowering organisers, and being willing to pivot based on feedback.

"People have to be your priority, particularly when it's a community based organisation."

"You can never be seen to be helping the tech industry."

"Pivot and change if you need, particularly with member feedback."