Pivoting to Sustainability Through Covid: Part 2 of 3 Company Stories
Surviving and thriving through Covid-19 hasn’t been easy, but we talked to three companies who pivoted to success during the pandemic. Part 2: San Diego Code School
By Kim Folsom
In this three-part series, we’ll take a look at three companies who faced the challenges of the pandemic head on and won. Their stories offer a wealth of advice for any business looking to pivot to sustainability during the virus crisis.
Last time, I wrote about how SaulPaul pivoted to sustainability during Covid. Today’s story is about San Diego Code School and it’s founder, Michael Roberts. You’ll find some common threads of advice as well as different approaches that each of these companies took to succeed.
San Diego Code School
Michael Roberts is a software engineer by trade. He founded the San Diego Code School (SDCS) to help improve the job pipeline for more diverse STEM professionals. In March 2020, SDCS was approved as a registered tech apprentice program — just in time for Covid to hit. They had to transition from a traditional classroom experience to something entirely online.
“Every day presents new challenges but also benefits,” Michael said. “We have to see the challenges as opportunities.”
Indeed, he did. Michael pivoted while participating in the Founders First Bootcamp, moving the school to remote learning.
Michael corroborated what SaulPaul said in Part 1 of this series: Covid leveled the playing field. Previously, there had been a big difference between online and in-person code schools. Now they had to bring the quality education they offered in-person online. But SDCS was ready and capable of doing that.
The big part of the pivot was realizing who their true customer was. Sure, they are serving students and offering great training in software programming. But they realized their real customers were companies looking for diverse talent — more of a B2B play. So, they had to shift their mindset and adapt what they were delivering into the ecosystem to serve those businesses. They really listened to what employers needed. It’s been a win for both the students and the companies who hire them.
“Identify your superpower and build around it,” Michael said.
At the same time, hire other people to do the things you’re not necessarily good at. SDCS hired a company to do branding, positioning, and messaging.
“Above all, we wanted to be authentic and transparent,” he said.
Once they shifted their focus on the businesses they serviced, they started selling monthly recurring consulting projects. They booked six-month, renewable contracts, which kept cash flow coming in during Covid. It was a switch from selling their tuition-based bootcamp online, but it worked. They forced themselves to generate new sources of revenue, and that gave them more runway to weather the storm — and grow their business.
Unlike SaulPaul, who funded his pivot from operations, SDCS also was able to get Covid-related Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the U.S. government. “Attempt every different avenue of funding,” Michael said. The company also got a substantial grant from Microsoft.
“Put the time and effort in,” he said. “Just keep submitting applications.” Extend your cash for as long as you can. The name of the game is “survive until tomorrow.”
That’s so true. Being an entrepreneur and running a new company is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes, you literally do just have to survive for one more day and wait for that customer payment to come in, the loan to be approved, or a new client to sign on. During Covid, you have to be even more vigilant — and open-minded. All three of our founders in this series were willing to make substantial changes to their businesses to stay alive and thrive. In Part 3, we’ll talk about Maxable, another company that successfully navigated the Covid environment.
Kim Folsom is the founder and CEO of Founders First CDC, which has helped accelerate the success of hundreds of small, service-based, business-to-business companies since 2015. Visit our website to learn more.
