“You guys are the new Austin. That’s how I see it, so I want to be ahead of the curve,” said Nicolas Genest, founder and CEO of Codeboxx, after confirming their tech company’s headquarter relocation to St. Pete. Brian Hartz with the St. Pete Catalyst broke the news last week of the company’s decision to relocate to the Sunshine City.
Codeboxx is a Canadian company that provides a 16-week, full-time coding course with the promise that any participant who completes the course will be guaranteed a job. Genest launched the boot camp in 2018 after seeing a shortage of developers during his time working for a couple companies in Silicon Valley.
“I lived in California for six years and am going to miss it,” said Genest, “but I’ll be really happy to move to Florida. One of the reasons we picked St. Pete/Tampa is that a lot of companies in California are moving there.”
Codeboxx’s goal to make technology training accessible for all walks of life, and to help people launch their careers in tech is a mission that will fit perfectly into the business ecosystem of St. Pete. As part of Florida’s fastest growing tech hub and one of America’s fastest growing cities, it is essential to have programs to grow our tech workforce in St. Pete to continue to become a center of opportunity and innovation.
Participants in the cohort learn many different technologies during the four month period including the most popular programming languages, but the course also focuses on skillsets like teamwork and communication so that participants are trained and fully prepared to excel in their careers post cohort. Whether it’s a work from home job or the placement is in an office setting, Codeboxx stands out by teaching with real life scenarios. Participants learn both technical and behavioral skills to be a productive and meaningful contributor no matter where they end up.
Since shifting to a virtual learning environment because of the pandemic, it has allowed Codeboxx to launch their largest cohort in history. This cohort also includes the first candidates from the new Tampa Bay campus. The cohort opened in early January with almost 80 candidates from across the US. Codeboxx is hopeful that by the end of May they will be able to open their new physical location in St. Pete.
CodeBoxx has been working with the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation, on many facets of the relocation. With the expansion to St. Pete this will bring roughly 30 new jobs, and a $3 million ecommerce firm to the area.
If you are in the Tampa Bay area and interested in the opportunity to apply for the Codeboxx Cohort, the company is taking registrations now for its first local cohort https://codeboxx.biz/registrations.
