What I got out of the Ravensbourne App making Short Course ?

In my previous post, I've mentioned, I joined the Ravensbourne Intro to app making course which is run by 2 very friendly and nice instructor Matteo and Aimee. Its a 6 week (every Saturday for 4 hours) course where I was able to sharpen my HTML and CSS skills and was introduced to Programming in jQurey and cloud based backend database like Firebase!

I took the advantage of using the macbook provided during the course everyday. We used mozilla thimble IDE to type and paste our codes and view the results instantly on the web. The instructors tried to engage us with the lectures as much as possible with quizes and role-plays. Matteo was a code veteran and prime tutor; Aimee helped as the jargon buster which proved to be a nice combination of teaching.

By the end of 4th week, our front end was ready and we were introduced to Firebase as the backend to pull our data from. It has been an awesome experience to explore the power of jQuery, javascript and Firebase when combined.

On 5th week, we started working on our own Project. I tweaked my app to show a list of Countries ranked based on 5 criteria. The user can Also list their country and score it. Based on the high scores, it will show up on the list which is best for i.e. education or stability.

When we hit the 6th week, our apps were fully working we came out of the thimble shell and moved onto github as the hosting platform. the instructors shared a lot of resources, inspirations and tips for us to move on.  I've decided move forward to explore more about Javascript, Github, Firebase and command-line.

I'd say, the course was an eye opener for me as a new-bee in the web development arena, where I actually got to build something dynamic and get a confidence boost on my self-taught journey of coding. Webapps are more clear to me, and I know the basic pipeline for deploying a data-push-pull based webapps now. The course was priced at 94£ which is even lower for Greenwich residents.

Here's the app I built: http://goo.gl/HWHmW9

Why I am Learning to code?

I was looking for a suitable image for my post and I found the one on top. Even 10 days ago, I wouldn't understand anything about the code and hence the joke would just make no sense to me. Now i actually know its a do/while loop written in javasrcipt. I've just started to learn programming with the available resource around me at the age of 25. I am not saying, I am too old but I sometimes miss coding in my teen age.

I believed I was destined to study Computer Science until I miserably failed in my Higher Secondary School to achieve good grades in science subjects. I knew no public university would allow me to study Engineering let alone computer Engineering. So I stepped back and opted for a different education. I went to study Business Administration in an University 327km far away from home. I thought I would do great in Marketing or Branding and Advertising. And suddenly in 2013, I got a call form my dad living in UK that I was going to join him in few days. I flew leaving my graduation uncompleted just for a semester.

In 2014, I was living in UK for about a year and was working for Pizza Hut trying to figure out what am I doing in the kitchen cleaning all the stuff. I would be doing at least something better maybe, If I was in Bangladesh. I tried to get into Sales, Advertising and learn digital Marketing. Even I managed to get a job in a tech startup as a customer support guy but probably that might not exactly be me. But while working for FOODit I amazingly realize the power of coding. Suddenly I started gazing at the devs I worked with. They were building cool stuff. I was for a certain period a part of the team who came up with centraldish.

After leaving FoodIt 2 months ago, The 1st thing I wanted to do is learn coding. Not just because coding can make you earn 2 times more than a customer support guy but also it gives you the power to create something great. Something that might solve at least one problem that humanity is facing at this moment. Superheroes only shines on the silver screen but the real superheros are the people who solve silly problems for the average people.

A lot of the creative people who had great ideas in last few decades have succeeded in the tech industry. It's great to establish  a company when you can build a website, app, games or anything digital that works. But the prerequisite is to know how they are build. You can't just hire someone to build something for you because soon they might take it away if you don't treat them well. Your product is only your's when you know how to build and run it weather alone or with someone else. I'd say nothing is riskier than having a nice idea and not knowing how to protect it from failing or being stolen. Also being code literate will pave the way to convey a message to your team the way they want to get directions. I think, just adding HTML, CSS, Javascript> JQuery skills would get you back to the job market and help you stand out.

I had my basic HTML sorted last year with 2 codeacademy courses. But I want to mention the Dash from general assembly was a motivation booster for me. Right now I am doing a short course with Ravensbourne  in London. I am here just to check what are the best practices to teach myself how to code. Soon I'll move onto a new job but before that I want to finish my javascript lessons. The learning curve might me hard from some angle but when you know what you really want to build you'll find a way or another to make it happening.

You'll get there... It's never late to start over.

What Bangladeshi tech startups are missing out by not hitting the global market?

I’ve been following the trends in the Bangladeshi Startup culture via social media and sites like SD Asia and so on. In my following, few years ago, Freelancing individuals used to operate as a team and got most of their tasks as a contract from the foreign providers via platforms like Odesk(now Upwork), elance, freelancer and so on. There are still lot of people out their who takes and does work from upwork and making a decent and happy living. The scene started to change a little bit since 3-4 years years ago and I’ve found a list of startups from ‘Founded in’ who truly have products of their own and they are mostly focusing local customers based in Bangladesh. I see that as a step forward made possible by the new and young techpreneurs of Bangladesh. Some of them have got fame and media coverage but most of them are not making good enough money even though they’ve amazing services and products.
If you look back at the very small history of Bangladesh in IT industries, we grew up using or downloading pirated software and copied digital contents and still are doing it. A whole generation have passed the message to the next generation that, we are not going to pay for digital downloads, softwares or any kind of services unless we must. its going to be very hard to sell softwares as services to this generation and the next. To avoid the risk of being a failed srartup, its best for the entrepreneurs to redesign their product to serve the global consumer as most of the tech services can be provided globally. There are markets for subscription based services and secured online payments are there to cash you back. Indian tech startups has got this very clear message across the board long ago and some of the Indian companies are already selling their services abroad. We use Freshdesk as the customer support ticketing system in our office which is a SAS mostly provided and operated from India.

Is it really hard to hit the global Market?

Bangladeshi professionals from New York, California, Sydney and London have been waiting to see some initiatives from the Bangladeshi startups and the response have not been good enough so far. Some of the very risk prone entrepreneurial Non resident Bangladeshis have come back to their homeland to take few businesses globally and they are undoubtedly the heroes of Bangladeshi startup scene. Depending on the service, if its not very much localized; it has never been easier than now to go global. All you need to do is to be found! that’s it...

When business and individuals search for services online, all they look for is local pricing and local contact numbers. Nobody check and judge a SAS service by the provider country. Once you’ve optimized your site targeting the western world, you need to localize your site more and more. It could be through UX, could be through supporting customers in English during Local time. You can pay for customer’s local numbers and those calls will be transferred to you. Only Skype won’t give you enough exposure. If you can think of foreign business subsidiaries and hire people, that will also bring you new customers.

Some products need to be optimized locally based on their culture, weather condition and using of colloquial language is highly required specially in the content marketing industry. Hire people who are enthusiastic about foreign cultures; who not only listen to kanye west but also knows why people drive on the right hand side in USA. If you’re still trying to figure out what you’re missing from your business by not going global yet is; simply the profit you could make from actual sales to millions of legitimate customers.



kickmystartup.com is an initiative to find opportunities for Bangladeshi tech businesses around the globe and help them grow. If you already have a business and want to go global, be in touch.