In this episode, we get to chat with freelance Software Developer and educator, Victor Moreno. We start off the show with Victor telling us how influential his father was in encouraging his interest in computing. Victor also gives us the background story that lead to him becoming involved in education. We then get into an interesting discussion about his initial experiences being a teacher. Victor shares with us how he tries to maintain a balance of academic and engaging material with his students. We talk about the importance of having a support community, and also discuss what can the technical community do to help foster technical education especially for newcomers.

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Victor Moreno has been working with web technologies since before CSS was invented. With 8 years of professional experience, he’s worked as a Python developer, ReactJS developer, and also has experience in managing corporate IT infrastructures in a VMWare/Windows Server environment. Victor is not only an AngularJS and ReactJS enthusiast but also an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified Developer, and a developer on Toptal.com. Victor‘s background in entrepreneurship makes him a programmer with an uniquely pragmatic perspective, concerned with delivering business value first and foremost. He’s very adept at cutting through hype and his software practice focuses on agility and value over buzz. Victor is involved with two early stage startups and is currently the academic director of a coding boot camp named TechLaunch.

Bradley Ball is back for his second stint on the show. The convo starts with Brad sharing what he’s excited about in the comic movie world. Then we talk about the television shows that he’s currently watching. The conversation then focuses on the excellent DC animated movies and how Batman is the centerpiece of it all. The convo then shifts to baseball and how the Cubs winning the World Series affected Bradley.

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Bradley Ball is a former Microsoft SQL Server and Data platform MVP with over 15 years of IT experience. He spent 8 years working as a Defense contractor for clients such as the U.S. Army and The Executive Office of the President of the United States. He works for Microsoft on the Premier Services Developer team as a Sr. Consultant. He has presented at SQLSaturday, DevConnections, SQLBits, and PASS Summit. He can be found blogging on sqlballs.com about SQL Server or anything else that interests him.

This episode starts off in typical AFTK fashion with us finding out how our guest, Carlos, got into technology. Carlos let’s us know how influential his father was in the early days. Cecil asks Carlos how he went from being a SQL Server professional to starting his own company. Carlos talks us through some of the decisions he had to make and also things he had to consider, when starting his business. He also gave us some interesting advice if you’re interested in bringing on a partner into your company. In addition to this business, Carlos hosts a successful podcast, coaches soccer, is a scout leader, and is also a published author. Through this episode, we really get to dig into Carlos’ life away from the keyboard

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Carlos Chacon is the managing partner of SQL Data Partners LLC a consulting firm assisting private practices with their data. He is the co-host of the SQL Data Partners Podcast, which just celebrated two years on the air. He enjoys traveling and has been to four continents, speaks Spanish and can eat his weight in raspberries (not yet proven). He and his family live in Richmond, Virginia. Connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

 

Part two of our conversation with Kasey Champion begins with Kasey describing how she joined Microsoft and how she was tasked with teaching the Word team how to write unit tests. The conversation then shifts to her involvement with the TEALS program and her experiences teaching at the collegiate and high school levels. Cecil asks Kasey what makes a good teacher and how does one create a course. The conversation wraps up with Kasey discussing her involvement with the edX program and a discussion on the rewarding aspects of teaching.

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Kasey Champion is a firm believer that “talent is universal but opportunity is not”; she is dedicated to bringing technical education, and the economic empowerment it provides, to all students. A software engineer turned teacher, Kasey graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Electrical Engineering, in addition to her course work she was a teaching assistant for the Computer Science Department.

After graduation, she joined Microsoft as a software engineer, but every morning before work for the last 3 years she has been a computer science teacher at local area high schools with the TEALS program. Recently she was lucky enough to make her passion her full-time job and joined the Microsoft Learning team to develop computer science courseware designed to be inclusive of all students.

Her current passions include employment courses for community college students, increasing interest in tech for girls and students of color, empowering women in Afghanistan to rebuild their communities and helping kids in refugee camps fill the gaps in their education.

The conversation gets started with Kasey introducing herself and her school years. The Hamilton quotes get deep as she discusses her background in the theater. Kasey then reminisces about her transition from drama into computer engineering and how 2008 the financial crisis hit her family. Kasey then reveals her love for all things Disney and how that has influenced her small business.

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Kasey Champion is a firm believer that “talent is universal but opportunity is not”; she is dedicated to bringing technical education, and the economic empowerment it provides, to all students. A software engineer turned teacher, Kasey graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Electrical Engineering, in addition to her course work she was a teaching assistant for the Computer Science Department.

After graduation, she joined Microsoft as a software engineer, but every morning before work for the last 3 years she has been a computer science teacher at local area high schools with the TEALS program. Recently she was lucky enough to make her passion her full-time job and joined the Microsoft Learning team to develop computer science courseware designed to be inclusive of all students.

Her current passions include employment courses for community college students, increasing interest in tech for girls and students of color, empowering women in Afghanistan to rebuild their communities and helping kids in refugee camps fill the gaps in their education.

The conversation begins with Jo introducing himself and explaining how he got started with mobile apps. Jo then talks about his app biggest success, Ugly Meter. Cecil then asks Jo how he handled the success of Ugly Meter and what was some of the downsides to having 30 million downloads. The conversation then turns to Jo’s current company, SwingDev. Jo talks about the genesis of the company and some of the characteristics that makes SwingDev so special.

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Jo Overline, CEO of Swing Development, has been a successful iOS app creator for over ten years. He’s built over 30 apps in various categories, and over 30 million downloads under his belt holding the #1 spot in 94 countries.

The “Ugly Meter” app was one of his most successful – it even landed him spots on the Howard Stern show on four separate occasions.

Jo’s expertise lies not only in technology and development, but in the business aspects of being an independent tech entrepreneur. Since his days as an iOS consultant, he moved on to found SwingDev, which specializes in web and mobile app development for individuals and companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 500.

In this episode, we get introduces to two startup founders Alvaro & Maxeme who have built up an education startup called Caribu. We start off this episode with hearing how Max and Alvaro got their interest in education. We then get into a conversation about what can we do with technology to help push education forward. We also talk about important of recognizing different learning styles and encouraging children in the right way. This leads us into Max and Alvaro talking to us about Caribu; their education technology app that helps parents read to their kids where ever they are in the world. They give us the rundown on some of the problems Caribu solves and the goals that they have for the future. We also talk about how author can get their books into the Caribu platform.

We get into a discussion with our guests about what it’s been like for them building a startup in Miami. Maxeme tell us about how amazing the startup community in Miami is but also some of the challenges they have to deal with. She talks to us about her organizing community events and getting more women involved in tech community.

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Maxeme Tuchman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Caribu Inc., an education technology company that help parents and extended family read bedtime stories to children when they are far away. She was most recently appointed by President Obama to serve as a White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of the Treasury where she served as a senior policy advisor and worked on issues of financial inclusion. Max served as the Executive Director of Teach For America Miami-Dade and was responsible for overseeing daily regional operations for 26 staff members and cultivating over $15M of private and public support in service of over 500 current teachers and alums. Prior to that, she served in Mayor Bloomberg’s bullpen managing the NYC Waterfalls, a public art installation that generated $69 million in economic activity. She also co-created the NYC Civic Corps, an AmeriCorps VISTA program that in its first three years had 448 participants hosted by 97 organizations that then were able to utilize 1.7 million new volunteers. Her commitment to educational equity began as a Teach For America corps member, teaching 480 high school students in inner-city Miami, and has led to working on educational innovation projects with organizations such as the Harlem Children’s Zone, DC Public Schools, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and the Miami Fellows Leadership Program, and a current Trustee of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami. Maxeme received her B.A. from New College of Florida and holds an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Alvaro Sabido is an engineer who has lived in 5 different cities around the world and has had a life-long passion for building things, both physical and digital. This ambition has taken him from re-building his grandfather’s racing motorcycle from the 50’s which he still rides today, to developing his university’s mobile app and recently founding Caribu, an edTech company based in Miami.

The conversation kicks off with Derick introducing himself and talking about his experience in working at fast food restaurants. Cecil then asks Derick about his introduction into software development. Derick then talks about his blog and describes how he creates the stick figure images that he uses. The conversation then moves to Derick’s training products and the process he undergoes to create them.

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Derick Bailey is a developer, entrepreneur, author, speaker and technology leader in central Texas (north of Austin). He’s been a professional developer since the late 90’s, and has been writing code since the late 80’s. Derick has build software for organizations of all shapes and sizes, including contributions to Microsoft’s MDSN library, running several very highly regarded open source projects, creating software solutions for large financial organizations, healthcare organizations, world-class airlines, the U.S. government, and more. These days, Derick spends most of his time working on content for his own entrepreneurial efforts at WatchMeCode.net, playing video games when he gets a chance, and writing code for for his few remaining clients. You can reach Derick at DerickBailey.com or on twitter, @derickbailey.

 

In this episode, we talk to Zack Burt about his life as a Software Development Consultant. We start off with Zack telling how he got started with technology in 4th grade. He tells us how he got started building Facebook apps and a chat application called Compassion Pit. Zack then shares with the struggles he went through early on trying to get a job as a software developer. We then get into a discussion about how developers are vetted out today. Zack goes on to walk to us about ways developers can stand out from the pack. Then we discuss our experiences with LinkedIn and how effective it is. Zack also shares with us various ways that we can generate new client leads.

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Zack Burt was born in Palo Alto, California in 1987. He began programming (with QBASIC) at age nine and immediately found a passion. Since 2003, he has been working in Silicon Valley and New York City in individual contributor and leadership roles. In 2007, he launched his software consultancy business after his PHP application “Lamefactor” was acquired by WikiYou, Inc. He is passionate about open source, both in submitting pull requests and launching open source projects. He currently lives in Manhattan where he enjoys playing basketball and meeting new and diverse people; he encourages you to email him if you’d like to meet.

Charles starts part two of our conversation by sharing how he started DevChat.tv and the related conferences. Charles then describes how he balances his time with all of his podcasts. Charles then discusses some of the business aspects of his podcasts including how he gets podcasts and how he handles premium content. Charles then talks a bit about his new book and what he does when he’s away from the keyboard. The conversation then wraps up with Charles giving some great advice for those who want to start their own podcast.

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Charles Max Wood is a podcaster, speaker, and the CEO of Devchat.tv. He co-hosts the Ruby Rogues, JavaScript Jabber, and Adventures in Angular podcasts.

He also puts on a large number of online conferences about various topics of interest to computer programmers.

When he’s not coding or podcasting, he’s reading to his kids, watching soccer, or finding new ways to automate parts of his business.

He currently lives in Utah with his wife and 5 children.