Ola Ayeni, the founder of St. Louis–based coding boot camp Claim Academy, proves that necessity is the mother of invention. Ayeni, a Nigerian immigrant and serial entrepreneur, faced numerous obstacles when trying to bring his ideas to life. An Arch Grant toward his venture Eateria brought him to St. Louis, but a lack of software developers constrained Eateria’s growth. Never one to sit idly by or be deterred, he set out to find a solution to this vexing and costly problem.
Being the man of action and vision that he is, Ayeni decided to open his own coding boot camp in his adopted new hometown of St. Louis. He wanted to train the coding talent that St. Louis—and the country—both needed to grow their economy and remain competitive globally. Along the way, he also transformed the lives of hundreds of students into ones of unlimited potential and unlimited career opportunities. He discovered that approximately 1.4 million jobs in the U.S., and nearly 10,000 coding jobs in the state of Missouri, go unfilled every year. Employers are desperate to find the software talent that will help their enterprises grow and profit.
Four years and hundreds of Claim Academy students placed with Fortune 500 Companies later, Claim Academy has seen a lot of great things happen. Claim Academy was recently approved to accept the GI Bill and has been chosen by SwitchUp, a leading authority and ranking agency for coding boot camps, as one of the Best Coding Boot Camps for both 2018 and 2019.
Course Report, another highly respected coding boot camp rating site, also rated Claim Academy as one of the Best Coding Boot Camps in 2017. In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook awarded Claim Academy full scholarships to award to select Claim Academy students. Claim Academy continues to grow and strive to help deliver job opportunities for its graduates—94% have employment at the time of graduation. Future plans include a move to a new, larger location, the addition of cybersecurity and data analysis curriculums, and creating more staff positions.
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As always, the emphasis remains on the Claim Academy student. Claim Academy strives to teach these excellent problem-solvers of every age, gender, background, and nationality the skills employers demand and need to grow their enterprises, maintain competitiveness, and grow their profits. Claim Academy is attracting raw talent from all over the country and from overseas. Its classes have included students from countries as diverse as Serbia, Uzbekistan, China, India, Nigeria, and beyond.
The software development world is not as diverse as it should be. To help create opportunities for all capable, diligent individuals, Claim Academy is reaching out to and encouraging more women, minorities, and veterans to become full stack software developers. More high-paying, in-demand coding jobs exist than graduates to fill them. Claim Academy strives to close this gap and contribute to the St. Louis region’s competitiveness and the U.S.’ competitiveness.
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In the past, too many employers had to look outside of Missouri to find coding talent. Today, St. Louis employers—including AAA, InBev, Bayer, Boeing, Centene, Express Scripts, MasterCard, and many more—are actively recruiting Claim Academy students. They know that Claim Academy students have the full stack software developer skills they so desperately need.
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Given the dynamic nature of technology and software development, Claim Academy believes that the future is very bright both for its graduates, as well as for the company. There is a huge skills gap, a massive need for trained coding talent, and the strong desire of St. Louis–based companies to grow and prosper. Together, students, employers, and Claim Academy can keep our country and our regional economy booming and competitive with the rest of the world.
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