Doing it Right with Adda Birnir
#### In S2E3, we fall hard for Adda Birnir, founder and CEO of Skillcrush\u2014the online coding school with a heart.\n\nWhile coding bootcamp programs tend to talk about turning students into rockstar programmer gods, Skillcrush focuses on using tech to build a fulfilling, creative, and sustainable career. And the message is working: after some early ups and downs back in 2012, Adda has taken the business from a fledging idea to a stable, profitable, and growing company of 35 employees. And she\u2019s here to tell us all about it.\n\n> At some point I decided that I wanted the business to survive and I was going to figure out what it would take for it to survive and do that. And that really meant sort of letting go of kind of any idea I had about what the business was going to be.\n> \n> \u2014Adda Birnir, founder and CEO, [Skillcrush](https://skillcrush.com/)\n\nListen in for a super-real convo about:\n\n- Bootstrapping a business instead of raising venture capital\n- How to bounce back when the bank account runs dry\n- Why women are flocking to Skillcrush to learn technical skills\u2014while most bootcamp programs struggle to attract them\n- Building [pay equity](https://iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-discrimination/) into the heart of how Skillcrush runs\n- Making sure you don\u2019t end up hating the company you built\n\nPlus:\n\n- Friend dates, cheese plates, and ordering [as many desserts as possible](https://medium.com/no-you-go/working-with-friends-is-amazing-but-its-still-work-6255ad0854c)\n- Vocab swaps for \u201ccrazy\u201d and \u201cguys\u201d (for more ideas on this one, check out [this article from The Establishment](https://theestablishment.co/replace-crazy-with-the-adjective-you-actually-mean-425562812da2))\n- Morning people: are they a\xa0_fuck yeah!_ or a\xa0_fuck that_?\n\n## Sponsors\n\nThis episode of NYG is brought to you by:\n\n\n\n_[Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/careers), a leading global commerce platform that\u2019s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit [shopify.com/careers](https://www.shopify.com/careers) to see what they\u2019re talking about._\n\n_[](https://codepen.io/)[CodePen](https://codepen.io/nyg/?utm_source=no-you-go&utm_medium=podcast)\u2014write code like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly in a browser and see the results as you build. CodePen is giving away three free PRO accounts to NYG listeners. Enter at [codepen.io/nyg](https://codepen.io/nyg/?utm_source=no-you-go&utm_medium=podcast)._\n\n