Nick Winter Founder/hacker at CodeCombat and Skritter.

By philip barrington on September 29, 2018

Nick Winter: Founder/hacker at CodeCombat and Skritter.

Nick

CodeCombat is a multiplayer programming game for learning how to code. With thousands of schools and millions of students, the company is bringing K12 computer science education to everyone, regardless of gender, race, or background. They believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn.

The ultimate goal of CodeCombat is to bring more users into the field of computer programming by making the logic and syntax

CodeCombat teach Python, JavaScript, and other languages directly in the browser. In a world where all programmers have had to be second-language learners, they believe that the future students will become native speakers of code.

 

Who is Nick Winter?

Some people might know Nick Winter as the author of the book, The Motivation Hacker. Having attended Oberon College, Nick was the co-founder of Skritter in 2008, the number one app for learning Chinese and Japanese characters. Nick’s inspiration came from hanging out with a friend at 3 am who was playing a Nintendo DS game called “Trauma Center: Under the Knife”. Players used a stylus to draw incisions on the screen. Now, if only that kind of writing could be applied to learning Chinese characters.

For ten years, Nick developed a Chinese specific space repetition learning algorithm and a stroke level handwriting recognition system to make Chinese as easy to learn as Spanish. His passion for coding and language lead to him co founding CodeCombat in 2013 to give learners the feeling of wizardly power at their fingertips by using typed code and real programming languages.

After starting CodeCombat, Nick has shifted his focus to CodeCombat and has left Skritter in the hands of his team. He also developed Quantified Mind, a  web-based tool for running experiments on what affects your brain and Telepath, a personal computer analytics dashboard for Quantified Self purposes, Telepath Logger also can produce time-lapse videos of a concept called the “maniac week”, where you ignore all distractions, fight no fires, and just

 

Based out of San Francisco, USA, Nick Winter and his fellow co founder, Matt Lott have created a company that now has up to 50 employees and 6 main investors. The company has raised a total funding amount of 2.1 million. The company’s CB ranking is 9,295. This for profit company is directing its efforts towards creating a programming game for learning computer science–a full curriculum to empower teachers in grades 3-12.

 

Final Thoughts

I think that this company has taken on an ambitious goal that could pay off for them in the educational market. Many educational coding ventures are focused getting coding into the hands of young kids. What makes CodeCombat unique is that they are trying to provide a coding program to all students locally and quite possibly globally. This is clear from Nick’s passion for making learning easier for students and adults alike. He has been able to take his passion and love for coding and is currently sharing that passion with the future generation of students.

 

 

 

 

Sources

https://skritter.com/about

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nwinter

http://www.nickwinter.net/

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/codecombat#section-competitors-revenue-by-owler

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30 Sep Posted on Nick Winter Founder/hacker at CodeCombat and Skritter.

Hi Philip, thanks for the post. Nick Winter's actions and ventures clearly demonstrate the primary motivation of entrepreneurs: to create change. He seems to have a keen eye for recognizing when an existing idea has the potential for added original value, or for a "remix". He recognized that the DS touch screen was a powerful tool for interacting naturally with a game. He then, taking inspiration from the concept of touchscreen drawing for virtual surgery, transformed or "remixed" the approach into a process of language learning. So simple in hindsight, but few had done the same at the time, or perhaps few had the courage to actively pursue their original idea. He extended this approach beyond Skritter, continually chasing opportunities, launching new ventures wherever he could spot a gap in the market. He had the wisdom to gather together plenty of smart people with "skin in the game" to run Skritter, yet had a personal exit strategy prepared which allowed him to focus on CodeCambat. The fact that Skritter is still active shows he chose well. Finally, he seems to have a thriving personal and professional network, having 500+ connections on LinkedIn alone. Judging by what he has accomplished by such a relatively young age, he stands as a solid role model for would-be entrepreneurs, especially in the area of coding and programming.

30 Sep
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scott @skanes17

Hi Philip, thanks for the post. Nick Winter's actions and ventures clearly demonstrate the primary motivation of entrepreneurs: to create change. He seems to have a keen eye for recognizing when an existing idea has the potential for added original value, or for a "remix". He recognized that the DS touch screen was a powerful tool for interacting naturally with a game. He then, taking inspiration from the concept of touchscreen drawing for virtual surgery, transformed or "remixed" the approach into a process of language learning. So simple in hindsight, but few had done the same at the time, or perhaps few had the courage to actively pursue their original idea. He extended this approach beyond Skritter, continually chasing opportunities, launching new ventures wherever he could spot a gap in the market. He had the wisdom to gather together plenty of smart people with "skin in the game" to run Skritter, yet had a personal exit strategy prepared which allowed him to focus on CodeCambat. The fact that Skritter is still active shows he chose well. Finally, he seems to have a thriving personal and professional network, having 500+ connections on LinkedIn alone. Judging by what he has accomplished by such a relatively young age, he stands as a solid role model for would-be entrepreneurs, especially in the area of coding and programming.

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