Why 2 LA coding bootcamp grads decided to ditch investors for their seed round

 

When the finalists were announced at the AT&T 2016 Developer Summit Hackathon in Las Vegas earlier this month, the crowd was surprised to see two women take the stage dressed head-to-toe in cheerleader outfits. 

 

The spirited entrepreneurs were Melissa Hargis and Nicki Klein, two Sabio.LA grads who are taking a unique approach to raising a seed round for their app, . 

 

ChorBit is multi-destination routing app that allows a user to enter multiple search terms or actual places in order to map and find the most efficient route to accomplish all of their chores. It also provides tools during the excursion like coupons, alternative locations, and shopping lists.

 

After several unsuccessful VC pitches in 2015, Hargis and Klein decided to raise their small round with a new strategy – hackathon winnings. 

 

“Winning hackathons puts the control in our hands rather than the investor's,” explained Hargis. “The thing is we don’t actually need a whole lot of capital to make this happen for ourselves. So these little competition wins can keep us going for a bit.”

 

Their appearance at the AT&T Hackathon netted them $5,000 and they are embarking on a three hackathon “rockstar tour” in February, aiming at $275,000 in prize money. 

 

To truly appreciate the novelty of Hargis and Klein’s meteoric rise in the hacker community, it's best to look back at where they were two years ago. 

 

 

For nearly 10 years, Hargis worked as a Spanish professor at California State University-San Marcos. But with a newborn baby and a restless desire to be creative, she embarked on a fresh chapter. Seeking a future in tech, she began looking at four-year computer science degrees before eventually discovering coding bootcamps in San Francisco. Hoping to stay local, Hargis dug deeper and found a brand new LA bootcamp called Sabio.

 

“I applied and, a few months later, I got a reply and jumped on a call,” Hargis said. “At the end of that phone call, he said, ‘Are you in?’ and I said, ‘I’m in!’ He said, ‘Great! I need $10,000 in two weeks.’ I went to the bank, took out a personal loan and went for it. And that’s when I met Nicki.”

 

Nicki Klein took a similar road to Sabio: “I was working in the stock market and I was bored out of my mind,” she said. “I would get in by 6:30 a.m. and I’d finish my work by 8:30 a.m. then I’d sit at my desk until 3 p.m. thinking, ‘What am I going to do with my life? This is not going to suffice.’”

 

A natural problem solver, Klein gravitated towards coding and, like Hargis, she had trouble finding a local dev bootcamp. She eventually decided to pack her bags for San Francisco, but did one final Google search before leaving. She stumbled upon Sabio and enrolled immediately.

 

Klein and Hargis both kept their full time jobs and spent the summer attending Sabio bootcamp on the weekends. By the end of their five person cohort, two of their fellow members had dropped out, forfeiting their $10,000 deposit. 

 

After graduation, the women reunited for the Techweek LA hackathon, creating a web-based version of ChorBit. The judges awarded them second place and encouraged them to turn the idea into a mobile app, but neither Klein nor Hargis had any experience developing on mobile. They spent the next year teaching themselves mobile developments as they continued to develop ChorBit — a company they call a “billion dollar idea.”

 

“We've been on a fast trajectory. Two years ago we didn’t even know we wanted to code and now we’re entrepreneurs with this new life,” said Klein. “Also, we’re females! There are hardly any females [developers] out there especially ones that are doing mobile apps.” 

 

What’s next for the developing duo? They’re currently being followed by cameras for a documentary called “App: The Human Story” set for release this summer and version two and three of the ChorBit app are set for release in the coming months.

 

In the meantime, Hargis quit her job in order to focus on their next big hackathon: LAUNCH in San Francisco on February 26. The prize is $250,000. Hargis and Klein will be dressed as Sandy from Grease.

 

And it turns out there is some strategy behind the outlandish costumes:

 

“It brings a sense of confidence when you walk into a room of people who have been developing for 20 years and you’re these two almost-amateurs who have been doing it for two. We’re essentially saying, ‘We’re here, we’re establishing ourselves, we’re enthusiastic, we’re passionate, and we have the potential to win.’ If you wear normal clothes then you are just one of the pack.”

 

For an update on their journey click here!