Mentoring for Bootstrappers building Rails apps

Discussions
#1

Hello,

I’m a veteran developer who enjoys mentoring other developers, and I’m hoping you’ll be able to give me advice on how to evolve my training business so I get to work with more bootstrappers.

Currently I mentor Rails developers independently and for a bootcamp. The developers I train have a mix of goals and backgrounds, including career-switchers, bootstrappers, and first-time coders who are looking for employment.

We meet one-to-one regularly on Skype and Screenhero. On these calls we pair program, discuss any issues they’re having building their apps, and talk through development practices. I’m also available for help by email and I give constructive reviews of the code they write outside our calls.

What I’d like to incorporate more of into my week is coaching bootstrapper-coders who are building their own Rails applications already and getting things done but would benefit from having an experienced developer as a mentor to provide guidance as needed, but be financially within reach and not come with the burden of paying a senior developer’s full-time salary.

Right now I don’t know if there is much of an audience for this.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, I’d love for you to reply below or write to me at e@eliotsykes.com with details of what you’d like from an arrangement like this.

Thanks and best regards!

Eliot

#2

What are you looking for in this arrangement?

I am a former Rails dev that is now bootstrapping a Rails app on the side.

However, I already have a friend that I pay to help me some Saturdays and am not looking to share equity at this point.

#3

Hi @pjc, thanks for replying. I’d not be looking for a share of your equity, and most of the code I’d write for your business would usually be when we’re on a call pairing on something new to you or tough you’d like help with, a roadblock issue for example, or writing a test for something that’s tricky to test.

#4

Nice, man. Sounds like a great little biz. I’ve actually thought recently it would be nice to get kind of some peer code review for my app. That may be another use case that you could target for - some kind of audit/review of an existing app as opposed to building something new.

But my app isn’t in rails so not much I can do there :smile:

1 Like
#5

Bootstrappers, as people without a lot of money, don’t seem to be a great target for a business, offhand. I mean, we’d all like help, but realistically aren’t going to spend a bunch for it.

1 Like
#6

Check out airpair.com, I think they do something similar. This is not to suggest that you shouldn’t go ahead. On the contrary I think it validates your idea. That being said, the reaction I saw on hackernews to getstarupnow (another site with a similar idea) was that a big issue would be trust. Why should users trust that you can help them? Airpair was cited as a good example of how to do it properly. I think you should target new developers using codeacademy, treehouse etc, as well as on stackoverflow by answering questions to build credibility.

#7

I would be interested in your service. :thumbsup:

The reason: I have a problem (performance) im my Rails app and no experience/patience to solve it myself.

The question is: What pricing do you have in mind?

Kind regards
Bernhard

#8

Hi Bernhard,

Thanks for getting in touch, you’ll receive an email from me shortly with details on the available coaching plans and pricing.

Kindest regards,
Eliot