SoftStack Factory is a new way to inject young, local talent into the software development ecosystem. SoftStack Factory provides established enterprises new options for increasing the bandwidth and efficiency of their software development teams. SoftStack Factory gives startup ventures a powerful new way to develop core software assets that are essential to successful launch.
SoftStack Factory leverages three big trends:
1-Real wage growth for the vast majority of US workers is flat or negative.
2-Because of the increasing demand for software developers, digital economy jobs provide an exception—an opportunity for wage growth that will persist for many years.
3-Traditional higher education (2 or 4-year college programs) is an inefficient path (as measured both in time and tuition cost) for many career objectives.
SoftStack Factory addresses the trends to bring lasting value to communities. We do this not just through the creation of a higher-paid, more stable local work-force, but through the creation of an innovation community and mindset that enables existing businesses and new ventures to create explosive growth.
By making your community a SoftStack Community you are taking an important step toward creating the critical mass of local developers required to be a leader in the digital economy.
Our Approach:
Although SoftStack Factory is a non-profit organization it is run like a for-profit business from top to bottom. SoftStack Factory executes against specific financial metrics just like any for-profit business. SoftStack clients can expect the same level of service and value they would receive from the very best software development companies. Because the SoftStack financial model is designed to balance revenues and expenses each local SoftStack instantiation requires only one initial funding event—after that, the local SoftStack operation earns sufficient revenues and creates sufficient cash-flow to grow to the scale that fits the community it serves.
What makes SoftStack Factory different is the speed and efficiency of the process it applies to transform raw, local talent into productive participants in the digital economy. The SoftStack process is based upon the following three core principles:
-Apply advanced methods to identify the best local raw talent–individuals with the “stuff” it takes to succeed in the SoftStack program.
-Accelerate learning by engaging learners immediately in real development projects for real clients working side-by-side with highly experienced software professionals.
-Refine the definitions of the multitude of traditional roles in the software development ecosystem to increase efficiency.
Each SoftStack Factory “cycle” is 12 weeks long. During this period, a real client project is taken from kick-off to delivery. Over these 12 weeks, learners ascend a staircase of increasingly meaningful roles on the development team. Upon cycle graduation, each SoftStack team member must pass a solo test to verify that they are capable of taking a development project from start to finish.