Code Ninjas centers help kids become tech-savvy
Children between 7 and 14 receive early training in computer science by learning how to create video games
DAVID Graham had a nice little business going. His Coder Camps taught adults to do what he’d been making a living at for years: writing software. But time and again, he kept hearing this question, often from the men and women he was teaching:
“Can my kid do this? Do you have something like this for kids?”
Now, he does. Graham sold Coder Camps for an undisclosed amount in 2016 and used the profit to start Code Ninjas, a franchise business that opened its first center in Pearland earlier this year. The operation teaches coding to children between 7 and 14 years of age by showing them how to create video games.
So far, the Pearland center is the only Code Ninjas open, but Graham says he already has sold 46 franchises for 95 locations in 21 states, with a goal of 100 centers by year’s end. Even though it’s a relatively unproven business, the drumbeat among parents that their children need to learn to write code or be left behind is a compelling proposition.
“Parents hear that their kids need to learn how to code to be ready for jobs that don’t even exist now, but will be needed in the future,” Graham said. “That’s one of the problems I wanted to solve for the techsavvy parent. How can we make sure that every time their kids come here, it’s a fun experience?”
Graham won’t say how many students are enrolled in the program, but the CodeNin-
jas.com website says centers can typically enroll 30 children at a time. On a recent visit to the Pearland center, eight students were working on laptops or playing with robotics kits. Two instructors — Code Ninjas refers to them as senseis, the name for martial arts teachers — worked with the children one-on-one.
There are two classrooms, a waiting area for parents and some support offices, including a kitchen. In essence, it looks like any small private school.
Code Ninjas’ location is perfect from a marketing perspective. In a small strip center at 12810 Broadway, it sits across the street from a new middle school under construction. Just behind that is an elementary school, and a few blocks down Broadway is a high school. Perhaps thousands of parents pass by the Code Ninjas storefront every day during the school year.
“Let’s just say the location was not an accident,” Graham said.
Graham and his team, many of whom he brought over from Coder Camps, developed the curriculum themselves. Much of it was derived from teaching programming to Graham’s own children.
At the center, kids learn to code by working on games, beginning with a programming language called Scratch and developed by MIT for young children. Borrowing from the structure of martial arts dojos, students progress through various belt levels, from white to black. They learn more advanced programming languages as they go, and even work with robotics.
Graham said the courses are structured so it takes four years for a student to ascend to the highest level.
“The goal is to end up with an app in the Apple App Store,” Graham said.
Tuition isn’t cheap. For its after-school program, at which students spend five days a week from 3:30 to 6 p.m., parents are charged $450 a month. Less-expensive options include a drop-in program and a “Parents Night Out” on Friday nights, as well as a summer camp offering, but kids in those programs don’t necessarily progress through the various levels.
There’s no sliding scale for families who can’t afford the tuition. Graham says the target market for Code Ninjas is affluent parents in upper-income neighborhoods, though lower-priced programs may come later.
“Before we start helping everyone, we want to do this right ourselves,” he said.
Bulent Dogan, a clinical assistant professor of learning design and technology at the University of Houston’s College of Education, said Code Ninjas is taking advantage of a growing call for teaching science, technology, engineering and math skills, often referred to as STEM, to U.S. students as early as possible.
“We all know that there is a need for more STEM courses in education,” Dogan said. “The U.S. is lagging behind other countries in terms of math and science rankings.”
Dogan cited U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics that indicate software developers will be in high demand. The bureau’s website projects 24 percent growth for software developers by 2026 and 30 percent growth for applications developers, who actually write programs.
With the Trump administration seeking to make it harder to get a work visa for technologically skilled workers from overseas to come here, Dogan said it’s even more crucial that the U.S. grows a code-savvy labor force at home.
High-profile technologists such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt and Apple CEO Tim Cook have all called for more computer science training in schools, Dogan said, and parents are hearing that.
“Parents understand that we’re not just teaching these kids to be computer scientists,” he said. “Coding is very helpful in that it teaches them problem-solving.”
But not everyone agrees that coding is crucial for future success. Kate Miltner, a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, is researching power structures and identity in the technology industry. Not all tech jobs are well-paid, highly sought positions, she said.
“The message you hear is that coding is the future, coders are the new rock stars, that Silicon Valley is a big part of our economy and the jobs are creative and exciting,” Miltner said. “But not all tech jobs are that great.”
She said most tech companies are stratified, with mostly white males in the power positions. Companies such as Apple and Facebook have conceded they need to work more on diversity, but “the record is pretty abominable.”
Graham acknowledges that males hold many of the top tech jobs, but he points to the fact that 40 percent of his students so far are girls. He thinks getting girls into coding early could make a difference in the industry down the road.
Most franchisees that have signed up so far also are in suburban areas, and the cost of starting and owning a Code Ninjas center runs from $128,000 to $223,000, according to the company’s website. There’s a $40,000 franchise fee, but that’s cut in half for now for “early adopters.”
Lisa Lim and her husband, Steve, bought the franchise for Bellaire and are in the process of trying to nail down a location. A commercial banker, she said she and her husband always wanted to own their own business. She said she spotted the Code Ninjas opportunity through an online ad and attended a “Discovery Days” meeting held at the Pear-land center.
“It had what we were looking for,” Lim said. “It had the components of education, of fun. We know about coding summer camps, and here was another alternative in a format we had never seen before.”
The couple, who have three children, are struggling to find a location in Bellaire, where Lisa Lim said the vacancy rate for businesses is “very low.” One promising spot was nixed when it turned out there was a competing type of business in the same shopping center that objected to Code Ninjas moving in.
Lim said she was aware that Code Ninjas is a new endeavor and hasn’t yet proved itself beyond the one Pearland location. But she works with a lot of people buying into franchises and said, based on her due diligence, the proposition looks viable.
Anjali Dighe, who plans to open four Code Ninja centers in the Charlotte, N.C., area, also wasn’t dissuaded. She and her husband, Vivek, moved to Charlotte after years of living in Washington, D.C., and wanted to start a business.
“We bought franchise numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4,” she said.
Graham said the next Code Ninjas to open will likely be in Katy, and one in The Woodlands is getting close. Hurricane Harvey slowed down some of the franchisees, he said, and the Pearland center wound up giving refunds to some parents who needed cash for more immediate needs.
“People came in and said, ‘I lost my car, I have to repair my house, I can’t afford to pay 400 bucks a month right now,’ ” he said. “We refunded $12,000 in tuition, and we raised $67,000 for Harvey relief, giving it to teachers in the area.
“After all, we’re part of this community, too.”