Jim McKelvey has stated his intentions to expand LaunchCode, the paired-programming initiative that is primed to help fix St. Louis\u2019 tech talent shortage, to a national \u2014 and even international \u2014 level.
\nHe\u2019ll start in Miami, where he plans to move with his wife and son in a few weeks.
\nHis 3-year-old son will be attending school there, McKelvey said. And if the city shows a need similar to St. Louis’ \u2014 namely, a need for more computer programmers to help grow companies \u2014 he\u2019ll set up a LaunchCode division in the city.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s just a place where I have friends and colleagues,” he said. “And Miami has two international airports, so it\u2019s unique for me and what I do. But there is a chronic programming talent shortage that is a problem around the world.\u201d
\nSt. Louis will remain LaunchCode\u2019s center of operations, he said. And McKelvey will continue to be involved in the handful of other initiatives he has going on in the city \u2014 SixThirty, Arch Grants, Cultivation Capital to name a few.
\n\u201cSt. Louis is my hometown and I\u2019ll still favor it whenever I can,\u201d he said.
\nMcKelvey is the subject of Friday\u2019s cover story in the St. Louis Business Journal. For more on that story, pick up a paper or visit the Business Journal\u2019s website Friday morning.
\nMcKelvey\u2019s plan to expand LaunchCode was announced in April, when McKelvey said he was eying potential locations such as Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver and a location somewhere on the West Coast.
\nMcKelvey said officials at EdX, a joint venture between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that offers free courses, including the computer science course LaunchCode is using to train some of its aspiring coders, are encouraging him to take the program national before it reaches its year anniversary, which is in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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