Melenie Schatynski
Co-founder and Head of Product
My Code Kit - we're on a mission to reinvent attitudes to failure when coding
We are building our first product Ocobox, which is a tool to demystify coding for young people aged 14-18. It's an AI learning assistant and Python coding editor. As co-founder, I get to invent, develop and conduct research around education and technology.
I love coding and creating things but I also love teaching others to do the same!
Right now, My Code Kit is in the Research and Development (R&D) phase so I spend a lot of my day preparing materials to show other people the great work we've been doing. This involves talking to people, analysing through research and data, making business decisions about our future, editing videos, coding and designing our prototype, and writing grant applications. As a co-founder, I've found myself doing lots of different things!
I got here through a lot of failing! I failed my A levels so I couldn't go to university (I really want to work in radio!). I was then hired as a car rental agent and was removed from the shop front as soon as I was put there because I was terrible at it, which was my next failure. But these failures actually led to me becoming a developer. If I wasn't banished to the upstairs office I wouldn't have overheard a conversation between the IT manager and the Account Manager about the need for a custom Hire Purchase system. I also wouldn't have then recommended we build one in-house and then later offer to develop the entire thing with my small amount of programming knowledge! I've been a developer now for 13 years! My next big failure was when I trained to be a teacher. I completed my Bsc in Computer Science at 27 and then went on to do my PGCE in Secondary Computing. I didn't go into teaching but it did lead to My Code Kit being born!
We're continuing to grow My Code Kit and I'd love to write a children's coding book! I'm dyslexic and writing a book would be an amazing achievement for me
I love to dance. I'm terrible at it but I love learning about new dance styles. I also (embarrassingly) watch a lot of Netflix! Sometimes I just need to do something which doesn't require a lot of thinking.
"You often feel tired, not because you've done too much. But because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you" - Alexander Den Heijer