Melenie Schatynski
Co-Founder and Head of Product
My Code Kit
At My Code Kit, we're on a mission to reinvent attitudes to failure when coding! Our first product, Ocobox, 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. 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. I was removed from the shop front as soon as I was put there because I was terrible at it. 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 wouldn't have recommended we build one in-house and then later offered to develop the entire thing with my small amount of programming knowledge! I've now been a developer for over 15 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 watch a lot of Netflix! Sometimes, I just need to do something which doesn't require a lot of concentration.
"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