In an effort to lower the barrier of entry into its online coding bootcamps, Thinkful is bringing a living stipend program to Denver.
The living stipend provides Thinkful students with a $1,500 monthly stipend to help cover living expenses like rent and groceries, allowing them to focus further on the coding program.
Thinkful launched the stipend program 10 months ago in Salt Lake City and announced Wednesday that it will be coming to Denver, Atlanta and Minneapolis.
"We’re expanding Thinkful’s living stipend to Denver because its tech community is one of the fastest growing in the country. There’s a lot of people in Denver who’ve come to us wanting to learn but don’t have the savings or time to do it full time. This fixes that," said Thinkful CEO Darrell Silver. "We exist to get people careers they’ll love – and thanks to our track record we can expand access to even more people. Denver is one of the communities where we can have the biggest impact."
The living stipend is available to students who enroll in Thinkful's five month engineering plan. In the Salt Lake City pilot, 200 students applied for two open stipend spots, the company wrote in a blog post on its website.
Thinkful offers a variety of online courses, including classes in product design, data analytics, data science and full-stack engineering. In addition to online courses, Thinkful offers 1-on-1 mentoring for each student with an industry expert.
Thinkful’s Living Stipend also requires no up-front tuition payment. Instead, students pay a percentage of their post graduation income — 15 percent over four years. The payment period starts as soon as graduates start earning $40,000 or more and is capped at $40,000.
In the Denver-area, Thinkful has 76 students and 22 graduates working with a handful of employers in the area. Thinkful's Denver team has more than 20 employees - its largest team size outside of its Brooklyn headquarters.
The company, founded in 2012, raised a $9.6 million Series A in January 2018 and acquired competitor Bloc later that spring. To date, Thinkful has raised $16 million.
