(upbeat music) >> Announcer: Live from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It's theCube covering DevNet Create 2018, brought to you by Cisco. >> Okay, welcome back everyone. Live here in Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. We're here for Cisco's DevNet Create. I'm John Furrier with my cohost Lauren Cooney. Our next guest is Sylvain Kalache, who's the co-founder of Holberton School. In the news today for big venture funding. Eight and a half million dollars, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for coming on, we've had many conversations with some of the folks you work with at your place there. Really great mission, CloudNow Awards have been on Open Source Summit. You guys have a very special mission, certainly recognized with some good funding, congratulations, but take a minute to explain the mission of your school. >> Yes, so the mission of the school is to provide high quality education to the most. I think that's something that is very tough in the US for American people is that there is high quality education and you know, like Ivy League are, like, obviously doing a great job, but the issue with that is that it's, like, limited to an elite. But a fraction of American people can access high quality education, and so when you look at the student debt, you know, 1.4 trillion dollar, like, something is wrong with that, right? >> John: Yeah. >> And so we want to be a part of the solution and that's why we created Holberton School. >> And the interesting thing, too, about it is that what I liked about your mission, too, is that you're very transparent about what you do and... But a lot of the jobs are skills that not a lot of people have, so it's a first time skill. So, you know, as people look to hire, say, a data scientist or someone in AI or someone in machine learning or anything in tech, for instance, no one really has that many years of experience, so there's an opportunity to level up for someone who might not have gone to a fancy school. >> Exactly, so today there is more than half a million unfilled jobs that require tech skills in the US, right. And according to the previous white house CTO, it's going to grow to 1.4 million in the next decade, right. And universities are only going to train 400,000. So, there is a gap of a million skilled people within the next 10 years for software engineering type of job, right. So, my co-founder, with Julie and Bobby, we used to be head of marketing and community and I used to work for LinkedIn, would, you know, interview a lot of people who wanted to, you know, work for Docker and LinkedIn and one of the issue we saw is that a lot of out of colleges candidates will not be ready to take on a job. They were not ready. You could see they were smarter than you think but you would need to train them for six months or a year to get them ready to take on a job. >> What makes you different, what are you guys doing that's working? Can you explain the model? >> Yeah so in regular education, we bring you the knowledge right, through a lecture to share, we lecture you right. And two weeks down the road, we give you the exam to see if you memorized, you know, like the solution kind of, right? At Holberton, we've flipped the education. We give students the exam through a project, and they have to go, acquire the knowledge, learn the tool that they need to solve the thing, right. Which is very much what we do in the workplace, right. My manager at LinkedIn would coach me and say hey Sylvain you need to build this, you need to fix that, right. And then I'm paid to like find the best solution, right. So we train our students the same way. And our students come from all walks of life. Right out of high school, some started college didn't finish, some used to be barista, poker player, guitar player, artist, teacher, and some other place, right. They come with no software engineering knowledge, and we train them from zero. For two things, first one to learn a craft that's in demand in today's software engineering. So that they can find a job you know after graduation. And second to earn or to learn, to develop problem solving skills, critical thinking. So that they can continue to grow even after graduation and continue to learn after that, right. >> Is there a requirement? >> The requirement is that you have to be over 18 years old. That's it. >> John: That's it. >> That's it. >> And what does it cost? >> So the cost is none, until you find a job, right. >> Lauren: Until you find a job. And then what happens? >> So what happens, if you find a job that is over 40,000 dollar per year, then you contribute back to the school with a percentage of your salary. So we align the school success with student success. And the final contribution that students make to the school is used to finance the next generation of students. >> Lauren: Great. >> So that, you know, an organic circle where, the more students are successful through them, the more we can train other students. >> And you're investing in the outcome of the students. >> Exactly. We are investing in our students worthy of this school. But obviously we're are like investing in their success. >> Lauren: That's great >> That's the only way for us to succeed. >> Well you're certainly optimized for success. Because you're motivated to do it right. Right, so. This is interesting. >> We are, and when we say we, it's like the Holberton staff, but also the Holberton community. Which is composed of more than 150 mentors. Who are professionals in the tech industry. And they are here for two things. To guide students to enter the tech industry. They come to the school, share their experiences. What it's like to work for a startup. What it's like to work for a big company. What it's like to be a woman in tech, right. And also, they guide us on the curriculum, right. To make sure that what is being taught, like is always relevant. And that's where students find jobs in several companies including Tesla, Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, you name it. So they're competing with Ivy League type of talent. >> John: Yeah, yeah. >> But they are definitely in the type of demographic that you really want... >> And they actually might win too, because they have the street smarts. And they get the hands on skills. Okay, so quick question, so. Is it the for-profit? Or non-profit? >> Sylvain: It's for-profit. >> Okay, so it's for-profit. But it's got a mission driven initiative. >> Sylvain: Yes. >> Tied to a profit objective. So you just raise some funding. How did that go? Is that use of funds to expand the scope? Or student body? I'm sure there's some constraints, in terms of, how much you can handle in terms of student body. Locations around the world. What is there an expansion strategy? Obviously you got some funding. >> Sylvain: Yes. >> What are you going to do with it? >> Yeah, so, we are a San Francisco based crew. We started three years ago with our first cohort of solid students. And with the location we had, we could train 100 students a year. Right. That's good but, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot. >> John: It's a prototype. >> It's a prototype. Exactly. So now that we have the students working for EnVideo, Dropbox, Apple, and like you know, the Google of the world. Alright, okay. Now we need to scale up and we move to a new location, that's seven times bigger. Where we'll be able to train 500 students per year, which... Because it's a two year program, we'd be a campus of 1000 students. Right. And to give you an idea of the scale, the largest University for software students, in the US is training 700 students a year. So we are like quickly coming up, as one of the largest trainer of 20,000 students. >> That's phenomenal. What's the curriculum? Is it mostly computer science? Is it mostly tech? I mean obviously you have the... I see any of you come in. But you do have women in tech. And you have a under represented minority kind of component, which is great. But it's open to anyone. >> It's open to anyone over 18. The application process is blind and fully automated. So there is no, human selection. >> John: No discrimination of any kind. >> No discrimination, and... >> How do you cut people off? Is it random? >> It's not random. >> And not random. I mean like, if you have like 500 spots. >> Yah. >> And you have 1000 applicants. >> Yah. >> So do you sort it? Is it like... >> Right. >> You get the lottery? I mean, is it... >> No, so there is only three percent of student who start the application process who make it. >> Okay, got it. >> And... >> So there's a selection criteria. >> There is a selection criteria. It's hard to get in. It's mostly based on motivation and talent. And by talent we mean, this ability to strive in this type of environment. Where you learn by doing and you learn by collaborating with your peers. Which is something that not everybody, you know, can do. >> So you identify success criteria, with what you think might be aligned with the culture of the curriculum. >> Yah, we believe that grit, is you know, a big element in people's success. And I think there is a lot of American people with grit. But they're born in the wrong zip code. They didn't have the right family, you know, who could support them. And to us, we don't want to select people because of their past. We want to select people because of who they are. Ultimately the application process is doing this for us. In terms of numbers, so far it's brought 35 percent woman. 50 percent of our students aren't white. And the age goes from anywhere from 17 to 56. So it's like very diverse crowd of students. That makes this community really amazing. >> Lauren: Yah. Coming from someone who paid for their own college, and then had to pay it all back... (laughing) I would have loved to have this around when I was going to school.6 >> John: And you still pay the pack. It's like you wanted it upfront for free. So what percentage of the salary is it? I mean, can you talk about numbers or... >> Yah. >> Cause I mean, cause that's always some people want to know the math in advance. >> Absolutely, absolutely. So it's a 17 percent of your income, for the first three years of employment, if you find a job that's over 40,000. So if you don't find a job then, you don't pay anything. >> John: And direct deposit probably, mostly. Do they have to be obligated to pay you? Do they usually do... direct deposit? >> Sylvain: Yah. We partner with third parties that's taking care of this. And it's basically like a monthly, you know, deposit. >> So it's automated for this candidates, for the students. >> Sylvain: It's automated, yah. >> Lauren: And do you do partnerships in any way? So like, you know, woman that are re-entering the work force. Or, you know... things along those lines. There's a lot of different programs out there that support. You know... >> Sylvain: Absolutely. So we are partnering with a lot of organizations. >> Lauren: Okay. >> We want to inspire... And the represented, you know like, demographic to, believe that they can become software engineer. They can be part of that, right. And so we partner... One of them is a clan now, with Justine Mitchell. >> Lauren: I won an award, yah. (Lauren laughing) >> And she was on theCube... >> Lauren: Yah. She's great. >> John: We cover their events. >> So with Justine we worked on fundraising, for women, for living state. And from Google extension... And Schelling, and yeah, we are going to help more students to get in the program. And also, one thing that we are doing is that we have a wall of trustees, where actually, Justine is sitting. We also have the singer, grammy award winner, Neyo. Who help's us to make sure we are doing everything we can, to communicate to this minority, right. And as you say, like the kid in the hood will come up with a different set of problems, and different set of ideas on how to build product and solve issues. And not only having a diverse work force is socially good. But it also makes sense business wise. Because your customer base is diverse by definition, right. >> John: Yah, I mean you need to have the algorithms. So the algorithms are being written by only a small percentage of the population. >> Sylvain: Yah, yah. They're inherently bias. >> Sylvain: They are. >> So we need to have that diversity, and plus diversity brings more unique perspectives. It might slow things down a bit. But you're going to get a much more broader representation. >> Sylvain: It is, and... >> And we heard with that in front with Mark Zuckerberg in front of senate yesterday. (Sylvain laughing) Questions like, you know... There's biases in there. Who's writing the algorithms? >> Yah, it's became even worse with AIM mission learning. If you feed this intelligence, that I've said is bias or discriminative, then AI will behave, like, with discrimination. >> And they're hidden bias so people might not even know that their biases is builtin. >> So it's terrible. I've arranged a number of money to take in the industry. In the valley's, 12 percent. So we really... and it's also bad for, like you know, authenticity. But also, I would say, none visual diversity, right. Like, what zip code? What background? What academic background do you come from? >> Yah. I mean it's a group thinking, mentality. "Oh we went to Harvard", "Oh you're instantly funded." >> Exactly. >> I mean that was the old way. The new way is the new generation. You do amazing work, we applaud your mission and success. We think this is the model, in fact, I'm even more aggressive, that you should get tax-deductions for contributing your time to the school. And the students should get a tax-deduction off the payment. This is a very skilled model. Congratulations. You should propose that. Get Mark Zuckerberg's in and Washington, DC. >> You should send to us. (laughing) >> Send some text messages, while you're there change some regulations. Hey, thanks for coming on. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you >> Holbertonschool.com. Check it out. Great mission, changing the education paradigm. Bringing a new paradigm for learning. Really filling the gap in the jobs front, across the world. It's theCube of course doing our part. Sharing it with you. Back with more live coverage here at Cisco DevNet Create, at the Computer History Museum. We'll be right back. (upbeat music)