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August 15, 2017

Launching a Company After iXperience: What I Learned

Written by

Jessica Zimmerman

The iX Team is continually blown away by our alumni that we’ve had the privilege of meeting, teaching and mentoring. After taking one of our courses, many of our graduates go on to secure internships at top companies such as Facebook, Bain & Company, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley. Some also take the entrepreneurial path and go on to start their own companies.

We caught up with Jessica, an iX alumna and now co-founder of Jubil, a fullstack web design and development firm.

Jessica co-founded Jubil with Gabriel Corso, another iX alumnus from our 2014 coding course. Below, Jessica reflects on her experience with iX in Cape Town and provides invaluable tips and insights for other entrepreneurs looking to kickstart their businesses.

What were you up to prior to iXperience?

Before iXperience, I was very undecided on what I wanted to do with my career. I was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue a career in finance or technology. For the summer of 2014, I had two opportunities on the table: iXperience, or an internship at JP Morgan.

In my interview for JP Morgan, I was told that in my internship, I would be responsible for sending out mailers, and doing other mundane, non-intellectual tasks. After being told this, iXperience was an easy choice, as I knew the program would equip me with the hard technical skills that would benefit me in any career.

In addition, iXperience also placed students at companies to apply their technical skills, so they could gain real-world experience in the technology industry. I knew this two-fold combination of learning technical skills and immediately getting the chance to apply them was a winning combination, and I couldn't imagine finding a better program.

How would you say iXperience equipped you to start your own company?

iXperience is the main reason I am where I am today in my Computer Science career. Immediately after completing iXperience, I decided I was going to pursue a degree in Computer Science, and that I wanted to work in the technology industry as a programmer after graduation.

 

The sole reason I got my internship for the next summer was because of my experience working with AngularJS during iXperience. Therefore, it's easy to say that it was iXperience that allowed me to develop the skills and career experience necessary to make me an attractive applicant to potential employers.

After successfully freelancing for about a year alongside my fellow iX classmate, Gabe Corso, we both chose to officially found Jubil in order to further legitimize our business. We both had wanted to found a company for years, and after building a portfolio with happy clients, we decided website design, development, and strategy was a space we felt comfortable starting a business in.

The name "Jubil" was derived from the song "Jubel" by Klingande, which is the song that reminds us most of our time spent at iXperience. In addition, "jubil" derives from "jubilee", which means happy. We strive to help our clients realize their dreams, and hope to make every client happy from working with us.

What advice would you give others who are figuring out their career plans?

Don't be afraid to try out different academic subjects /career paths, and seize every opportunity to learn what you can. Even if you try a career path and end up not liking it, you will have learned something valuable, and will be a step closer towards figuring out what you want to do with your life.

Don't worry if you don't know right away - there are many founders of successful companies that majored in something completely different than what they ended up being successful at. Keep your head up, do what you love, and success will come.

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