Meet Brian Clincy
Some people join a tech community to network. Brian Clincy joined BOT and found a launchpad. A software developer with more than 20 years in the tech industry, Brian has been part of BOT since the beginning. He taught a tech cohort, and that experience sparked a brand-new company built to bring more people into tech.
Ask him to sum up BOT in one word, and he doesn’t hesitate: “Jump-off.”
Here’s how a meetup in a new city turned into a teaching role, a new venture, and a pipeline of new tech professionals.
Finding a Meetup That Mattered
When Brian arrived in Orlando, one of the first things he did was search for community.
“I’m always looking for meetups that matter to me.”
That’s how he found BOT: a room full of Black professionals working in his field. “I was like, yo, I can’t wait to go,” Brian remembers. “I’m down for this.”
At that first meetup, he ran into a familiar face: his co-worker Josh Walker, one of BOT’s co-founders. That connection made Brian part of the community from the very beginning.
Teaching a BOT Community Cohort
Brian didn’t just attend BOT meetups. He helped extend BOT’s program offerings by leading an 8-week backend development course. As the weeks went on, his students started asking for more: more topics, more depth, more time. That’s when Brian realized what he was teaching was bigger than an eight-week course.
From Cohort to Company: Launching G-Coded
The student requests sparked the idea for Brian’s company, G-Coded.
“That’s what launched G-Coded, and G-Coded is all about bringing my people to technology and learning the software stack and the software life cycle.”
Above all, G-Coded introduces the culture to technology.
BOT in One Word
When asked to describe BOT in a single word, Brian chose “jump-off.” He explains it this way:
“You get the culture and the environment of people that are out here doing things, and you can see them doing things. And then they (BOT) actually nurture you to go ahead and get out on your own and say, hey, look, I can do this. I can start a company. I can be everything that I see.”
That ripple effect is real. One member found his community, taught a cohort, launched a company, and helped more people start tech careers. That’s what learn, build, and scale looks like in practice.
Watch Brian’s Story
Hear Brian tell it himself, also on the BOT YouTube channel.
Find Your Spark
Whether you’re writing your first line of code or ready to launch your own company, BOT is here to help you learn, build, and scale in tech. Come to a meetup, join a cohort, or share what you know by teaching one.
Join the BOT community | Explore our programs | Teach a cohort
Like Brian, you might find that the room you walk into becomes the platform you launch from.