How I landed my dream job at 19 years old

I had no idea that I would be in Techstars helping to build an exciting startup 8 months after graduating from high school.

Here’s how it happened,

I graduated from Regis Jesuit High School in May, decided to skip college and learn to code at Galvanize, a 6 month coding school. (Why I skipped college will be in a future post.)

During Galvanize I won the Denver Broncos hackathon,

I was on the News,

I met Laurie from HBO’s Silicon Valley at Denver Startup Week,

I met the 15-year-old founders of DripDrop (on Shark Tank, made a deal with Barbara Corcoran), also at Denver Startup Week,

I met Billionaire Shark on Shark Tank Chris Sacca (a second time)

I met Jack Bonneau 11-year-old founder of Jacks Stands (on Shark Tank, made a deal with Chris Sacca),

2 articles were written about me choosing coding over college,

I had Lunch with Alex Vogenthaler at Google

I led a Q&A session with Jack Levin, Google employee #21 and founder of Image Shack and Nventify,

I became best friends with Austin Mahan and Maia Samuel, the other 2 High School grads who skipped college to learn to code at Galvanize,

I coded an App on the AppStore with Austin ^ that finds charging stations for electric cars (can’t wait for my Tesla Model 3!),

And I presented my Galvanize Capstone Project to a room full of people.

I worked my ass off.

And I completed the rigorous 6 month coding school.

Then came the Job Hunt… but more like the Job Hunting me.

After the new year, companies started reaching out to me which was exciting because I hadn’t applied for a single job yet.

Then I figured it out!

All the tweeting and meeting I did throughout my time at Galvanize helped me build my brand. And with any great brand comes people who want to buy it!

Out of all the emails and calls I received from recruiters, one stuck out to me. It was from Kathy Keating.

Back in high school, Regis Jesuit alums Seth and Jeff came in to one of my classes and spoke about their company Autopay. After class, I met them both and they gave me an intro to their CTO, Kathy. During my time at Galvanize, I ran into Kathy quite often at events like Denver Startup Week and Rise of the Rest. Now, back to the story:

The email explained how she had left Autopay, co-founded a company called Airstream Health and was looking for a Front End Software Developer to join the 6 person startup. Kathy then said they got accepted to an “accredited accelerator program in Boulder”. But what really stuck out to me was the challenge she gave me.

She wanted me to make a mockup of an online mobile compatible healthcare enrollment form and come into the office to present it. I told her I was up for the challenge and asked her which “accredited startup accelerator” was it? Techstars? BoomTown? Mergelane? I had to wait to find out.

I came into the office nervous, not knowing what to expect.

I left the office excited, with a smile on my face.

I had fallen in love with the team, and the accelerator was Techstars!

I got an offer the next morning with the title “Software Developer”.

I said I would accept the offer on two terms:

1. I could have the title “Software Developer & Dev Evangelist”. I wanted to add the “Dev Evangelist” part so I could help build the Airstream Health brand just like I had done with my own brand.
2. I would get an Airstream Health & Techstars hoodie. Because hoodies are the official token of startups.

The terms were gladly accepted, and my first day was on January 16th, exactly 1 month after graduating from Galvanize.

On Jan. 23rd, one week after working from our tiny Denver office, we moved up to Boulder to start the Techstars Accelerator Program.

I went up the elevator on the first day, the doors opened, and I looked up and saw the iconic Techstars logo.

I knew all my hard work had paid off, but even harder work was right around the corner, “Making Healthcare Suck Less.”

This past year has been the craziest year of my life, and I would not have survived without the support of everyone at Galvanize, especially my teachers Michael Herman and Wes Reid,

and of course Chris Onan & Jim Deters, founders of Galvanize.

Thank you for reading!

Feel free to contact me here, and follow me on twitter @tommygaessler

And thank you to all my friends and family who are always there for me and always will be!

Now, let’s end this post with my High School Senior Quote,

“I want my dreams to become reality that’s why I woke up to chase them.”

- Tommy Gaessler

(yes I did quote myself)