A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
13 hours ago
- #coding-bootcamp
- #reddit-moderation
- #reputation-attack
- Will Sentance founded Codesmith, a coding bootcamp, with a background in pedagogy and a passion for teaching.
- Codesmith initially thrived with positive student feedback and strong outcomes, growing to 70 employees.
- A competitor, Michael Novati, co-founder of Formation, gained control of the r/codingbootcamp subreddit and launched a relentless reputation attack on Codesmith.
- The attacks included false accusations, harassment, and leaks of confidential information, damaging Codesmith's reputation and culture.
- Student applications dropped significantly, leading to an 80% revenue decline and multiple layoffs.
- Will Sentance stepped down as CEO, but the attacks continued, affecting his mental health and future ventures.
- Michael Novati's tactics included distorting narratives, cherry-picking data, and associating Codesmith with negative concepts like sex cults.
- Codesmith's reputation was further damaged by negative Reddit threads ranking high on Google and being cited by LLMs like ChatGPT.
- Despite the attacks, Codesmith maintained strong student outcomes, with 60-70% placement rates even during a tough job market.
- The story highlights the vulnerability of businesses to reputation attacks via Reddit and the need for vigilance in managing online narratives.