What The Collab Lab does

The Collab Lab was a US-based nonprofit founded in 2019 by Andrew Hedges and Stacie Taylor-Cima that provided cohort-based, hands-on training in software team collaboration for early-career developers, with an explicit focus on people from groups underrepresented in tech. From July 2019 through December 2024, the organization ran 79 cohorts, connecting over 170 developers from 25+ countries with experienced mentors who guided them through pair programming, code review, and pull-request workflows on shared projects. Its primary technical artifact was the Smart Shopping List App, a React-based web application that successive cohorts iterated on; the program also produced a Tech Talks educational series on topics including Temporal, Three.js, GraphQL, AWS, accessibility, generative AI, and Cypress testing.

Operationally, The Collab Lab was 100% remote and entirely volunteer-run, with no paid staff and a 75-person mentor bench plus an advisor board that included former participants who returned to give back. The program was free for participants; the organization was funded by charitable donations and operated under a board of directors (Michelle Sauque listed as a board member). Technology infrastructure was built with Astro and Hygraph and deployed on Netlify, with participant collaboration handled through GitHub and Slack. Despite strong community engagement and alumni placement at companies including Google, Shopify, and Zapier, the organization announced its closure at the end of 2024, citing the difficulty of sustaining a nonprofit run solely by volunteers, and released its curriculum and processes openly on GitHub for community reuse.

Because the entity is a closed nonprofit rather than a commercial enterprise, traditional revenue mechanics do not apply: there were no paying customers, no priced tiers in any commercial sense, and no disclosed donor concentration. The only financial inputs were voluntary charitable contributions, which are no longer being accepted following the closure.

Name

The Collab Lab

Legal name

The Collab Lab

Website

https://the-collab-lab.codes

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Collab Lab was a US-based nonprofit, founded in 2019 and closed at end of 2024, that ran 79 free, remote cohorts pairing early-career developers from underrepresented groups with volunteer mentors for hands-on software team collaboration training.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Developer Education and Mentorship

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Cohort-Based Course Platforms (EDAFAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Group Work, Breakout & Collaborative Document/Workspace Tools (EDAFAGAE)

Keywords

• Developer mentorship programs
• Cohort-based learning
• Software team collaboration
• Web development training
• Nonprofit tech education

Headquarters

HQ city

Portland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and charitable contributions: The Collab Lab was a nonprofit organization that relied on donations to sustain operations. The organization is now closing at the end of 2024 and is no longer accepting donations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Collab Lab is a volunteer-run nonprofit that runs cohort-based collaborative project programs for early-career developers, particularly those from underrepresented groups in tech. Participants work in small teams on real-world web development projects under the guidance of experienced volunteer mentors, learning pair programming, code review, pull request workflows, and distributed team collaboration. The program also offers Tech Talks educational sessions and open mentorship, with all curricula and processes published openly on GitHub.

Product overview

The Collab Lab was a non-profit educational organization that operated as a training platform rather than a traditional software product company. Its primary offering was the Cohort Program—a structured mentorship and skills-training initiative for early-career developers. Participants worked on collaborative projects, primarily the Smart Shopping List App, learning team-based software development practices. The organization also offered Tech Talks (educational presentations by industry experts) and maintained an open mentorship program connecting developers with experienced volunteers. All materials and processes were made publicly available on GitHub for community reuse.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Collab Lab Cohort Program A structured, cohort-based training program that places early-career developers, particularly those from underrepresented groups in tech, into small teams that collaborate on real-world web development projects. Participants practice pair programming, code review, and remote collaboration under mentor guidance and receive coaching for technical job interviews.
• Smart Shopping List App A web-based shopping list application used as the primary hands-on collaborative project across multiple Collab Lab cohorts. Each cohort team contributed code and improvements, learning version control, code review, and team-based software development practices through real project work.
• Tech Talks Educational presentations and discussions on web development and engineering topics led by industry experts, designed to broaden participants' technical knowledge alongside the cohort program. Topics covered include durable execution with Temporal, Three.js, GraphQL, AWS, accessibility, generative AI, and Cypress testing.
• Mentorship Program One-on-one and group mentorship provided by 75 experienced software engineers and industry professionals who guide cohort participants through collaborative projects, code reviews, and career development, including technical interview preparation.

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• NetlifycoreTechnology or IntegrationNetlify was used as the deployment platform for The Collab Lab's website and projects, enabling the organization to host their web properties and participant-built applications.
• AstrocoreTechnology or IntegrationAstro was the web framework used to build The Collab Lab's website, providing the foundation for their web presence.
• HygraphcoreTechnology or IntegrationHygraph (formerly GraphCMS) served as the content management system for The Collab Lab's website, enabling management of program content and resources.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• CodinGame: CodinGame offers gamified developer learning and assessment. It overlaps with The Collab Lab's developer-skills training theme but targets a broader, more competitive-coding-flavored audience rather than cohort-based collaboration.

Broad incumbents

• Code.org: Code.org is a large, established nonprofit focused on expanding access to computer science education. It operates more broadly and at much larger scale, but is comparable in nonprofit, expanding-access, free CS learning mission.
• Thinkful (by Chegg): Thinkful is a structured, mentor-supported online bootcamp. It offers comparable cohort-based, mentor-led developer training but as a paid, for-profit program rather than a donation-funded nonprofit.

Direct peers

• freeCodeCamp: freeCodeCamp is a nonprofit that provides free, self-paced web development training with project-based learning and a verified-certification path. It is the closest direct peer to The Collab Lab in offering free, community-driven developer education targeting career outcomes.
• Code2040: Code2040 is a nonprofit that creates pathways into tech for underrepresented talent through fellowships and career programs. It is directly comparable in mission and target population to The Collab Lab's underrepresented-developer focus.
• Black Girls Code: Black Girls Code is a nonprofit providing technology education to young Black girls and underrepresented groups. It shares The Collab Lab's underrepresented-in-tech focus, community-driven delivery, and career-launching intent.
• Major League Hacking (MLH): MLH runs hackathons, fellowships, and community programs for student and early-career developers. It is comparable as a developer-community-led nonprofit working with the same early-career developer persona and employer partners.
• Resilient Coders: Resilient Coders is a nonprofit coding program focused on young adults from underrepresented communities in tech. It mirrors The Collab Lab's mission of providing career-launching software training to underrepresented talent.
• The Odin Project: The Odin Project is an open-source, free curriculum for learning full-stack web development. It shares The Collab Lab's emphasis on free, community-built, project-based learning and serving self-directed early-career developers.
• Girl Develop It: Girl Develop It is a nonprofit that teaches coding to women and non-binary adults. It is comparable in nonprofit, women/underrepresented-talent focus and entry-level web development curriculum delivered through community chapters.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/_collab_lab
• GitHubgithub.com/the-collab-lab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Collab Lab