“Never stop developing” is a message we at Wilco take to heart as we try to help every software engineer accelerate their professional development. But there are times when you have to take a break from development—and launch.
Say hello to Wilco’s first public version. We are excited to share that as of today we are officially out of stealth mode. The platform is still in beta—mostly to indicate that we’re still testing things and missing some (very exciting) functionality—but most of the essential pieces are there. Want to upskill yourself by going on quests and solving engineering challenges? Request your access now!
In my last post, I explained that Wilco was built out of a need I witnessed during my own experience as an engineering manager. I argued that the only way for software engineers to practice their skills is on the job, but that’s slow, inefficient, and doesn’t provide equal opportunity. The feedback we’ve received during the closed beta phase only reinforced my thinking: being a great developer isn’t about coding; it’s about having the right skills to solve challenges.
What we’re launching today is a safe but realistic environment where developers can become better. We’ve built a flight simulator for software developers, where you can crash without consequences until you learn to fly the tech stack and handle any emergency your production environment throws at you. We’re even simulating a messaging app and co-workers because, in the real world, tasks are usually delivered by people who use human descriptions, not formulaic text prompts.
I’d like to take the time to thank our great seed investors: Hetz, Vertex, Flybridge, Operator Partners and Samsung Next. And, of course, the entire Wilco team, without whose hard work none of this would have been possible.
