Josh Lucas talks about growing Work Hard PGH in Pittsburgh's Allentown neighborhood as a cooperative model to provide technology and media services while also engaging and giving back to the community. We also discuss Academy Pittsburgh to provide IT Skills training to underserved individuals. Thanks to Comcast for powering up #50PGHSummerStories.
Transcription:
So, I'm particularly excited for our interview today hanging out with Comcast telling our 50 Summer Stories of Pittsburgh Tech, and hanging out with Josh Lucas of Work Hard Pittsburgh. I've known Josh since before his days at Work Hard Pittsburgh, I think now. He's like the de facto mayor of like a all things Allentown and everything like that because he's just taken over in such a good way to put some vibrancy and immediacy to it. One of Pittsburgh's really important neighborhoods. And so Josh, I'm so glad you're hanging out with us today. I cannot wait to catch up with you cuz it's been too long. I know this whole thing's been crazy on everybody. But I know you guys are pretty scrappy, and work hard, and Academy are gonna figure their way around this. That's for sure. So thanks for hanging out.
Thanks, buddy. I'm happy to be here. Tell them good stories about the interesting neighborhoods all around.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So I always like to give people some quick background. I mean, you were a chemistry teacher. At one point you were also founder of some time tech startups at one point, and then you got this bug where you're like, Wait a second, I had this idea about this work hard Pittsburgh thing. I just think your story's pretty amazing. Give us a little quick tour is the Josh Lucas and with honey, you throw it all away to do work hard Pittsburgh.
Yeah, I mean, I spent over a decade in public education teaching high school chemistry in an economically depleted neighborhood. around your 13, I started getting a little anxious a little burnout and thought it best to seek other endeavors. And soon after we launched a startup to try to crowdsource political speech. So blue voice, yeah, red blue voice. So if you think about, you know, sort of what Facebook is doing now and selling the ability to allow anybody to be an advocate around a particular issue, we tried to build that platform back in 2011. And you think about that you guys were because we're a little bit ahead of the curve. Back there would have been nicer maybe if we would have waited a year or so ahead of the curve makes it makes it hard to raise money sometimes if you're ahead of the curve. And so I mean, we just learned a lot of lessons kind of related to that around, you know, what it takes to be a star in Pittsburgh and we've built work hard Pittsburgh to try to create bridges and other modes to take products to market. So we're going to Pittsburgh, a cooperatively organized business incubator, and as such it has a suite of products underneath it that its membership builds and takes the market and tries to make money with absolutely, absolutely and when you first put this model up, I've never really heard anything quite like so I thought it was quite unique. What was your inspiration and what made you choose Allentown sounds, there's neighborhoods where you don't always hear about Allentown but it's it's kind of cool because it's nestled right between the south side and like Knoxville and like all these little neighborhoods. And it's it's pretty accessible to downtown Pittsburgh if you got some legs climb up and down the hill.
Yeah, I mean, the inspiration is just the practical reality of being unfunded startup in Pittsburgh. Right, right. You have to be resourceful and find other modes to get a product ready to start and scale and so we thought we could systematize some of those things and make it a little easier for people to do something without the need for early stage capital. Allentown you know, it's it's, it was an economic decision more than anything. I mean, it was a neighborhood that had seen neglect for for three or four decades and there were opportunities in there around real estate and partners, like our a 360, who puts a lot of commercial property up here. And at the time, we had a really good Economic Development Corporation, executive officer who saw the need to bring in tech related office space is a way to drive foot traffic and create a business district that could be thriving again and support restaurants and coffee shops and a little bit of retail. And you know, our mandate from the beginning was to do that as equitably as fairly and as cautiously as we could so that we weren't gentrifiers we're displaces, yeah, allowance right there. Because you could get these neighborhoods where, yesterday and they're falling apart, but they had their community in place already, though, people are still living there. And so they just kind of come into, hey, we know better, we'll fix it. So you can't do that. But you want to go in there because you can obviously be helpful. You can obviously find ways to make things happen. But yeah, so you've had to walk a tight line for a while, I guess, huh?
Well, and that's why we're a co op, right? Like the idea that any wealth that we build here in the neighborhood is well that can be shared through a cooperative model of organizing an LLC or C Corp. So our biggest protection against being displaced, or gentrifiers just that like, this is an open ownership model, anybody from the neighborhood we actively recruit in the neighborhood can come and be part of this organization and help launch these products and contribute. I love it you're like, I feel like you're like perfectly blending this like, it's like model of like business sense to like, actually make some money and get stuff but also being very cognizant of the community around you into people and empowering them as you're helping them to make money and to be you know, better people and more productive and all that kind of good stuff. And I just think it's such a cool model that like, need to like licenses out to like other regions and other neighborhoods and stuff. So I just think it's so unique and I just love the way it works. And obviously, it's working you guys are there you're doing it and you're even surviving. all the craziness as well as what's happening here with with the whole code pandemic. Have you guys been faring on that so far?
Yeah, well, thanks for all the kind words. It's hard, you know, like we were talking little Before you started rolling, you know, we have to we lost a quarter of income basically across all of our different products that are out there generating revenue for us. But we know we have a pretty diverse portfolio of ways that we make money. So as some have definitely died off because of the economic situation, the reality of quarantine, others have picked up a little bit because of the economic situation and everybody's working. So our diverse portfolio I think, has given us some resiliency, that that is great, and other people, unfortunately don't necessarily have the benefit of you diversified. I like that. So what's been on the uptick?
Well, Academy, Pittsburgh's definitely on the uptick right? People understand the need for condensed training. So Academy, Pittsburgh is our web developer bootcamp.
It talks about economics, I think Academy is so cool. So you worked on iterations of this thing over the years, and you've got that This model now sets where I think it's so unique in the market. You take folks that need skills, they're super smart people, but they don't have the ability to get the skills to have cool programming jobs that are in huge demand here in Pittsburgh and beyond. But find a way to they can take those courses. And then once they get a job, be able to then pay it back and be able to pay for the training, they had to tell us how it works. And kind of how you were able to get to this iteration that apparently is working to the No, it seems like all your cohorts are filling up very quickly.
So 2016, we launched just a conventional developer boot camp. We didn't invent condensed technical training or web developer boot camps, right. But we've always had an eye on trying to do this differently and more equitably. So 65% of people that go through our bootcamp come from some underrepresented group in tech, whether that's women, African Americans, Latinos, nunneries refugees. We realize that upfront tuition is not equitable, right? If you have to pay 12 grand out of pocket Take 12 weeks off of your full time job and take care of your kid, you know, that's privileged, right, that's going to restrict who can participate in this kind of training, right, that has historically had great outcomes, right. Like most boot camps place over 80 85% of their graduates into full time jobs in Pittsburgh, those jobs average about 55,000 bucks a year as a salary.
No changing salary for for many people. Well, too. I mean, it is literally the difference between just getting by barely and actually like living a life and be productive, solidly middle class in Pittsburgh.
Yes, so we work on it is a model and income share agreement model. So folks don't pay us until they get full time jobs and their full time jobs they have to make over 45 grand a year to trigger any kind of payment back. When they get that job. They pay us back 10% of their net income for 24 non consecutive months. So on average, most people pass back between you know Nine and 11 grand wow for what is, you know, usually a career that has a lot of upward mobility. So after a year or two of being in that $55,000 a year job, most of our grads end up in 7075 k year jobs wanting to stay matures web developers because the game so high, oh, no, we have folks making 110 hundred 20 grand a year market pays it pays their their thing back faster as well, too. So the more you make, the faster you pay back, you get your money back, you can reinvest that back into the next group of people and keep it going. As far as that is.
We don't want to give you training that has no value. We believe that all training, especially adult training that, you know, isn't part of some larger liberal arts degree.
Only it was Come on needs to be based on job market demand. And so as long as there is a high demand for web developers will continue to do this. And now we're trying to figure out like what are the other boot camps here? regionally right? That can also provide those kind of quick access to good employment. Very cool.
I love that I'm assuming that the places that you're placing these students are women, they find jobs, they gotta be pretty pumped to know that like they're hiring talent that has learned a really intense skill set and a quick amount of time. And that by then, being employed there is going to change their life significantly because they're gonna be making like you said, that solid middle class salary, you know, let's strive for a middle class everybody, it's all good. And that to me, I just feel like man, it's just working on so many levels once again, like you guys are getting you're taking all these really cool boxes. That's why I'm so glad you're telling us this story here today. JOHN, what you guys are doing like you're, you're not slacking up there and downtown did the thin air and the heights down, kept you from getting stuff done.
Ranking in there even though probably a little more lighthearted than folks on the south side. But it's you know, it's capitalism working right. Like there's a high demand for talent and so that makes sense. Organizations take risks on unconventionally trained right, people, right. They're not for your CS degrees. They are literally the blue collar worker of the modern economy. Being able to write some JavaScript is the equivalent of being able to machine a part for an automobile 60 years ago, it's a skill that can be easily taught. And everybody needs it. Now everybody needs a web developer, public schools, small businesses, nonprofits, everybody needs. Absolutely, absolutely. So if people want to participate in these I get there's a call for cohorts and what's happening in September, possibly how often you do these with the best people to like, plug in and check it out.
Yeah, so we're doing two years now. And as a way to kind of condense that and give us more room for additional programming later. Just go to Academy PGH, calm, there's an application cycle that's probably going to be open until the session fills up, fills up. It'll probably fail. Sometime in August, so you definitely are going to apply when you get your application in sooner rather than later. First come first serve. And like I said, there's, there's, you know, we were very careful to make sure that the the racial and gender balance of the class reflects the region's racial and gender.
Demographics if you want to hang on and work hard and use some space and be part of what you guys are up to just go to work hard pgh.com and check it out there.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the co op, you know, is always looking for new members to be part of the co op. You know, we want you to have some skill that you're going to bring into the ecosystem that helps us take new products to market and that doesn't have to be a technical skill. It can be a great salesperson, you can be great at social media can be a videographer, a photographer, there's a whole suite of, of skills that can help us do better and help other people take their businesses. to scale, I would also sort of just add to that, you know, we act as a creative technical agency. So if you're looking for 1099 contract work, or if you have a particular skill that trying to market in the region, you know, we usually have some gig flow from third party clients that we can kick to kick to you to help you figure out your own freelance life as well.
Very cool man all the way around love talking to you. So I always have my my Comcast question. And, and actually, you already answered this question, but all the work that you're doing, but I'm gonna have to just just just ask it one more time. It's us anything else that you can apply towards this? Yeah. So as you know, where we're trying to raise some money for the neighborhood allies and beyond laptops, because it just becomes so apparent how big our digital divide is. And so what are your thoughts on ways that we can shrink this digital divide? You're already doing so much work, so you're gonna get an A plus, but give us more?
Yeah, so shout out to neighborhood allies. They're a long time collaborator and an important part of this region's racial equity conversation.
You know, the reality is Jonathan, white people have to use their privilege to lift black and Latino voices and career paths higher. So we have to be anti racist and activists at all. So if you are an HR person or a CEO or a hiring role, it's your obligation to go and find the black and Latino candidates to inject into your organization and to train them and to support them culturally inside the organization so that they can be successful. And if we all do that, then that that equity gap is going to go away pretty quick.
I love it man. Simple as that Josh, always fantastic catching up with you. Big fan of your work at work hard Pittsburgh, and of course Academy. Thanks for taking the time. Everybody. Gotta check this guy out. He's making Pittsburgh Much better place. That's the short. Thanks, Josh. You're the best.
Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai