Stealing the words from their own site, “Stuk.io is an online education platform that makes it easy to turn business ideas into real web apps”. I chatted with their CEO, Tiago Martins, to know a bit more about Stuk and about their plans.
Tell us a bit about Stuk.io.
Stuk is like Netflix for Developers. We produce code recipes on how to build pretty much anything raging from social networks to payment integrations. Right now we are focused on Ruby on Rails but soon we will expand to other important developer frameworks such as Node, Angular and Ember. We aim to build the largest code recipe repository in the world allowing any developer to build or integrate any technology stack or service. Myself and the Stuk team are great believers in non capped information flow, that’s why our developers have unlimited access to all the recipes for a small monthly subscription.
Is there a community aspect to the project?
Absolutely. At the high level we have an amazing push powered forum stack where our users can chat with each other in real-time. At the low-level, our content strategy starts off by analysing what the user is requesting in one of our dedicated forum channels.
Your previous venture was Songvice, a music education project. Now you’ve turned to app development. When do you know it’s time to pivot?
That is indeed one of many billion dollar questions. In our case, the decision happened when I was in San Francisco and noticed this huge potential untapped market and we couldn’t miss out. Songvice was essential for our success though, as we learnt an incredible amount of information and, through the pivot, discovered how to maximize efficiency between the founding team consisting of myself, Henrique, Pedro, Joaquim and Luis.
You’re still in the education space. Is this a promising bet in the online world?
Great developers are internet babies.
Do you think this new project will help educate a new generation of developers for the booming startup scene?
The best thing about knowing how to code is the unquantifiable freedom that one gets. No idea is too bold or too farfetched. We are no longer bound to physical or financial constraints if we wish to build something truly great and ground breaking. All you need is a bit of time and a fair amount of patience. The upcoming short-term macroeconomic effects due to this rise in code literacy is going to be truly wave shattering.
Stuk.io has offices in Amsterdam and Porto. Is internationalisation a must for a Portuguese startup to thrive?
The amount of talent that Portugal offers is comparable to important tech hubs such as London or San Francisco. In my view, internationalisation is just a question of creating impact. Stuk is 6 months live and has 4000+ developers from more than 100+ countries. The reason for this reach is strong relationships with our partners and although the internet is a pretty cool emoji communication tool, nothing beats a handshake.
What’s the single mistake you learned the most from?
Not validating assumptions. Don’t expect people coming after building. Data-driven execution is everything.
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