🔒Tech duo opens Northborough coding center for children

On Oct. 16, Rakhee Aparaju & Sushma Majety cut the ribbon on their location of the franchise Code Ninjas, which teaches children computer skills using video games and language similar to a karate dojo.

Why did you seek out a Code Ninjas franchise?

Aparaju: We are both from tech backgrounds and managed teams at our respective companies.

We were both looking for opportunities to start investing in some places, and we started looking for classes for our kids. I have a 13 year old and a 9 year old, and she has a 10 year old and a 6 year old. We figured there was nothing out here offering curriculum-based coding classes.

We came across Code Ninjas during that search, and they were expanding. This was about a year and a half ago when they had 40 centers. Now they have 120. In the next one or two years, Code Ninjas plans to have more than 400 centers in the U.S., plus with centers in places like Canada.

How many are there in the area?

Majety: There are a few more in Massachusetts either open or coming online soon: Wellesley, Canton, Tyngsborough, Medfield and Burlington.

A: We get a five-mile radius as our service area.

What is the demand like for coding classes?

A: In this area, we looked at the schools, and they are all very active in introducing students to coding concepts. We figured there is demand for students to continue their coding education, beyond the one- or two-week camps offered around the area.

M: We heard from parents who send their kids to camps, who said because the camps are so short, their children end up forgetting what they learned.

But they get continuing education here?

M: Here, students can stay on top of it. We start off with the basics and then add the complex pieces. With Code Ninjas, the students are awarded different belts based on their skills, starting with white belt and moving all the way up to black belt.

The coding is based around video games, in order to make it fun. Each belt has some set of projects in there they have to complete.

Once they are black belts, they have to build their own video game, release it in app stores, and then they are black-belt certified.

How long does the program take?

A: There are nine belts. White, yellow, orange and green are the beginner belts. Blue, purple, brown and red are the intermediate belts. And then there are the black belts. Those first four belts typically take a year. It is designed to be a three-year program, although it depends on each student.

Have you had a lot of signups?

A: We have more than we expected initially. We have about 15 students signed up.

M: The way it works is kids can come in for a free session where they work on a small project, and then we will talk with the parents about what all the programs include. Then, they can go home and think about it. Right now, we have about 200 leads in the system.

Apart from the curriculum program, we have 15 different camp options, and we have birthday parties and parent night outs.

Do the kids like it?

A: The whole idea behind this franchise is you can’t get kids away from screen time and playing games. So a win-win is having the kids keep playing the games while learning coding simultaneously. Everything that goes into the game, they are learning here.

What are your goals with the business?

A: For now, we want to make sure we have a set number of students, to help spread the word.

No matter what profession they go in, children are going to need some level of coding skills. We want to make sure they have that.

This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.