More and more business opportunities are being found in building software and manipulating data. By now, we’ve probably all heard that “Software is eating the world.” It’s happening in every industry, so how can we apply our entrepreneurial creativity in the 21st century?

Disrupting the supply chain or value chain

Often when we think about what makes a creative entrepreneur, we think about people who uncover untapped efficiency to benefit customers. For example, the flexibility enabled by Amazon’s more centralized inventory and lack of expensive brick & mortar operations allowed it to offer better prices These opportunities are created by innovation.

It’s not enough to identify opportunities

In today’s entrepreneurial climate, anyone with an idea can change an industry. Uber, for example, is a relatively simple app that has turned the taxi industry upside down. Whether we’re talking about Uber or something more local to Toronto like Hurrier, the opportunity isn’t about software complexity, but rather execution.

Today’s entrepreneur needs to be a ‘full-stack’ entrepreneur—someone with business instinct and the practical skills to get the idea out there. Businesses are proven in practice. With so much opportunity depending on technical ability, you can open so many more doors with code literacy.

Make it happen

Everyone has an idea for ‘the next great site’ at some point or another—sometimes even several times a week. Unfortunately, most ideas die before we know whether they’ll work because technical literacy is so low.

There are lots of ways to get these skills today, but many people think it’s not for them—thinking you need to know complex math or software engineering, but that’s not the case with programming today. Many boot camps around the world like Bitmaker Labs have proven that regular people with no background in programming can learn the essential skills very quickly.

At Bitmaker, our students have applied skills in numerous entrepreneurial contexts. Some have taken their hobbies and created new start-ups. For example, Ryan Racioppo created Roshpit as his ‘passion project’ in our Web Development course at Bitmaker and turned it into a thriving E-sports business.

Others have turned to Bitmaker after founding technical companies to increase their awareness of development considerations. We’ve been joined by founders of companies such as #paid and SkyPrep who have returned to their companies with a new perspective.

For an entrepreneur, these skills can be the difference between getting your first 1,000 users or sinking tens of thousands of dollars and hours working with external developers.

Today’s entrepreneur needs to roll up his or her sleeves and prove the business. Software is eating the world – don’t miss out on an essential entrepreneurial skill. Learn to code.

Interested in code, design, or digital marketing? Check out our course schedule in Toronto.

Written By: Craig Hunter, CEO of Bitmaker Labs, Toronto, ON

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