“I was a small town kid from the south of Germany from a working class family,” says Fabian Kamberi, the co-founder of social gaming startup SLAY.

“CODE opened my eyes and enabled me to pursue my dreams and encouraged me to reach for the stars and build a generational company.”

While these comments might feel Hollywood-tinged, Berlin-based SLAY is no slouch and has just bagged $5m in funding to build its social gaming platform, which attracts more than 2.5 million monthly active users.

SLAY is one of scores of startups which has grown out of CODE University of Applied Sciences, a Berlin-based state-recognised private university.

CODE is supported by Germany’s leading startup entrepreneurs and is using teaching methods which can be traced back to Aristotle, Confucius, and Socrates.

CODE is one of several educational facilities preaching a new type of learning, looking to revolutionise higher education and unearth the superstar startups of tomorrow.

Other startup educational facilities of a similar ilk include Silicon Valley VC-backed Minerva, France’s 42 coding bootcamp and Kaospilot in Denmark.

Ted Talk

In his 2018 Ted Talk Manuel Dolderer, CODE co-founder, described the ethos behind CODE, which launched in 2017, as “curiosity-driven learning”.

Dolderer said: “The idea was to create a different kind of learning environment, that very much focuses on application and entrepreneurial spirit, rather than just memorising factual knowledge.”

He adds: “The learning experience is significantly different from traditional higher education institutions.”

In essence, “curiosity-driven learning” puts students in the driver’s seat.

At CODE, as opposed to lessons being teacher-led, students form project teams around problems they want to solve across computer sciences.  The project is linked to academic learning goals.

Seven years in, CODE has had hundreds of students from scores of countries through its doors, spawning more than 70 companies “many of which are successful startups”.

One in ten become founders

Around one in ten students at CODE, which runs courses in software engineering, product management and interactive design, become founders of startups (either during their time at CODE or after).

These startups- some of which have made it into Y Combinator- have raised more than €250m in capital.

CODE executives are currently in talks with some VCs about paying a fee to get early access to founders before they go to the open market.

Sheryl Sandberg is a fan.

She said: “CODE University is doing important work educating the next generation of students in advanced technological skills.”

Kickstarts careers

Asked about the importance of CODE to SLAY, Kamberi said: “It enabled me to have a foundation, specifically with my previous company — I was able to get a kickstart due to the flexibility in my studies, and the emphasis on entrepreneurship.

“Through CODE, I was able to meet founder peers that helped me in backchanneling with investors and knowledge exchange. Through CODE, I met my co-founder Stefan, who is one of my best friends and an essential part of our success.”

On the best thing about CODE, he said: “The community, by far. The fellow entrepreneurs and engineers.”

He added that a lot of his peer group at CODE had gone on to launch startups.

Another former student is Alexander Kübel, co-founder and CEO of Kombo, an API-integration fintech that has raised €8M, which also went through Y Combinator.

CODE “prerequisite”

He said: “I think CODE was a prerequisite for where Kombo is now. I met all my co-founders there, we are all software engineers.

“CODE was a necessary job for our journey. CODE had a couple of courses around ‘How to build a startup?’ that was inspired by YC. We applied to YC and the CODE network recommended us. We got accepted there, I would say only because of the CODE network.”

On what is the best thing about CODE, Kübel says the people are a combination of entrepreneurial people who can “also build stuff”.

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