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Codetoki

Co-founded a venture-backed, two-sided coding platform connecting CS students with employers. Designed and built the full product end-to-end.

Founder Edtech Two-Sided Marketplace Gamification JFDI Accelerator 2012–2015
Founder Journey

Building has always been the part of the work that pulls me in most. I find real joy in the creation process: turning an idea into something people can use, shaping the product, and learning from what happens once it meets the world.

My career started with that instinct. I created my own design and development consultancy, and alongside it, co-founded Codetoki as a startup. That period gave me an early view of what it means to operate as a high-leverage individual contributor while wearing multiple hats: product strategy, design, front-end development, business metrics, stakeholder conversations, and investor expectations.

It was not easy, but it became foundational. It made me deeply curious about how things work, how different departments depend on each other, and how much coordination it takes to bring a product and company together. That founder journey shaped the way I see product work today: not as isolated execution, but as the combined effort of users, teams, business outcomes, and craft.

Context

Codetoki was a seed-funded edtech startup I co-founded and relocated to Singapore to build.

CEO Sole Designer Front-End Developer
What I owned Product strategy, UX, UI, front-end development, investor pitches. My co-founder handled back-end engineering. Everything else was mine.
Product Overview Product overview
Codetoki landing page introducing coding challenges for students.
The public-facing landing page positioned Codetoki around practice, progress, and challenge-based learning.
The Problem

No Early-Stage Bridge

CS and IT students graduate without a clear signal of job-readiness. Employers spend time and money screening candidates who don't fit their stack or culture. There was no early-stage bridge between the two.

Market Signal Early pitch context
The early product story tied employability to practical, language-specific challenges rather than generic resumes.
The Product

Two Sides, One Loop

Student Side

  • Coding challenges in Ruby, JavaScript, and PHP
  • Badges as verifiable proof of skill completion
  • In-platform internship applications
  • Progress tracking

Employer Side

  • Contributed their own coding challenges — shaping the talent pipeline around their actual stack
  • Posted internship opportunities directly on the platform
  • Browsed student badge portfolios
Student completes challenges → earns badges → applies to internships
Employer contributes challenges → reviews badge portfolios → hires
Student Flow Student flow
Codetoki challenge page showing a coding problem and progress-oriented interface.
The learner-side experience centered on challenge completion as proof of skill.
Challenge Editor JavaScript
Codetoki JavaScript coding editor with challenge instructions and answer area.
Language-specific editors supported practical challenges in the stacks students and employers cared about.
Challenge Editor Ruby
Codetoki Ruby coding editor with challenge instructions and code workspace.
The same challenge structure carried across languages, keeping the learning loop consistent.
Challenge Editor PHP
Codetoki PHP coding editor with challenge details and code entry panel.
Employers could align challenges with real hiring needs while students built visible portfolios.
Traction
3,400
Students on platform
174
Universities and Colleges
3 years
Operational runtime
JFDI
Seed funded, Singapore accelerator
Public Profile Founder visibility
Codetoki logo mark.

Codetoki ran as a real product, not a portfolio prototype: students completed challenges, employers contributed hiring-oriented prompts, and the company operated through the JFDI accelerator period in Singapore.

The archived brand and interface captures preserve the product's positioning, visual system, and core interaction model.

Brand asset from the operating product period.
Accolades
1st place
AppBridge Challenge WEF / Clinton Global Initiative · 2011
1st place
Apps for Asia — Microsoft / ADB Showcased at the 46th ADB Annual Meeting, New Delhi · 2013
3rd place
Startup Weekend Cebu
JFDI Demo Day Singapore
Codetoki presented on stage at JFDI Demo Day in Singapore.
On stage during JFDI Demo Day.