By Ibraheem K. Rawlinson, Pursuit Fellow and co-designer of the app, Elite
To pay the bills, I would “Tokyo Drift” through New York City traffic, climb up multiple flights of stairs with no elevator, and carry more than 50 pounds of food on my back at any given time.
This was my experience as a delivery boy for GrubHub, Uber Eats, Doordash, Caviar, Homer Logistics, and Instacart. Working for these tech companies is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a developer: with each delivery I made, I became more and more interested in adding features to their apps to improve my delivery performance and customer satisfaction.
Instead of delivering food to people, I wanted to deliver applications that impact their lives.
But it was always difficult for me to have a career in software development because I didn’t have formal training or a college degree that a lot of companies are looking for.
So I applied to Pursuit. I didn’t get into the program on my first try (Pursuit wasn’t lying about its 9% acceptance rate). But I didn’t give up. I applied to Pursuit again. This time, I got in. And I was ready to give it my all.
At Pursuit, I was able to unlock all the skills I needed to be a software developer. This organization gave me a chance when other companies didn’t. And with every opportunity I got, I put 1,000% into it.
When I first started at Pursuit, I was delivering food to people’s doors. Eight months later, I’m delivering apps to people’s phones.
I just published my first app on the Apple Store. It’s the app I’m proudest of. It’s called Elite, and it tracks your casual competitive games based on Elo-ranking and user’s location. It gives users a chance to bring out their competitive attitude on the courts of New York and brag to their friends about how great they are. When you win enough games, you can become what we like to call an “ELITE.” So for those who say “ball is life,” PROVE IT, and download Elite.
During the monitoring and controlling phase of Elite, my team and I presented our app at Pursuit’s Demo Days at the Museum of Moving Image. We impressed a lot of people and pitched this idea to Pursuit, which got us funded to be on Test-Flight. For those who don’t know what Test-Flight is, it is a service which allows developers to test their app before it is being reviewed by Apple to get into the AppStore.
Before Pursuit, I wanted to pursue higher education. But that was out of the question because I wasn’t earning enough money. So, I started reaching out to my network from past internships to see if there were any positions available based on my background and experience. My network reached back to me and mentioned an opportunity to become a programmer because being a programmer aligned with my interests of working in a flexible environment, being challenged, and working on projects that had a huge impact.
I ended up trying out different coding programs; they were challenging. But Pursuit is in a league of its own. Every day we had to learn a new concept, every week we completed a new project — sometimes by ourselves and sometimes in teams. On top of that, you had to work on your networking skills by going to site visits while still having a life outside of the program. If any of my friends are reading this, you now know why I kept saying “no” to turning up and why I was always up in the middle of the night.
But it was all worth it. Elite will take me to new heights and open new doors for me and my team — three great colleagues who I now call friends. This wasn’t just a project, it was an opportunity to show Pursuit and our future users what we are capable of building.
My success in tech is just beginning and this isn’t the only app I plan to launch in the Apple Store. With my experience, I plan to start my own venture to help inform and inspire others — including the delivery boys out there who want to get more from their lives and launch careers in tech.
