For AngelHack, success stories are becoming the norm – we love to hear it! More events mean more opportunities for people to make kickass products, learn awesome skills, or – in the case of Jimmy Ellis – land a job. Yup, Jimmy now works at a budding Chicago startup called TapSpaces.
In June, AngelHack was in Chicago, hosting a hackathon. Jimmy was an attendee who showed up, like many others at AngelHack hackathons, with wide eyes, big ideas and oodles of inspiration. The event was (of course) a smashing success that saw lots of great projects. Unfortunately, Jimmy’s leap motion video game didn’t win the competition, buuut we promise, the story does take a happy turn!!
After seeing Jimmy’s poise and smarts displayed on stage (like a bauss), Carlo Govia and Dave Miguel approached him, wanting to learn more. They explained that they’d been working on a tech startup up out of the Tech Nexus incubator in Chicago, and were looking for someone with back end knowledge to join the team and help with NFC technology. Jimmy was immediately intrigued, and soon after became part of the team. Not only that, but he has also been working with a partner company in Texas called InProximity. Go Jimmy!!!
Jimmy is a hackathon veteran and is still hitting the scene hard, even with so much of his time taken up by his new venture (hey, we get it!). And with all the hackathons Jimmy has attended, he has always worked alone and never won a thing, not even a free prize (somebody give this man a free prize already)! Why does he keep going? In his words: “I keep going to hackathons because I love code and I love what the software industry means to me,” he says.
So it just goes to show that hard work, dedication, perseverance and confidence pay off big. Jimmy’s new gig is a testament to that and he couldn’t be more excited. Neither can we!
You can check Jimmy out on Github here. We’re getting more and more of these success stories and we love love love to hear them. We do our best to share with the community so please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know how coming to an AngelHack event has helped you!
