Old Code, New Tricks
How Andrea Goulet is renovating code through her business Corgibytes
As the daughter of entrepreneurial parents, it was only fitting for Andrea Goulet to learn the ropes of owning her own business at an early age. By age 12, Andrea was running a business that supported her father’s clients — handling everything from logistics and orders to invoices. Her natural ability to understand business was further propelled in college as a marketing student at Virginia Commonwealth University. When an old high school friend approached her about a business proposition after reading her marketing blog, Andrea was surprised to hear what he had to say.
“He told me that the way I think about marketing is very technical. He noticed I used algorithms and patterns, and my thought process included many elements of programming. I was always interested in technology, and he believed I would be a good fit for leading his startup.”
Since 2009, Andrea has become a serial entrepreneur and the founder of several brands, including Corgibytes. What started as a simple side hustle became her ultimate niche and passion. At Corgibytes, Andrea and her team revitalize legacy code, which Andrea describes as “code without trust,” but is commonly thought of as “fixer upper” software that needs to be modernized.
“When people ask me what is the purpose of re-engineering old code, I use this analogy. If you want to remodel your kitchen, you don’t bulldoze the entire house. There is good business logic embedded in an existing system, and there is usually a way to update and modernize something by doing a little bit at a time.”
Andrea explained that for many companies, updating software instead of rewriting it is not only cheaper but more efficient, especially if the code supports many users. To reinvent old code, there are a series of processes Andrea uses. First, she starts with a report that her company calls a “Code Inspection.” Because Corgibytes operates in a digital space without a physical product to touch, this report helps business teams visualize and understand different things that make code very healthy. Her team of developers measure and report on these aspects, such as code complexity, duplication, test coverage, team communication, and more. From there, they are able to decide how fragile the code is and what needs to be repaired. Andrea’s marketing background means that these recommendations, which are usually difficult to decipher by people who don’t code all day, are in plain English. This makes it easy for executives to understand and act on. To effectively lead Corgibytes, Andrea had to first submerge herself into coding classes.
“In the beginning, learning how to code was really hard. It’s difficult to get out of your comfort zone and learn something new. I watched a TED Talk by Carol Dweck about developing a growth mindset, and it helped me see that I can grow and eventually I’m going to learn it.”
The most popular programming languages that Corgibytes supports are Ruby, Python, Java, and C#. With the help of Code.org, Code Combat, freeCodeCamp, and various other learning tools, Andrea has become proficient in coding and she built a team that can help clients with a variety of programming languages.
Andrea shares her expertise through Legacy Code Rocks, a podcast she started that uncovers new tricks that programmers can use on old code. After previously having a marketing background and discovering what it is like to enter the tech industry, Andrea prides herself on being able to create a dialogue between business people and programmers.
“It has been an amazing feeling to translate business, which is my native language, to people who speak code because I understand both very well. Now I am able to help two people who normally wouldn’t be able to communicate effectively work through a problem.”
Her advice to others hoping to develop their own businesses in the technical industry is that the initial idea does not have to be perfect. She believes that anyone can create and develop a business on the side and work to watch it steadily grow over time, just as Corgibytes did. With the added help of a growth mindset, anything is possible.
This story was told in partnership with Women in Tech Summits (WITS), which hosts events across the United States to connect, inspire and build a community of women building the future of tech. Andrea Goulet is a past speaker and serves on the WITS advisory council. Register for an event near you at https://womenintechsummit.net.
