From finding the right venture to getting startup capital, many entrepreneurs struggle to navigate the business world and get their ideas off the ground.

That's why today we are speaking with some of South Florida's most successful entrepreneurs to hear their stories and get some advice for emerging business owners, perhaps even like yourself.

Our first guest saw the value in bringing a unique brand of coding boot camps to South Florida.

A decade later, WinCode Academy, now known as BrainStation, continues to grow as a leading technical school, helping to prepare students for success as software engineers and web developers in Miami's booming tech market.

Joining me now to share her entrepreneurial journey is Johanna Mikkola, cofounder and CEO of WinCode Academy, and Vice President and General Manager of BrainStation Miami.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

It's so great to have you here.

I'm pumped.

So let's talk about, before we get into WinCode and what it is that you do, let's talk about that entrepreneurial spirit.

Take us back to kind of that first venture that you had.

You were still in high school, you saw a need for cheerleading uniforms, all right.

So pick it up from there and walk us through how you made that all happen.

Yeah, that's awesome.

You know what, I'll even take a step further back from that, which is where I got that entrepreneurial spirit.

So I grew up in a household where my father was an entrepreneur, and you know, these days being an entrepreneur, there's HBO series about it.

There's, you know, it's very glamorized and of course it is really exciting.

But he was the kind of entrepreneur who was just doing whatever he could to make money so he could provide for his family.

And so, being in a family of an entrepreneur, I, you know, felt firsthand the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

And so for a long time, you know, entrepreneurship was not on my radar.

I didn't think I had that spirit, you know, I really wanted to follow a traditional model.

I was like, I'm gonna go to a great college.

I'm gonna work really hard.

I'm gonna have a really stable career where I know exactly what the trajectory is.

I wanted that predictability.

Yeah.

You know, life had different plans for me, it turns out entrepreneurship was really deeply rooted in me and something that I get so much passion and joy from.

So what ended up happening is I was a cheerleader in Finland, and when I went to college in Toronto, I saw that there was this need that I could fill in Europe for custom cheerleading uniforms.

And my dad saw that I was kind of interested in it, and he was really excited.

He's like, "Hey, we could work on this together."

So he helped me set up a really small import export business.

Wow, And how old were you at the time?

So I was 18 at the time.

Okay.

Yeah.

And, don't get me wrong, that was a small business.

Yeah.

I learned more about my deficiencies than what I was good at.

But the more important thing about that experience was that it really sparked in me that actually I like building businesses and I like being in business.

And while I didn't know it quite at that age yet, you know, I was thinking I would go to law school, but slowly but surely, I took a step back from all of that.

Yeah, you were thinking of something more stable, like you said.

So you get married to your high school sweetheart.

Yes.

Yuha.

Yeah.

So Yuha, is my high school sweetheart.

We met in high school in Finland.

I'm so blessed to have him as a partner in life and business and parenthood, all of the things.

We did go to college together.

So he saw me build that business.

I saw him build his business.

He, you know, started an ecommerce business for indoor hockey called Floor Ball, and did really well in that.

Together, we founded a tournament called the Canada Cup.

It ended up being the largest indoor floor ball tournament outside of Europe.

And so we had a lot of early experience actually working together.

Yeah.

But even then I was going the corporate route, so we weren't really working together fulltime yet then.

Yeah, he too was a student of a coding bootcamp in Canada.

And that's really kind of what started all of this for you, right?

Yep, yeah, absolutely.

So at that stage, he had built that ecommerce sporting goods business to be very well known and respected in the community, but it remained small.

So he was kind of at this inflection point in his career about what was he gonna do next.

And myself, I had been working for almost a decade at the National Hockey League, but I too was at the point where in order for me to go to the next level in the corporate setting, I needed to probably get an MBA.

And while we were figuring all that out, he's like, you know what?

I'm gonna learn to code because tech skills are really important.

We saw his entire cohort of students get hired within two weeks.

Wow.

Basically we just debriefed on what an incredible accelerated model it was that it helped professionals pivot in a really meaningful way into technology.

Essentially empowering them to launch technology skills no matter what their background was.

And the other thing we saw is that everybody needed these skills.

So that aha moment was like, wow, this is amazing.

Dinner conversation pipe dream, but we could never do this.

But we were like, if we did, we should do it in a market that doesn't have it yet.

Right, so then that fast forward to coming here to South Florida and you chose Miami to start your company.

Why did you do that?

How did you land on South Florida?

Yeah, so back in 2013, Miami was a wild decision to be like, we're gonna come and, you know, everybody needs to be a coder.

Let's do it in Miami.

Few factors, one, we really wanted to be a first mover, and that Florida represented being able to be the first code and digital design bootcamp in the state.

So there was nothing here at that point.

So you've done your homework and saw this was really an open market for that.

Yep.

So we were really excited to do that.

We also saw that there was a huge demand, but not a lot of talent.

So we saw an even bigger gap to fill for this market.

And then for us, you know, we really wanted to be part of having a big positive impact on an emerging ecosystem at the early stages.

And Miami was the perfect environment for that.

People need funding in order to start their businesses.

So many people out there, people even watching this, have great ideas.

How do you launch that idea?

So talk about the capital, the underwriting, getting that angel investor, how do you do all of that?

Yeah, so in 2013, 14, the concept of a code school, which that in and of itself was a new concept, doing it in an ecosystem which was definitely not viewed as a technology ecosystem.

We knew that we couldn't raise capital.

And so we had a few stars align.

In Toronto, we had ended up buying our first condo in an up and coming neighborhood, which at the time meant crimeridden.

Mm.

And so we had been there for quite a while, and that really paid off.

That neighborhood really took off.

And essentially what we were able to do is sell that condo and the earnings we made from that appreciation, enter our seed capital.

So we were like, we know how much money we have, here's approximately how long it will last us to see if this concept is gonna work.

So we went from concept to launch in four months.

Wow.

And we did that because essentially we had no time to think about not doing, it was only about doing.

And then we gave ourselves six months to see if it would be profitable because we were selffunded.

And later on we were able to attract investors and ultimately an acquisition.

Wow.

Talk a little bit about your relationship with Endeavor Miami, and for those who don't know what it is, talk a little bit about it.

Yeah.

Endeavor's incredible.

It's an organization that helps entrepreneurs who are building and scaling, navigate the pitfalls, but they also really open up a network of community of capital, all the things you need to be a successful entrepreneur.

And, you know, I don't know where we would be without Endeavor.

The network and the advisors that we got as a result of Endeavor weighed in hugely into the success we've had.

They helped us navigate the highs and the lows and, you know, we're really, really grateful.

And Miami's really lucky to have Endeavor here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They certainly are.

Yeah.

What's some of the best advice that you ever received while you were going through this journey, while you were building your business?

So, I'm really fortunate.

Some of the most influential mentors I've had and continued to in my life was two of my bosses that I had at the National Hockey League.

So Steven Welcome and Terry Gregson.

And the first really instilled in me to ask for forgiveness, not permission.

And I think also as a female founder, that was really important.

I think as a female, I am always seeking approval of others.

And sometimes when you're building a business and a team, you, you can't always be doing that.

So that's been hugely beneficial to me.

And Terry really instilled that if you are failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail.

I think, you know, luck plays into some of the stuff we experience in life, but if you work hard and you prepare, a lot of it is really just persistence.

Talk about Yuha, your husband.

You work with him.

Yes.

You're married to him, you're together all day long.

Talk about how you navigate all of that.

Yeah, so I'm really, really blessed.

I think what I've personally experienced and seen is that when you work with your significant other, it either works really well or it doesn't work at all.

And in our case, we're really fortunate that it works so, so well, Yuha's incredible.

He is a wonderful partner in business in particular, we've had complimentary skillsets.

So that played in so well into our dynamic.

He was really on the revenue financial strategy side, whereas I was on the product team and you know, the person representing the company.

And so we had great complimentary skillsets.

And a lot of people ask us about balance, like, how do you maintain balance?

We've always enjoyed talking about business at the dinner table.

So I think that's one of the things we both like, that's never gonna change.

Yeah.

But once we had kids, we have beautiful boys who are six and three, Mathias and Lucas, they brought the balance.

So when it's time, you know, when it's time for their things and playing soccer or swimming or hockey, then.

You're focused on that.

You're not talking about business.

Yeah.

Yeah, which is really important.

Yeah.

You've built an incredible business.

You're an incredible place right now.

What would you tell your younger self, looking back now, if you had a chance?

Oh, I love this question.

There's so many things I would tell myself.

One would definitely be to think bigger.

Hmm.

So I would say as a selffunded entrepreneur in the beginning, I know there's a common, you know, misconception.

I would say that entrepreneurs are big time risk takers.

I think selffunded entrepreneurs are very risk averse because we need things to be profitable and we need to be very diligent about our decisions to make sure we can pay the bills.

And so I would say that I knew we had a winning concept.

We knew it was going well, we knew how much we were putting into it, and were going to put into it.

And now that we're on the BrainStation side, I would say like, it's incredible to do this and you can do it at a bigger scale.

And I didn't have that perspective before, which I have now.

And then the other thing I would say briefly, which is a bit cheesy, but I gotta say like, now that I'm getting older, I, you know, just celebrated my 40th birthday.

Ah, happy birthday.

Thank you.

Is it's all about the journey.

It really is.

Yeah.

When I look back at the moments when I was the most stressed and I didn't think things were gonna work out or things were pivoting all the time, I look back on them with so much excitement and happiness now because I see them from the perspective of, wow, those were the moments where I leveled up, where I learned something, where we took it to the next level.

And yeah, it really is about the journey.

That's amazing.

Which I'm still on.

Indeed.

I'm still learning.

We're gonna continue to watch you and see that journey.

Johanna, thank you so much for being here.

We really appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Great to chat with you.