The Story of Kodeco (raywenderlich.com)—A Journey of Passion, Learning, and Community

The Challenges of Growth: Success, Overwork, and Burnout

After about 10 years of raywenderlich.com, our business was thriving. But with success came a challenge we hadn’t fully anticipated: burnout. After a decade of constant work, Vicki and I reached a point where we needed to step back for our own well-being. We made the decision to hire a new CEO to take over the reins and give ourselves the space we needed to recharge.

For a long time, I hesitated to talk about burnout, feeling like it was something I should have been stronger about. I thought I was letting down the team by not pushing through.

But I’ve come to realize that burnout is something many of us experience, especially in our world that often glorifies overwork. Yes, putting in long hours can be necessary when building something from the ground up, but it’s crucial to remember that this kind of intensity can only be sustained for so long. Over time, it can take a toll, and that’s exactly what happened to us. It took Vicki and me two years to fully recover and feel like ourselves again.

I’m grateful that there’s more conversation around burnout today, and I hope that more people will avoid making the same mistake we did. One thing I’ve learned from the experience is the importance of pacing yourself. Building something meaningful is a marathon, not a sprint. Make sure to set boundaries and take care of your mental health along the way. There’s nothing wrong with stepping back to recharge—it’s essential for long-term success.

For anyone reading this who’s feeling overwhelmed, I encourage you to listen to your body and mind. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and to take time off when needed. Your health, happiness, and well-being are the foundation for everything else.

The Changing Mobile Industry and the Future of Kodeco

When I first started, the mobile scene was full of indie developers driven by passion, excitement, and optimism. It felt like anything was possible. Over time, bigger companies began to take a larger role in app development, but the excitement for the tech never waned, especially with the introduction of Swift, which I would consider the peak of that era.

In recent years, though, we’ve seen some shifts. Many developers, both new and experienced, are facing more challenges in finding work, and the rise of AI has brought even more uncertainty. At Kodeco, we’ve also encountered some financial challenges too. But despite these hurdles, I remain hopeful because one thing is certain: change is inevitable, and it’s often for the best. It’s part of the cycle of growth. Sometimes, things need to shift to make room for new ideas and innovations.

I’m deeply grateful for the time I’ve spent at Kodeco, for the community we’ve built, and for all the laughter and learning shared with so many talented individuals. These experiences will stay with me forever, and I can’t wait to see where the next phase of the industry will take us.

While we’re talking about changes in the industry, let’s take a moment to reminisce about some of the memorable moments we’ve experienced along the way:

• Remember how creating an iOS development profile used to be about 40 steps? 😉
• Remember the days of manual memory management in Objective-C with retain, release, and autorelease?
• Remember mandatory @synthesize statements and a tool called Accessorizer?
• Remember frantically updating your image assets for retina devices?
• Remember how people used to call the iPad useless, “just a big iPhone”?
• Remember when Swift first came out, and the community was buzzing with excitement?
• Remember when the App Store was full of indie developers, with quirky apps like fart apps, beer apps, and small games?
• Remember when Apple announced SwiftUI, and how fun and exciting it became to create user interfaces declaratively?
• Remember the journey from GCD to NSOperation, then to Combine, and now to Swift 5.5’s async/await?

Conclusion: The Legacy of Kodeco and What It Means to Us

Many of you might not know this, but the name “Kodeco” holds a special meaning to me. It’s a combination of “code” and “echo.”

To me, Kodeco represents something far greater than just a platform or a company—it’s about the idea of a generation of developers choosing to share their knowledge and “echo” it forward to the next generation. And then, that generation turns around and echoes it again, passing the torch and the knowledge on. It’s a cycle of learning, teaching, and growing together—one that continues to reverberate across time.

This, to me, is the true legacy of Kodeco. We’ve created something incredibly special—a global community where people come together, not just to learn, but to joyfully share what they know with others. Each of us contributing to that ripple effect, from one developer to the next, ensuring that the flow of knowledge never stops.

I am deeply honored to have been a small part of this journey. Thank you to my amazing team members, to the community who made this possible, and to everyone who has supported our mission over the years. Your belief in this work has meant the world to me, and I will always be grateful for each of you.

15th Birthday Sale

15 years is a long time! And none of what we’ve achieved would have been possible without you—our readers, subscribers, learners, contributors and community members. Back in the early days, we never would have dreamed that we’d be where we are now, so who knows where we’ll be in 15 years time?

But today, as a token of our appreciation for being there with us, for helping support our amazing community through huge changes in the tech industry, we’re offering a huge sale across bootcamps, ODBCs and subscriptions. With bigger discounts than ever before (as many as possible of them shoehorning in the theme of fifteen), and on products that have never before been discounted.

Please do go and check it out—we’ve got some great content lined up over the coming months—from book updates to new modules on intermediate and advanced iOS topics such as data management and SwiftUI.