Encouraging Future Generations: Never Too Young, Never Too Old

When he was in his early teens, Kadir Can Kirkoyun would spend hours glued to gaming apps. Most of his friends didn't share his enthusiasm for 1s and 0s. But even as a youngster, Kadir understood that the lack of interest came from the fact that they couldn't imagine the possibilities that software coding offers.

On a whim, he wrote the first codes for the Scode app with his brother Kaan and a couple of like-minded friends. The rest, as they say, is history.

The app uses a story-telling format to teach users to code. It won a mention in Google Playstore's Best Apps of 2017 list. When he began, Kadir was too young to understand the potential the idea had. When he did, there were challenges to be met - he was below the legal age to found a company and school attendance and homework made time management rather difficult. Then, there were legal procedures to be followed. What would a teen know about those? But with determination, Kadir overcame them all.

He doesn't regret starting so young. 'At that age, you are not burdened by responsibilities and you have the enthusiasm and optimism to change things for the better,' he says.

Kadir believes in the cause of coding - he sees as the key to changing lives in this century. Today, Scode app has more than 180,000 users. 'It's immensely satisfying to see people realize what great ideas coding can enable,' he finishes.