The story behind Codalify

I started taking computer programming notes. I took notes of code snippets and solutions to problems I encountered. I decided to take my notes online through Google’s blogging platform.

I called my site CodeOfaNinja because I think Ninjas are incredibly skilled characters. My notes were accessible at the codeofaninja.blogspot.com URL, and my programming notes became visible to the online world. Many people said my notes were handy, and I was accommodating. This time, I decided to become a blogger. In June 2011, codeofaninja.com was born.

Several of my blog posts received hundreds of likes and comments. I wondered how websites stay online. I knew websites could not be maintained for free — I had been paying for CodeOfaNinja’s web hosting and domain.

So I started trying different ways to monetize my blog. I went into putting ads on CodeOfaNinja. This is how I made my first dollar online. It was a minimal income, but it encouraged me to do more.

Marykris De Leon, our Co-Founder, saw my passion for serving CodeOfaNinja’s audience. This convinced her to help me. She offered her online marketing expertise.

Marykris knew a lot about SEO and social media marketing — she had been working in that industry for three years. CodeOfaNinja’s income from ads started to grow after I’d worked on the site for three years without much financial progress.

With Marykris by my side, I knew we could take the business to the next level. That’s how she established herself as Codalify’s Co-Founder. Indeed, two is better than one. Our efforts were rewarded and CodeOfaNinja’s audience grew significantly, attracting not only students and software developers but also entrepreneurs and employers.

Several USA and European companies wanted me to work as a software developer for them. Most inquiries were about social media APIs — people wanted to display social media content on their websites, and not everyone is a coder. For this reason, in October 2014, we started the development and marketing plan of SociableKIT.

It was called Display Social Media at the time. SociableKIT is a website widget that helps creators and business owners increase engagement and followers by adding social media content to their websites. No need to manually upload photos, videos, and posts in two places — just post on social media, and SociableKIT updates your website automatically. No coding required.

In February 2015, I quit my corporate job to work full-time and focus on growing our online business. Marykris kept working in the corporate world and even agreed to support me financially for a few months, just in case the business stopped making profits. We both took a significant risk.

In June 2015, Codalify Software Development was officially and formally founded. Our DTI certificate number is 03628339, and our company TIN is 296-724-184-000.

In March 2016, Marykris also quit her corporate job to help me full-time in the business. Initially, Codalify hired several interns from different universities.

We also brought on part-time employees and freelancers to help grow the business — software developers, technical writers, and voice-over artists through Upwork and Fiverr. Working with people from different parts of the world is a learning experience in itself.

Then SociableKIT started making significant income. Because of SociableKIT’s growth, Codalify could now hire full-time team members.

From a team of two, Codalify became a team of eight working full-time — a data analyst, a software tester, two customer success specialists, and two full-stack software developers.

Codalify continued to grow despite the pandemic, a volcanic eruption in our country, war in Europe, and a recession.

Yes, growing while many customers cancel their accounts is challenging because of the difficult situations I mentioned. But we did not give up, and we were able to win more customers and grow the company.

We are now a team of 30+ people working full-time and growing. Customers from around the world love our products and services — and we are looking forward to even more growth.