Grergorio is an immigrant from Columbia and grew up in the Northeast. He graduated from Boston University with a degree in Athletic Training. And while he loved the work he did it was a lot of work, high stress and wasn’t able to provide for his basic needs and with the help of his then girlfriend, now wife and co-found and CEO of Sabio, Lilliana Aide Monge, he started his career in software engineering. He started taking night courses and learning about coding.

He was able to learn how to build a website and shared his site bostonapartments.com and was able to land his first job in Software Engineering. Over the next eighteen months he was able to advance his career and went from barely being able to survive to making 80k. 80k was what he was hoping he could make at the end of his career in Athletic Training so he knew then he had made the right switch. 

He started Sabio because he felt more people needed to know about Software Engineering. It took years before he took his idea and only started with the support and encouragement of his wife Liliana. She believed in him and pushed him to take the leap. 

The initial goal was to create a program that allowed people to begin a career in Software Engineering. He found that the first challenge was letting people know Software Engineering was an option for a year. He also remembered that before he got involved in tech he didn’t believe computers were an option for him. So he wanted people to know that there are opportunities available to everyone in Software Engineering.

When they started they were hoping to raise enough funding that Gregorio could stop working and focus full time on building Sabio. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. So instead classes were offered on weekends and Wednesday nights. 

Their first Headquarters was in Culver City and it is where they grew from. Today 250 students are currently going through the program both in person and online. Currently, courses in person are only available in the LA area but they are hoping to expand to other cities by the end of 2023. 

Today they have grown their team to thirty team members. Many of the team members are also graduates of Sabio. They have also provided resources to help build tools. Help graduates with their resume or finding a job. 

Sabio is focused on helping veterans. They believe that the training they provide can help veterans have a smoother transition out of the military and into their civilian life. Many veterans struggle with both underemployment and unemployment. So going through Sabio’s bootcamp utilizing their earned benefits like the GI Bill or VET TEC can help make the transition smoother or help a veteran who is struggling after leaving the service. Many of the past guest on Breaking into Tech are veterans. And many of those graduates learned about Sabio from veterans who had graduated from the program. 

He struggled with imposter syndrome when he started to launch Sabio. And he wished he would have believed in himself. Some areas he was unsure of and it took a long time to take the leap to start Sabio. But even with his self doubt he was able to create a program to help people learn how to be full stack developers and have the opportunity to work in tech. 

His advice to anyone considering a career in software development is to do it. And while there are tools online that can give you the opportunity to do it on your own. Learning to code on your own is challenging. Working as a team through the cohorts created at Sabio allow their students to grow together. Past guests have talked about how you learn coding through making mistakes and getting help from others. And Gregorio’s advice ties into their lessons learned as well. 

Are you interested in starting a career in Software Engineering, learn about how Sabio School of Software and Engineering can help you in your journey today.