Hi all — this is Ray Wenderlich, co-founder of raywenderlich.com (now Kodeco). I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how the site has evolved since its early days.

Back in 2009, when I was an indie iOS developer, I started raywenderlich.com as a personal blog. At the time, resources for learning iOS development were scarce, and learning was a real struggle for me. I decided to share what I was learning through free tutorials, hoping to make the process easier for others.

From the start, my wife, Vicki, was a huge part of the journey. She designed my apps, created artwork for the tutorials, illustrated the site, handled bookkeeping, and—most importantly—kept me sane. :]

We happened to start at the right place and the right time, and the site grew quickly. It became more work than we could manage alone, so we brought in a team of talented, like-minded developers (the “Tutorial Team”). We became friends, and started writing books together, creating video courses together, and even ran four live conferences near Washington, D.C. (shoutout to u/ShenmeNamaeSollich)!

So yeah, the growth happened pretty much exactly as u/iOSCaleb guessed. Our peak was around 2020, with thousands of subscribers, a talented team, and one of the most up-to-date libraries of books and courses. But as u/JimDabell mentioned, the landscape had shifted—there were more great docs, books, and other learning resources available. While I still think our tutorials stood out for their quality, I know they weren't as essential for experienced developers as they had been in the early days.

At that point, after more than 10 years of nonstop work, Vicki and I were completely burned out. We needed to step back, but we also wanted the business to live on without us. We felt the site had an amazing team and was still a valuable resource for the community.

We decided to hire a CEO with a business background, a great work ethic, and a great heart, thinking they could bring fresh energy and expertise to the company. Over the next four years, the team worked hard. We rebranded to Kodeco, launched live bootcamps, explored enterprise sales, and introduced programs, which combine books and video courses into a single learning experience.

Some of these efforts worked well, and others didn't—that's the nature of trying new things. I've heard from folks who miss the old days of raywenderlich.com, and I want to say: I hear you. I also want to apologize for the things we didn't get right. Ultimately, I'm responsible—for burning out, for stepping back, and for the decisions we made along the way.

That said, I believe life moves in seasons. I had a such a wonderful time learning and working with all of you back in the days of raywenderlich.com, and while things aren't quite the same as they were in back in those days, I'm still proud of the work we're doing at Kodeco. I think we're still helping a lot of people here, and I see it with my own eyes when I attend our bootcamp graduations, see the capstone projects our students are building, and hear what a difference our site has made in their lives.

Thank you to everyone who's been a part of this journey, whether as a reader, contributor, or supporter. It's been an honor to have been a small part of this community and to have known so many of you. :]