For Kathryn Parsons, the founder of cult UK coding school Decoded, the decision to open a branch of the global startup in Sydney was a no-brainer.
"We've taught in over 40 cities worldwide and Australia stands out in terms of its voracious appetite for education and willingness to learn about technology," she said.
That hunger convinced the 38-year-old tech star to open her coding school in Sydney in 2016 following a successful run of one-off classes last year.
Her London-based start-up, which launched in 2011 and also has a base in New York, is best known for its `code in a day' courses which promise to teach participants the "global language" of computer code.
Ordinary people with no tech background can walk away at the end of the day with programming skills, having built an app from scratch.
Classes are also offered in data, cyber security and `the internet of things'.
Decoded aims to break down the image of coding as a geeky, scary or impenetrable venture, and help professionals develop their tech literacy for their work and personal lives, Parsons says.
"I get lots of nods when I say to people, `Is technology affecting your life?'. Very few people can say no to that," Ms Parsons said.
"And some people say that they feel utterly alienated but it's still an impact that technology is having on your life, it's making you feel excluded."
Exclusion means people are cut off from opportunities, says Parsons, who is considered one of the top 50 women in technology in Europe and championed the introduction of coding to the UK school curriculum.
Her Australian client list so far includes Telstra, St George bank, and government agencies like the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Office of the Information Commissioner.
"It's fundamentally wrong that something affecting all our lives is understood by so few people. If we're honest about it we don't have this literacy because we weren't taught it in schools or university."
She has also struggled with the male-dominated culture of the tech industry, recalling being the only woman in the room at tech conferences and being wheeled out for speeches as a female founder of a technology business.
However the tech scene has changed from a few years ago, Ms Parsons says, and making coding accessible and appealing to the non-traditional groups has helped that.
"(In London) there's like a huge girl gang now, hundreds of women coming together to collaborate."
She sees potential in Sydney's young tech scene to engage more women and have more female entrepreneurs.
"Compared to Silicon Valley, which is kind of just too mature and too big to change, there is an opportunity on a blank canvas, we can write the rules in however you want them to be in the newer tech markets."
And learning the language of technology will be the first step, she says.
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