Lukas and Benas, Co-Founders at Turing College: From No Funding to Y Combinator & £1M Bootstrapped Impact

Episode Guest:

Lukas Kaminskis is the CEO of Boom Training and Turing College, two organisations focused on transforming tech education across Europe. He’s a serial entrepreneur passionate about building learner-first experiences that unlock economic mobility.

Benas Sidlauskas is the Chief Business Development Officer at Boom Training and Turing College. A long-time co-founder with Lukas, Benas is driven by creating scalable education models that equip people for the future of work.

Episode Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction

0:20 Meet Lukas and Benas: Co-Founders of Turing College

1:00 From debating rivals to co-founders

2:00 Lukas' first job: rats, grain, and coding bootcamps

3:20 Why Lukas turned down a political path

5:00 Benas’ first hustle: filmmaking at 14

6:15 The presidential film project that changed everything

7:30 Growing up in small towns, dreaming big

8:45 Turning down top universities to start something new

10:00 Investors said no — so they bootstrapped from scratch

11:20 Explaining bootstrapping: lessons and mindset

12:40 Organising events without a legal entity

14:00 Partnering with Harvard — and how Facebook helped

15:20 Getting government backing to bring CS50 to Europe

16:45 Flying to Boston and signing with Harvard

17:30 What Turing College actually does

18:40 Why AI and data skills matter more than ever

20:10 Scaling across 80+ countries

21:20 Impact stories from Uganda and Nigeria

22:40 Acquiring Boom Training and expanding in the UK

24:10 The apprenticeship system — and how they’re transforming it

25:20 Peer-led learning: the secret behind their model

26:30 What makes UK apprenticeships restrictive

28:00 Levy funding: what SMEs are missing out on

29:30 Why upskilling needs to go beyond senior leaders

31:00 What Europe must do to stay competitive in AI

32:00 Lukas on AI’s impact on the labour market

33:30 The financial mindset that helped them grow

34:20 Benas’ biggest money mistake

35:10 Lukas’ #1 advice on investing in yourself

36:00 Money tip: Spend first on “musts”, then “wants”

37:10 What success looks like in 5 years

38:20 Why education must evolve now

39:30 What’s broken in the system — and their fix

40:30 Their message to young people: take control

41:20 Their message to businesses: don’t forget the non-power users

42:20 Benas’ invisible success: resilience through rejection

43:20 Lukas’ invisible success: 10-year co-foundership

44:30 How they complement each other as co-founders

45:30 What gets Lukas out of bed: fixing the future of work

46:20 What motivates Benas: belief in Europe’s innovation potential

47:40 Jack’s reflections and final thoughts

48:40 Outro and thanks

Episode Partners:

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