Diana Miron

Co-Founder of JSLeague

(Forbes 30 Under 30)

21 August 2019 9 Min Read

Diana Miron: Driving Innovation Through Tech and Education

It’s a pleasure to introduce you to Diana Miron, a front-end developer and the co-founder of the first JavaScript-themed hackathon. Diana is also the co-founder of JSLeague, a program that provides enterprise training on JavaScript technologies and free community workshops. She and her team were awarded a well-deserved spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe 2019: Technology list.

Diana’s experience in the technology field consists of front-end development at Vauban and iOS development at mReady. Diana is also the founder of AP.3, as well as JSGirls. In addition, she is the co-organizer of JSHacks, the first JavaScript-based hackathon in Romania.

With a clear goal of starting her own business, Diana shares with us insight into the entrepreneurial world. So many accomplishments, so little time. I am eager to hear all she has to say. Let’s get right to it!

The Logician

Hi Diana, thank you for taking the time to interview me! It means a lot. Now, do you mind telling us more about yourself? Who is Diana Miron? How and why did you choose your current career?

Diana Miron

Hi, first of all, I am a front-end developer and designer and since high school, I knew that I wanted to have my own business.

Since I’ve been a kid my aunt showed me how to make a basic web page and I guess something stuck to me to this day.

I started drawing comics and illustrations, bought my first domain in high school and then in the first year of college I learned to make my own website to get my illustrations online.

It seemed fascinating to me that a few lines of code can create some nice things on the web.

This is how I got into contact with web development, then I hired myself as a front-end developer for a few months and started studying and learning a lot of new things related to front-end, design, components, and JavaScript.

Later on, things came naturally as I got into contact with the BucharestJS community of developers and I’ve been in the core team and mentor of a few startups.

It seems fascinating to me that development and tech are industries in which things change very quickly, it is incredibly dynamic and there are always new things to learn.

In the end, it doesn’t matter the written code but the fact that at the other end are the people who use and interact with products, website or application.

The Logician

Congratulations on being among Forbes 30 under 30! How was that experience for you? Have you ever dreamed of being where you are today?

Diana Miron

I think that it was a great honor to be awarded by Forbes 30 Under 30. This is a recognition for both the JSLeague’s team efforts and dedication and for the community of JS developers.

For me, it represents that we are on the right path of changing the world one block of code at a time.

To be honest, since high school I have read the Forbes magazines, learned a lot about entrepreneurship, looked upon those awesome people and dreamt about being among them at some point, but I did not expect it to be so soon.

The Logician

How did you come up with your business idea? What exactly is JSLeague? What makes your business different? Can you describe it in three words?

Diana Miron

The JSLeague story starts back 3 years ago within the Bucharest JavaScript community, the biggest community of JavaScript developers in Romania. Every month we organize meetups where members are able to present new ideas and interesting projects on different technologies.

Along with JSgirls and JSHacks, JSLeague started from this community with a focus on providing higher education to developers and taking them from good to great, inspiring them to be leaders within their teams and unite them into developing solutions for real problems.

What makes us different is the community behind: JSLeague is a program that delivers both enterprise training on all JavaScript technologies and community free workshops.

We want to give developers from our community free access to the best tech trainers and the newest JS curricula throughout our JS workshops.

We cover all JS tech stack and beyond, focusing on both the technical and soft skills by integrating Agile and Scrum methodologies with the help of our partners, Dovelopers.

Along with meetups and the hackathon, JSLeague is the first organization to have built such an ecosystem around web technologies in Romania.

At this point, we have done several enterprise trainings and more than 10 community workshops with around 80 participants and we have been technical partners and delivered workshops at different technical conferences such as JSHeroes and VoxxedDays Frontend and collaborated with Codette in projects that promote coding and Computer Science in high school students.

We also launched the first technical podcast in Romania, JSLeague Show and at the current time of writing, we have recorded bi-monthly, with 11 episodes recorded.

We had both Romanian entrepreneurs and developers and international ones such as Vitaly Friendman (co-founder Smashing Magazine) or Ives van Hoorne (founder CodeSandbox.io).

Three words: community, javascript, education.

The Logician

For those still struggling to find their career path, I am interested in how did you find yours? What would you say are the best and the worst parts of being in the technology field? How did you realize this industry is the one you are ‘supposed’ to be in?

Diana Miron

Since high school I wanted to be an entrepreneur due to the fact that I have a strong sense of independence and I strongly value my liberty, to do what I want to do when I want to do it.

Since then I started to read more and more about the business and leadership world.

In the meantime, I experimented with several domains until I found an activity that really excited me (web development) and in the end tried to see where those two meet.

Like any other path, it was a rollercoaster and an evolution: I started small, freelancing and then build a team and auspices, failed, discovered other areas and started over.

The best part of the tech world is that it is always changing, improving and it is a beautiful challenge to stay up to date. You can never get bored, there is always something new to learn and discover. This is the part that suits my personality and this is how I know tech is where I’m supposed to be. For now

The parts where the tech world needs improvement is its adoption.

I think that technology evolved in and for itself and should be more used in other domains and projects that have a bigger impact and can improve our worlds such as medicine or education.

This is why the technology should be included at a younger age in kindergartens and schools and the curricula adapted for fostering innovation and new educational methods.

The Logician

What is your routine on a daily basis? Which habits have changed your life and contributed most to your success?

Diana Miron

I start my day by reading for at least 1h. I usually read business or leadership books in the morning and relaxing ones (such as sci-fi) in the nighttime. This habit has stuck with me for several years and I can definitely say that it contributed most not only to my success but to my creativity, personality, and wisdom.

Another habit is constantly studying new front-end technologies, reading and coding on different projects to see how technology can be applied, learned and afterward taught to other people.

Other habits are swimming, traveling a lot, drawing and playing the drums, but I tend to alternate them as it helps to have different experiences that keep my creative juices flowing and foster innovation.

The Logician

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you opened your own business? What are the top five qualities and traits of successful entrepreneurs?

Diana Miron

I wish I knew how to trust myself and my gut more.

In the path of entrepreneurship and building a business there will be a lot of conflicting advice, opposing opinions that confuse you more than helping you and in the end it is important to train your instincts and always follow your gut, which I think it is one of the most important qualities of successful entrepreneurs, along with vision, passion, resilience, and restlessness.

The Logician

What are your “5 Life Lessons I Learned From My Experience’’? Please explain.

Diana Miron

It is not wise to combine friendship with business – it was my first business and neither myself nor my partners knew the limit between what a successful business should look like, team values and friendship and unfortunately neither of them survived, which brings us to no. 2
People are more important than a business – I am of the opinion that you can do business whenever but people matter most and you should not put money, clients or the business above your employees, friends or yourself
Validate ideas and ask questions before you presume – I have been in several startup teams where we were trapped by liking our product idea too much and it did not reflect the user’s desires and needs
You will fail and this is a good thing – this point cannot be repeated enough. There are a lot of people that have a fear of failure, both personally and professionally. I see failure just as a result of experimenting and iteration, and each failure teaches you how to be better and humble. Neither you nor the world is perfect and this we should all accept.
Have fun in the process and enjoy life – I am not of the idea to do business just for the sake of business. It should be a wonderful life journey that should be enjoyed at its fullest. If it gives you sleepless nights or more worries, if it damages you then something should be reconsidered.

The Logician

What rules have you created for your business because they work for you, your family, and your employees?

Diana Miron

Regarding the business, every team member, employee or collaborator has full autonomy and responsibility, being dedicated to making JSLeague a success.

All decisions are made transparently and democratic, every team member knows the business financials and we always respect our core values in our actions.

I think that team members should be involved in all areas of creating and sustaining a business even though it is not their department or area of expertise.

This is how they can have an overall picture of what is happening, how each and every decision is affecting the business and the sense that he/she is part of something greater.

The Logician

Where do you see yourself and your company in the next ten years? What are your plans?

Diana Miron

Wow, 10 years it seems a lot of future years.

I try not to project a specific vision of myself in that much amount of time, but rather be open to opportunities.

I definitely want to experiment as many new domains, places, and cultures as I can. I don’t know exactly where I will be but I plan to invest in future education as much as I can.

As for JSLeague, we plan to grow our team of trainers to support as much as community workshops we can.

We highly believe in giving back to the community as a core value and we are also tackling the kids’ segment. We plan to develop educational programs not only for young professionals but also for children and high school students.

The Logician

Last but not least, what is your best advice for everyone who fears they will not be successful?

Diana Miron

I think that everyone is successful in his/her own way and you should not compare yourself with others’ level of success.

It is more important to live a fulfilling life and to do good in the world.

I think that it is important to dream on (as Aerosmith says it well) and keep going on following your dreams.

The Logician

Thank you, Diana, for inspiring me to dream, follow my passions, and trust myself and my gut! Hearing how you had a dream, started small, built a team, failed, and started over demonstrates the perseverance and hard work you have put into the success of your business. Your goal of growing JSLeague and giving back to the community is very inspiring, and I cannot wait to hear more about the team in the future! Good luck!

The Logician

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