Steve Chen is an active practitioner and advocate of community-led ecosystems. Steve stands at the helm of the Code & Coffee 501c3 as it's Founder and Executive Director, fostering vibrant locally run meetups to over 37,000 developers and 100+ volunteers that keep it operational. In 2023, Code & Coffee facilitated over 300 in-person events and has grown from 1 to 29 chapters since the founding of NYC Code & Coffee in 2021. Steve's journey began with the belief in the transformative potential of meetups immediately upon dropping out of his business degree senior year in college. From there, he pursued software development and began volunteering at local DC Tech meetups in 2016, eventually leading to a fruitful 8-year software development career across fast-growing startups and various roles. His non-traditional path into software dev illuminated an opportunity for inclusion amongst underrepresented and seldom understood backgrounds in the developer space. Today, he leads with authority across highly technical systems, creative brand strategy, and tactical leadership. He approaches building community with the speed and grittiness of a startup operator and the earned experiences of an 18x 1st place champion in Team Fortress 2.