My name is Ilir Hushi, a Full-Stack Web Developer with almost three years of experience. In May 2017, I decided to join the development team of TeachPitch because I wanted to contribute to the global state of teaching and learning and to embrace the goal of TeachPitch which is:

“Learn More! Teach Better!”

Being an online learning platform that helps teachers and schools to identify the best online resources on the Internet and seeing the growth of the TeachPitch platform, it was necessary to start building an API.

But, what is an API?

API stands for Application Programming Interface, these are sets of requirements that govern how one application talks to another. Think about how big services like Google Maps or Facebook let other apps “piggyback” on their offerings and we at TeachPitch wanted the same service, so other third-parties can “piggyback” on our resources.

As a team we had several meetings and discussions during the months of July & August 2017 in order to build a consistent API which would be easier to expand as TeachPitch grows with time. This was a big challenge for us because we had to consider a variety of situations for building a long-term feature.

I started in September 2017 on the implementation of the API and it took me a month to implement API features like:

• The authentication process in order for our clients to access the API securely
• For users to access the resources in the TeachPitch database
• Building the proper functionalities for users to properly search the resources
• For our API to provide users with new suggestions based on previously selected resources
• But, this is not all of it because TeachPitch has many features and we are working on building their APIs too.

What do I think of working in a team?

The difference between success and failure is a great team and being part of a great team has been a key factor of success for TeachPitch.

One of my favourite quotes which I like to remind myself of is:

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success” — Henry Ford

Personally, I think no matter how smart, talented, driven, or passionate you are, your success as a company, or as an entrepreneur, or even as a developer depends on the abilities of building and inspiring your team.