HOUSTON, TEXAS—When Victor Sauceda talks about computer coding, he sounds like someone who discovered a superpower.
“There’s something about seeing what you built come to life on a screen,” Sauceda says. “When you can visualize it and see it working, you just want to keep going.”
Today, Sauceda is a software engineer and founder of Victory Code, a technology company providing web development and digital solutions to nonprofits, businesses and people in underserved communities.
Since 2022, Sauceda has helped hundreds of clients navigate technology, build websites and in some cases, launch careers of their own.
But Sauceda’s path to starting his own tech company wasn’t powered by technical skill alone.
It began with a shift in mindset that occurred while he was in prison.
Prison education and letting go of the old life
Sauceda grew up in Southern California but moved to Washington state after his parents separated. By his early 20s, he was involved in gangs, had multiple felony convictions and was serving a multi-year sentence at Monroe Correctional Complex.
Eventually, he realized he did not want to spend the rest of his life cycling in and out of prison.
“I realized if I ever got another shot at life, I might not get out until I was an old man,” Sauceda said. “I had to decide who I was going to be.”
He began signing up for every educational opportunity available. He earned his GED and explored college-level coursework through University Beyond Bars, a nonprofit partnership bringing accredited classes into Monroe Correctional Complex (MCC).
One class in particular struck a chord.
Unloop, a web development program offered in partnership with DOC and a local community college, introduced Sauceda to coding fundamentals. Without open internet access, students learned on closed servers and internal systems. Sauceda borrowed books from the prison library and even wrote code on paper to better understand the logic behind it.
“At first, this was way above my level,” he said.
But education was only part of the transformation. Sauceda was also trying to leave behind the gang culture that had shaped much of his identity.
“I was battling between the old me — the gangster me — and the new person I was becoming,” Sauceda said. “I realized if I was ever going to better myself, I needed to surround myself with people who wanted to better themselves too.”
Through prison education programs, Sauceda found incarcerated peers who were also focused on growth, accountability and education. They encouraged him to stay committed when he felt discouraged or overwhelmed.
“I’m super thankful I crossed paths with those bright individuals,” he said. “They wouldn’t let me give up.”
The entrepreneurial mindset
Around that time, a flyer posted around the prison caught his attention: Transform Your Hustle.
It was an invitation to Defy Ventures’ CEO of Your New Life course. It challenges participants to use same grit and risk-taking skills one used in criminal activity and redirect it toward legitimate business ventures.
Through Defy, Sauceda learned how to write business plans, pitch ideas and build professional networks. During the course, he developed the concept for an app to help people with dietary restrictions find restaurants with accommodating menu options. He presented the idea during the classes’ final mock business pitch competition. He didn’t win.
But for the first time, Sauceda was beginning to see entrepreneurship as a realistic path forward.
Opening doors through community connections
By the time Sauceda released from prison in 2019, he had earned a web development certificate. But breaking into the tech industry with no prior work experience and a criminal record required more than just technical knowledge—it also required building relationships with people willing to give him a chance.
While in work release, Sauceda took a job at a pizza joint through reconnecting with a Defy Ventures volunteer, who was a regional manager for the company.
“The Defy mentors and the individuals teaching class helped support you,” Sauceda said. “It was super good for me to build that community while I was in there and have people on the outside who are rooting for you.”
At the same time, at the invitation of a Defy mentor, Sauceda joined F3, a men’s fitness group built around fitness, fellowship personal accountability. The workouts offered a steady routine and a chance to reconnect with everyday social life. One of the group’s members turned out to be the CEO of a Kirkland-based tech consulting firm. After hearing Sauceda’s story and learning about his coding skills, he offered Sauceda a six-month internship.
“The biggest factor was building community,” Sauceda said. “Having somebody outside who believed in me—eventually I started believing in it too.”
The internship gave Sauceda his first professional experience inside the tech industry and helped him better understand how technology companies operate. It also clarified his long-term goal of building a company of his own.
From fellowship to founder
Soon after his internship, Sauceda was accepted into a competitive fellowship with Code for America, the national civic tech nonprofit that works with governments and community organizations to make public services easier to navigate through digital technology.
Sauceda worked alongside public defenders and community members in Santa Barbara County to develop Thrive SBC, an app designed to connect people impacted by the criminal justice system with reentry resources.
He says his lived experience as a formerly incarcerated person was an asset in developing the software.
It also helped him spark the idea for his tech company—bridging the digital literacy gap for formerly incarcerated people and other underserved communities.
After incarceration, many people struggle to navigate everyday technology—from filling out online job applications and doing online banking to document creation and internet basics. Others face additional barriers, including limited access to computers, affordable training programs, reliable internet service or nearby educational resources.
“I wanted to remove that barrier,” Sauceda said.
In January of 2022, he launched Victory Code.
Victory Code partners primarily with nonprofits to deliver cohort-based digital literacy courses and coding bootcamps, typically serving about 12 to 18 participants at a time. Funding comes through organizational partnerships, allowing participants to attend at little or no cost.
Since its launch, Victory Code has served hundreds of people across the U.S.
“One of my proudest moments is seeing this all come full circle,” Sauceda said. “The opportunities that were given to me—now I get to extend that to people coming behind me.”
Building a new life —and solutions—from lived experience
Sauceda now lives in Houston. He has two children and got married earlier this year. He recently signed up for his first marathon and trains before dawn—sometimes pushing his stroller and his kids along for the run. He also serves in a leadership role in his fitness group, mentoring other men in fitness and accountability.
As a business owner and software engineer, Sauceda said he often imagines a future where people impacted by the criminal justice system play a larger role in shaping solutions within it.
“What would it look like if someone with lived experience in the legal system was able to help inform decisions about rehabilitation and reentry?” Sauceda said. “What if more of them became judges, lawyers, case managers—or coders like me? What if we were empowered to be the architects of the solutions to the problems we know best?”
For Sauceda, that future isn’t theoretical.
He’s already building it—one line of code at a time.
