A startup pays a big established design firm for making their user interface. That's not a good sign.
You could argue, that the work is at least just "average stuff", and not worth the money, but that's not the point:.
Paying a lot of money for an established design firm feels like buying Armani suits for the whole team.
What were they thinking? That someone who wants to start to code cares about the fact that Pentagram made the design?
Let alone that Pentagram is maybe one of the greatest Identity and Graphic Design firms out there, but they did not one great work for screens.
Codecademy stands for Learn Hacking. Do It Yourself.
Pentagram stands for New York and Artsy Gallery People.
I have respect for the work of Pentagram, and I really liked Codecademy, but this made me sad.