I’ve always believed in the power of three. I almost deify it. It helps me remember and enunciate better, as if my brain yearns for a set of anything three. It pushes me everyday towards minimalism, as a constant reminder of the “less is more” aphorism.

I am in awe of the why.how.what triad that I picked up from Simon Sinek. The sentence that struck me the most from the book “The Gene” is the one in which the author talks about how the discovery of the atom, the byte, and the gene trisected the 20th century: the building blocks of all knowledge I seek as I age. I love the trilogy of the head, the heart, and the gut in life’s decisions.

I’ve also had serendipities with trinity. My first job out of college was for an Austin-based company named Trilogy! My wife and I are blessed with 3 children, even though we had planned for two (the younger ones are twins)! And with important forks in the road, I have truly leveraged my gut — over my head and heart — to maximize serendipity and minimize (analysis) paralysis.

Ever since age 16, gut has been a great friend in helping me with my high-risk ventures. Quitting college in freshman year to pursue computer science the following year required courage and equanimity. Deciding to marry my future wife at 22 — even before I had met her in person — required instinct (and heart). Rejecting Microsoft job offers twice in favor of a startup, which eventually failed after the Internet bubble burst, needed gumption.

My cousins gave me the nickname “Atal” when I was 4, which means resolute in Hindi. I had the conviction to quit my job and start Nutanix in 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, even though all we had in savings was $100K in 401k. I immensely respect my wife of 21 years for being a rock and a fellow “entrepreneur” in life. I admire my mom for trusting my judgment and my bias for long-term greed. Their support was unflinching as I summoned the courage to take a public Nutanix through more than 3 years of a business model transition, which instinctively was the only way for the company to survive and thrive in the era of cloud and subscription.

Creating DevRev was one such ambitious move that required their trust and that of Manoj, a college friend and confidante I’ve immensely respected and confided in for almost 3 decades. At four in the morning, when my train stopped at the Kanpur railway station in 1997, he was the first one to come and hug me for my “Best All Rounder Student” award that IIT Kanpur had bestowed on me. I vividly remember that childlike joy with which he congratulated me, that innocence that knew no envy nor wistfulness. He is WYSIWYG personified — guileless, resolute, consistent.

Together, we are starting over on a DevRev journey that is yet another bet on a trifecta — of data, design, and machine intelligence — to help developers grow into architects, merchants, and entrepreneurs.

I fell in love with Chris Stapleton’s song, “ Starting Over,” during the pandemic. Like a true minimalist, he’s kept such a beautiful song to 3 minutes and no more!

More power to 3!

🖖

Dheeraj Pandey

Co-founder

Starting over, one more time, with yet another trilogy!