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,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3svABDnmio)” during the pandemic. Like a true minimalist, he’s kept such a beautiful song to 3 minutes and no more!

More power to 3!

🖖

Co-founder

Dheeraj Pandey

A small village boy — raised in the tribal hinterlands of India without access to electricity, clean water, good school or healthcare — was willing to challenge the *status quo* and dream for a better future. Walking three miles each way to school was normal to him, until he was 12, when he joined his dad to start a family business to make ends meet. Long hours at work as his father’s protégé meant he could only pursue self-study and that too in the evenings.

“*Customer is god*,” “*truthfulness and honesty in all circumstances,*” and “*no shortcuts to success*” were some of the life lessons he imbibed from his dad. While running the business, he learned the value of humility, empathy, and resolving conflicts between different parties.

The boy eventually got lucky. His hard work and self-learning brought him to the premier engineering college of India, IIT Kanpur, where he also met Dheeraj. He received scholarship money, some of which he used to buy his first bicycle! Here, he made lifelong friends and also found his life partner. The boy learned to speak English more fluently and got his first corporate job. He was ecstatic to take his first flight in life.

Success and happiness notwithstanding, he never forgot his roots — hard work, humility, empathy, and passion for learning — virtues that continued to define, shape, and grow him in life as an adolescent and an adult.

Over the next twenty years of his career — majority of that time building products — the engineering professional in him saw how difficult it was for developers to get a clear view of what really mattered to customers, things that become the proxy for revenue and customer delight for any tech company. The bureaucracy and apathy between makers and consumers brought nothing but agony and disappointment to all involved.

This is my story, that hopeful village boy still brimming with childlike curiosity and fearlessness. The child in me is pursuing a simple yet profound purpose: to build products that establish authentic human connections and bring meaning to work.

In late 2020, I joined hands with Dheeraj — long time friend, mentor, and colleague — to start DevRev, a business software company dedicated to the growth of developers. We are passionate about using the trifecta of design, data engineering, and machine intelligence to establish real connections between core stakeholders — makers and consumers — redefining software development (and consumption) in this new era of product-led businesses!

Manoj Agarwal

*Grit is sticking with your future—day in, day out, not just for a week, not just for a month, but for years—and working really hard to make that future a reality."* -Angela Lee Duckworth

Growing up, I had a strong penchant for reading and writing, and an equally strong aversion to math. If left to my own devices, I would’ve opted for a qualitative major in college, but I was instructed to choose something, *anything*, quantitative. I wound up graduating with a BS in Economics and a minor in Math. I later went on to pursue a career in tech by way of code school; this time of my own volition.

My college advisors applauded me for being able to steadily progress from elementary level math courses to the upper level ones. Meanwhile, the folks at the math tutoring center would joke that I needed my own mailbox in their office since that’s where I spent all my time (we became great friends, and they supported me even when I was taking advanced classes that weren’t in the scope of the tutoring center). Suffice to say, this was not an easy, breezy, linear journey for me. I struggled often. I failed occasionally. But ultimately, I grew.

This gritty, “pick yourself up and try again” mentality has served me well in the workplace, as well as in life. And although I’m learning now that knowing when to quit is an important skill too, I think it's perfectly suited for an opportunity like this; where we’re all here for the marathon, not the sprint.

Product

Aditi Mishra

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been driven by the outcome - whether it was a video game score, time in a race, grades in school or sales in a business. When I played video games as a child, I always wanted the highest score. I would start by playing the same way as my friends, but would eventually find hacks/secrets to “break” the traditional scoring methods. I’d often weirdly try different key combinations and end up cracking a code. I wouldn’t care about the boundary conditions, even if others thought it might be unfair and as long as I wasn’t breaking any rules.

My outcome *maniacalism* guides my mental models at work in the same way - always in search of finding a new, better and faster way. In my past investment banking career and while at other formidable and reputable institutions, I saw well-oiled products and processes that left little room for innovation or experimentation. Despite finding rules or restrictions somewhat stifling, I’d never lose sight of the tangible, measurable outcome - my *North Star* - and would figure out how to optimize within any immovable constraints to get there.

At DevRev, with a blank canvas, we can create, design, hack and challenge everything and have already started to build operations in a way the world hasn’t seen yet. We’re redefining and morphing seemingly mature functions - culture, talent, HR, real estate, travel - into 100x better versions. We’re building for the workforce of the future which lives up to DevRev’s mission of building the most trustworthy place to work. It is so liberating - I feel like a bird flying toward a limitless horizon.

Strategic Ops

Chandra Nath

I find myself motivated by the dirt.  To create lasting value, to build something larger than one's own contributions, you must venture into unpaved territory.  This is where I find inspiration; inspiration to learn new skills, inspiration to build new products, and inspiration to connect with people with similar aspirations.

Before getting my Masters, I spent a Summer in Alaska as a commercial salmon set-netter in one of the world's most sustainable fisheries (#ProtectBristolBay).  Here I gained a new found appreciation for teamwork and what it takes to build trust.  Working with an amazing group of individuals from around the world and sharing in the grueling 20+ hour / 7 days a week efforts that it takes to safely succeed in one of the world's harshest terrains, taught me how a motivated team can produce tremendous value.

The people and culture brought me to DevRev and convinced me that this is the right team to create a new technology category. The near decade I've spent in Enterprise Software has given me the opportunity to innovate across machine learning, voice, and collaboration applications, but the future of this industry is still an unpaved path.  I believe it will require an even larger emphasis on Design, AI, and end user empathy.  Those key tenants are what excite me about DevRev's Vision.  

I am thrilled to be a part of this journey, to create the world's most customer centric company, and look forward to creating micro moments of joy for our customers and our customer's customers that will improve the lives of all our users.

Product 

Michael Machado

This is something I’ve continued to ask myself throughout my life. It’s an innate fire—a reminder to tread only for so long along the settled and reassured paths. For me, there has always been that impetus to reach for things far-off from the straight and narrow. To trade things familiar for things beyond my realm of comfort; things that, at one point or another, were unfathomable to me. It’s my forcing function for growth. 

Ten years ago I had embarked on a career doing computational physics in the aerospace field. I had no idea that I would end up in the area of business development, no less even thought about being a data engineer. Come to think of it, the latter term barely even existed then. The years at each of those waypoints were intensive: early mornings, chaotic days, long nights, tough customers, and lifelong friends. They gave me an appreciation for the value of failure. I reveled in soaking up the countless hours of learning. But sooner or later, it eventually always became maybe all too familiar, and that was my barometer to be unsettled again.

So, I’ve always welcomed leaving behind the well-honed parts of me to give way to something new. These leaps of faith carried me along an unconventional path. I trust in them. They gave me lessons in building from scratch. They taught me to <i>let go</i>. They helped me tame the fear of uncertainty. They led me to DevRev, where nothing we do is familiar, and there’s so much left to create.

Nghia Nguyen

I realized the importance of academics much later in my life and consequently ended being in a not-so-great college. This was my first hard lesson in life that made me realize that I had to do something about my life.
My learning journey started during my 2nd year of college when I pushed myself daily and worked till 2 AM. Three years later, I had completed six internships, founded two startups, and won three hackathons globally and nationally.
I believe the biggest hurdle for anyone is to know what exactly you want to do or achieve in your life. Once that is clear, you can do anything. For example, I always wanted to code, and here I am…happy in my coding world!

Engineering

Nikhil Talwar

It was in my teens that I got my first PC. I used to play PC games and dreamt about creating a game on my own. Then there was rock music and a second dream: playing and singing songs so strong and moving that they would make people sing and jump from their feet. And so it started rolling. First AMSBasic programs, first open chords.

Dreams were coming to reality. I got to college, studying electrotechnics and played and sang in a rock band. Some of the first applications of my knowledge were building power stabilizers from spare parts to make amps, mixers and keyboards work in unstable electricity network. One day a friend dropped by to a rehearsal and declared “you are a band that runs on stabilizers” and so we called ourselves “Stabilizer”.

Being a part of a company should be as if being a part of a rock bank. You bring your best and trust in others that they bring their best too. Everyone is included, everyone contributes. No contribution is below you as long as it moves us forward. Different skills, experiences, cultures, languages are the pieces to combine, review, break, recombine - until we create an enjoyable product, be it SAAS or a tune.

Rasko Pavlonic

I like doing things that come naturally and creating something from scratch is one of those things that had a visceral magnetism for me. While discussing user journeys one day with the PM team, I decided it would be good to create the requirements visually using wireframes. In any other organization this would have led to discussions around swim lanes between PM and design team. Here we just got on the call, discussed what made sense and moved on. Simple things like these define the culture of the company and build a familial trust among team members.

Design

Ruoxi Li

Early in my childhood, I gained notoriety for wrecking and then eventually fixing things while trying to understand how they worked. When I was about nine years old, my mom brought our very first computer home for her work. It wasn't long before I had managed to break it. After I broke it the third time, my mom took me along with the computer to the repair shop, and left me there for a few hours. What happened next changed my life. Watching the technicians the entire day as they repaired this and other computers was a dream-come-true for me. Soon after, I was able to fix the computer on my own, learning from things like autoexec.bat file that the technicians had written.

That was my introduction to programming.

Fast forward a few years later and my curiosity led me to become a programmer but also to learn playing the violin, drums and the piano, learn obscure languages and delve into astrophotography.

My curiosity drives me. My curiosity defines me.

My curiosity is what brought me to DevRev, and I continue to enjoy the journey of learning new things every day.

Shlomi Vaknin

My father often quoted *"Honesty, is the best policy"* and *"Sab padhenge, tab badhenge"* (which roughly translates to *"We will grow, only if everyone is educated"*). I took both of these to heart and have been mentoring students ever since my high school days. 

A lot of my inspiration on engineering comes from my grandfather who was a civil engineer himself. His favourite quotes were — *"A stitch in time saves nine"* (in current connotation — fixing technical debt before it blows out of proportion) and *"Footprints on the sands of time"* (building something which makes a long lasting impact in this world, a legacy you leave behind !)

As I started to form more independent view of the world I realised that, I thrive on trust and enjoy being able to utilise all of my skills at work — engineering, communication, people, design—rather than limiting myself to what is expected of a role. DevRev was an opportunity which gave me those wings and I decided to join the flock, no questions asked.

I also strongly believe in growth-mindset and knowing that future me will be a much better version of present me. Luckily, I have some of the most amazing co-workers who inspire me to improve every single day.

Personally, I derive happiness from little things 😇 — An evening tea with my partner at ChaiPoint, buying new plants and decor for my living room, baking our favourite cake with my sister and a laughter filled dinner with my besties !

Akanksha Deswal

My parents gave me my roots and my wings. I learned responsibility from my father and self-discipline and perseverance from my mother. For this reason, my secret weapon has always been endurance**,** to play for the long run, and bring responsibility and energy to the finish line.

My learnings from life are summarized in one word, balance. Parenting, as a balance of nature and nurture. Problem solving, as a balance of the detail and the big picture. Decisions, as a balance of art and science. Career, as a balance of following the heart and the mind. Business, as a balance of short-term and long-term goals. Earth, as a balance of god’s creation and human consumption.

Balance, however, is never actually standing still. I believe we are experiencing a rebirth, a New Renaissance that will unleash something great, giving rise to individuality, new forms of creation and purpose-driven connection. At DevRev - it is Day 1, to find a balance again. To fight for a world of reason, to fight and do away with barriers. To fight for a world that’s ready to welcome a new humanity.

Bhavana Thudi

My journey at DevRev is one of new perspectives. For the majority of my 14-year career, my efforts have been shrouded in infrastructure, writing systems designed to be used exclusively by other machines. In this world, efficiency and reliability are key, where function precedes form and inconsistencies can be catastrophic.

Humans are different. While they're more forgiving in terms of latency, they're also fairly imprecise, relying on an accumulation of information to guide and enhance their experience. Framing back-end engineering decisions in terms of how they enhances users' productivity—and ultimately, their happiness—flexes an empathy muscle that had atrophied in the infrastructure layers.

This mental shift accompanies a personal change as I've become a first-time father in late April. It has been uniquely rewarding to *attempt* to see the world through my daughter's eyes as she discovers contrasts and colors. As I start my life-long journey to help her navigate the complexities of life and to teach her how to find value in a world of noise, I can't help but draw parallels to my new professional venture.

Brian Byrne

I was born and raised in a small town called Mzuzu in Malawi. My early days defined the individual I am today. I went to boarding school at an early age. It was challenging, but extremely pivotal in moulding me as an individual. There was hazing and bullying. Home was a long ways out; nowhere to run. We had to manage our school supplies to keep us going till the end of the quarter, and on top of that we had to keep good grades in class. Through it all, I really learned how to thrive and survive.

After secondary school, I was set to go study Business Administration and Accounting at the University of Malawi - easy route to making a good living in Malawi. But that was not my passion. I loved tinkering with things. Physics fascinated me. Mathematics fascinated me. Planes fascinated me! I so badly wanted to study avionics and aeronautics, and universities in Malawi did not offer that.

I caught wind of a program that would help me apply to colleges in the US. Lifeline! I embraced it with both hands, and worked hard at it!

One semester into my college studies, I learned Aeronautics and Astronautics might not be my best option - the perils of not being a US citizen. That was soul crashing. It was hard to take, but I had to pivot. EECS was my next choice; a strategic choice: EECS gave me the opportunity to tinker with and build things, while at the same time giving me a good chance of getting the industry experience I'd need… the experience I’d need to give back to where I started.

Years have passed, I continue to be a student of engineering; I continue to be a tinkerer; I continue to be a builder. And deep inside, the desire to give back to where I started continues to burn…

Victor Kamanga

Though I have not always known my path, I have always known my purpose: creating a meaningful difference in the world. Whatever I touch, I must leave it better than I found it.

While that requires working with passionate, like-minded people, it conflicts with my fierce independence and finding deep comfort in solitude, grappling with a complex challenge.

That's one reason that I enjoyed studying and practicing the law, a profession where you go deep within to solve challenges for others. That's also why I chose to work with a legal-tech startup at the beginning of my career when more traditional options were available.
I have always wanted more from life than just making a living, and I will not be content being just a cog in a wheel. I need to make a genuine impact, and I live for that sense of purpose.

This powerful quote by Michelle Obama resonates deeply with me:
"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end."

Coming from such a different world, joining DevRev is almost like starting a new career and a chance to throw myself into things I haven't done before. It's such a rare opportunity to have the 'roll up your sleeves,' hacky startup energy combined with the wealth of experience and big-picture thinking that our founders bring.

I'm immensely grateful for the challenges and opportunities to learn that DevRev offers, and I am honored to be embarking on this journey with the team here. It's been amazing to discover how quickly trust develops when interactions are authentic and empathetic, despite never meeting each other!

Kavya Kommareddy

I grew up in Bangalore speaking five different languages (never could decide which one to claim as my mother tongue :)). I was interested in poetry and found it fascinating to compare how the same thoughts were expressed differently in different languages. My parents believed in letting me discover and form my view of the world. In school, I discovered my love for programming, and the power of creating something useful made me giddy. When it came to choosing a field, I was torn between pursuing literature/poetry and engineering. Most people found my conundrum bizarre and didn't think these two interests could ever live in harmony. So I let my left brain dominate my thoughts and pursued engineering. I have spent the past 15 years building products, seeking and finding new challenges in startups and established companies, learning new domains, identifying common patterns across fields, and experiencing the thrill of programming in languages ranging from Assembly to Golang. I firmly believe applying learnings from different fields and fostering a diversity of ideas help build a better world. I think the structured thought process, imagination, and empathy required to write good poetry is no different from what is needed to build great products. The most delightful experiences of my career so far have been when I solved challenging problems, and I was able to connect directly with the consumer of the products I had built and receive feedback. The direct feedback was far easier to receive for my poetry blog, while it was much harder to receive for my developed products. 

So, the decision to join DevRev was an easy one, considering there is a massive list of challenging problems to solve. The vision of the company is to bring developers closer to the customers. It is great to solve a problem that will get me as much joy as a creator to bring to our customers. I am super excited about building a product that will melt the artificial barriers between the creators and the consumers and delight both equally. I look forward "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield" until we make this a reality.

Ashwini Vasanth

I've always been an inquisitive person. The WHYs and the HOWs around me have molded and directed my thinking from the word go. Though I've never been an active reader, the stories about enhancing people's lives have always fascinated me. At the core of each story, there was an idea that someone chose to believe in if others didn't. This made me realize that it is extraordinary in the ordinary; you just have to look for it with open eyes and an open mind. You have to place your belief in your gut feeling and work with that belief to see it materialize.

As a person and as a student, the two pillars of my growth have been *a constant urge to strive for better* and *a knack to try new things outside of my comfort zone*, caring more about learning and less about the consequences.

As a fresh graduate, there are numerous things for me to explore and learn. I find DevRev an excellent opportunity to kick off my career; there are plenty of ideas to brainstorm and work upon. Everyone wants to join a brand, but I decided to contribute to building one and looking forward to a roller coaster ride with fellow DevRevelers!

Amisha Kothari

I don't say I was born with a golden spoon but definitely with a silver spoon. Days were all good and rosy till I was in my final year of graduation. Generally, every semester, my dad used to give me 20,000 Rupees as pocket money, but in my last year, he gave me 2,000 Rupees and asked me to manage my expenses with that amount that year. At that young age, I was like - What the heck is this? How can he do that to me? Why is he doing that? Did he stop loving me? Did he even understand my commitments and expenditures? How could I take my friends out for parties? How could I compromise on my lifestyle? And what would my friends think about me? Will I be looked down upon?... More than 1,000 questions ran through my brain.

Then my dad gave me another shocker - "No higher education because you have to support the family," he said. This devastated me completely until my mom told me that my dad's business got into trouble and ended up with so much debt that we couldn't even afford our usual standard of living. He needed my help. I had no words other than tears. Especially being born as a kid where all my wishes came true in no time, it was heartbreaking.

This made me think about my character deeply. At this point, I had two choices: accepting the changes or completely rewrite the story of my vision of the future. I choose to pursue the latter option. Because my dad used to say, "Tough times test and build your character." Being the oldest son in the family with two younger brothers, I decided to be brave and made some difficult choices.

After I finished my graduation, I embarked on my career immediately. While I was in college, I decided to tutor other engineering students. Then, when I got a chance, I worked as a freelancer, then as an insurance agent, I did stock trading, gave corporate training, even worked as a real estate agent. I did not say no to any job opportunity that came my way, and five years later, devoid of social life, no trips, no holidays, no sleep, I finally found something that I could call a stable job. Those five years were the most challenging years of my life, yet those were the best years. It transformed me completely the way I think and act on things, the way I listen and understand situations, how I treat family and I think about people; and how I respect all that we have today and had in the past.

I feel those five years added character to me and what I do. Now I strongly feel blessed to have what we have, and I also firmly believe that I can live a simple life and brave any challenges life throws at me.

Venkata Vamsi Krishna Kothuri

Software engineering happened to me by fate. Born in the 80s in India, I followed the engineering route and my cousins to America to seek a better life, like most in my generation. As an immigrant student, '09 was a bad time to graduate and launch a career in the post-recession world. After being an intern for more than a year, I had finally started a permanent position at RSA, The security division of EMC as a software engineer in the SIEM team. My job was to collect, parse and model log data from all kinds of servers, routers, gateways, firewalls, etc. This was by no means a dream job compared to Google and Microsoft at that time, but I was grateful for the opportunity. Despite an unreasonable number of roommates, sub-par pay, and a second-hand car that could give in any minute, I felt that things were finally looking up. Then, in a near Forrest Gumpish incident on a cold fateful morning, I found myself caught in the middle of a landmark story that changed my life. Here it goes !!

I swerved my mean machine- '98 Nissan Altima through a Dunkin to get my usual morning hit of double sugar double cream with coffee and a Boston cream donut; I knew I was already late for yet another day at work. Sporting my freebie backpack, I rolled into the proud corner that I shared with three other techies. "Anindya, can I see you in my office" - my Manager called out. As I walked into his office, my usual cheerful boss had a grim look on his face. As he looked towards his window - he said, "There is a project I want you to work on. Please keep it to yourself, but there is an ongoing investigation of a possible data breach in our servers. You will work closely with the Security Operations Center team to assist in forensics." He then walked me across the bridge to the adjacent building where the Security Operations Center was housed. What I saw there was straight from a Hollywood movie - Huge television screens and scores of "analysts" sifting through data as if in a NASA control room. Little did I know that the "boring" log analysis product I worked on was the foundation of this bustling operation. I was introduced to the analysts who looked exhausted as if they had not slept for days. I got a seat at the war room and started working with them. 

The analysts used my product day in and out, and as customers had a lot of questions around the inner workings and features. Sitting with them and seeing them use the product, I felt proud of my work, and suddenly the "Why" of my 8-10 hours daily had a higher purpose. I also realized that the way we designed the product was very different from the way analysts used it; most of our assumptions were not correct. I worked closely with the analysts and learned a lot from them. Then, RSA publicly disclosed the breach even though some thought it was suicidal for a security vendor to be hacked. As Art(RSA President)put it, "Trust was the bedrock of our business," and we had to be very transparent with our customers. Very soon, Google and others also disclosed their breaches in what seemed to be a series of sophisticated nation-state attacks. In fact, the demand for our product rose significantly, and the learnings from the breach were productized and sold to many of our customers, and I had a front seat to all this action. 

Today data breaches are commonplace, and the SIEM market has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar Security Analytics industry. I was lucky to be a small part of that story. But, I am happy I crossed the bridge to the other side where my customers were on that fateful day. It changed my life!

Anindya Misra

I come from the south of Sri Lanka, filled with lush paddies where farming was the staple. Now it is one of the metropolitan states. After high school, I joined the University of Moratuwa, where I pursued civil engineering for my undergraduate degree, followed by a postgraduate degree in computer science from the same university. I moved to Silicon Valley in 2015.

Even though I did civil engineering for my undergraduate studies, my passion was in computer science. The reason I did civil engineering was because I had no choice. After the first-year exam at the university, we were given an option to pick a new area we wanted to specialize in — and my scores were only good enough to do civil engineering, so I did it! It was the very first significant setback in my Life!
I started finding ways to learn computer science myself so that when I graduated from the university, I could be a software engineer. Unlike these days, we didn't have Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, or not even a broadband internet connection. So I developed a strange habit of collecting job advertisements for software engineers in Sunday newspapers and sticking all of them into a journal. That helped me learn what skills I needed to develop to land a software job.

I worked hard self-studying computer science while doing my undergraduate studies in Civil engineering, only to learn that no software company was even interested in giving an interview for a civil engineering graduate. That was a bummer! I wanted to build a resume that no software company could reject. It took me three months, sleeping about three hours a day, to complete most of the developer-focused certificate programs by Sun (Oracle now), Microsoft, and Oracle. Finally, I re-applied and landed my first job as a software engineer!
That journey I took to become a software engineer taught me not only computer science but also Life. I learned the pain of rejection and how to keep my head high even when nobody wants me!

If I have any success today, that's primarily due to my very first failure in Life as an undergraduate.

In 2007, I joined WSO2 to lead the open-source Identity Server project from zero customers to a 750-plus, zero annual recurring revenue (ARR) to 12M+ USD, zero users to more than 250 million, and from a four-member team to a 100-member team. It's been a remarkably satisfying experience.

I am now thrilled to start the next phase of my Life at DevRev and looking forward to growing from zero again.

Prabath Siriwardena

One of the most important lessons of my life has been understanding, evolving, and accepting my priorities. For example, when I was in college, my primary goal was to earn enough to buy a Porsche. At the time, that was more of an unconscious desire, but when I finally could afford a sports car, I no longer wanted one. I had matured enough to realize that sports cars are merely impractical status symbols and that I didn't need one - neither as a conveyance nor as a means to stroke my ego.

This goal-wise vacuum was quickly filled by my loving wife and a couple of kids, whose well-being, raising, and education are now the overriding priority. My second priority is enjoying life in its various facets: Food, hiking, chess, building, and making people happy. The latter includes customers, coworkers, and my father-in-law. 😜
The awesome power in figuring out and explicitly noting your priorities is the clarity that brings. For example, if I were to conclude that my priority is to work on cool hardware, such as rocket engines, perhaps I should find another place to hang my hat. If, on the other hand, I conclude, as I have, that the most important aspect of a place of employment is to be surrounded by a small but awesome team and to have unseating Goliath as a goal, then DevRev is an excellent choice.

Figuring out and explicitly noting priorities is just as important for a business. In a testament to how unusual Dheeraj is as a CEO, he stated long ago that his priorities for his business are taking care of customers first, then taking care of employees and letting them build an awesome product. The bottom line, according to Dheeraj, then takes care of itself. That clarity has made Nutanix what it is today and will; I have undoubtedly made DevRev similarly successful.
My recommendation to you: Think about your personal goals and priorities, and once you have clarity, the view will be much like this ☝️.

Jan Olderdissen

I was born in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh, India). I attended my schooling in different parts of the country. This provided me with an opportunity to work, learn, and interact with people from different cultures and diverse backgrounds.

In my early childhood, I loved roller skating as it required a lot of balance and coordination. While preparing for a state-level competition, I fractured my right arm in the process. With three months left, I was disappointed that I was not able to participate due to my lack of preparation. However, with very little time left post my recovery, I did not give up on the practice and finished 5th in the competition. This event taught me the importance of hard work, determination, and never giving up. I have been a strong advocate of these qualities ever since.

I recently finished my undergraduate in Software engineering. During the course, I completed multiple internships where I worked on back-end technologies and mentored students as a teaching assistant. I like working on problems that challenge me to think and work harder.

I love to travel by road and enjoy hiking while listening to music.

Pratyush Goel

From early on, I was guided by the drive to understand the fundamental existential questions, especially what it means to lead a good life. The best way to start approaching them seemed to be through ethics - a discipline that forces one to step out of the confines of one's own opinions and start interacting with others, building something new together.
I studied law to get a decent overview of human interactions' current framework and try to glimpse their underlying core principles and drivers. The search for a macro perspective later motivated me to search for a non-traditional career path for a legal professional. I consider myself a bookworm, but one can only get so far with books, and as far as action is concerned, I believe that the most interesting (inter)action is currently to be found in the business world, especially in the tech sector.
I, therefore, became interested in the transition from being a specialized lawyer to becoming a more business-oriented professional who also has to occupy himself with the ever-changing big-picture (although the minute details of certain conventions are always a part of the whole).
The logic behind this transition turned out to be a sensible one when, after working for a year as an associate in a law firm, I became an internal auditor in a bank and started working on projects that required me to work on my business acumen, a task that I found deeply fulfilling. After two challenging years at the bank, I realized that I wanted to improve my existing analytical and writing skills and thus went back to school. Now, after almost two years of engaging with theory, I am ready to shake off the rust and start building something new again – DevRev!

Blaž Ciglenečki

The urge to understand the world and gain passive knowledge forms a paired opposite with the desire to change it and make new things.
Since my childhood, I have sought to make ideas into something tangible that can be touched, beholden, or interacted with. At first, the medium was sand, paper, or LEGO, later 3D models, computer games and simulations, or occasionally even wood or electronics.
On the other hand, the allure of the unknown was always strong for me, even for details (for example, in history) that don't seem to have any practical relevance. Later at the university, I studied as a physicist, science concerned chiefly with understanding, not applying the knowledge.
This way, I came to the opinion that the best results emerge where these opposites meet and the latest formal knowledge is applied to the engineering of new things while scientists deploy creativity to craft experiments and hypotheses.
Now at my first job, I will take part in the creation of products for all the world to see, not just for myself or show off for friends, which fills me with excitement. Meanwhile, in the field of machine learning, perhaps understanding and everyday practice are finally inching to meet in the middle, raising my curiosity.

Lörinc Bódy

Since I was very young, I believed that everything I do should be perfect. My motivation derived strictly from the “perfect outcome” and whenever that was not attainable a lot of negative feelings followed.

I started studying Computer science in 2018 and I remember being so excited about it. I am a person who loves fresh starts and meeting a bunch of new people. However, I ended up being terrified of failure all the time. The fun college experience I was hoping for was not fun at all. It was exhausting.

So I made a promise to myself that I will no longer place perfection on a pedestal and while working towards this goal I noticed one thing: I started enjoying the process, not just the outcome. I was curious again and eager to learn. I progressed faster and guess what? Most of the time the outcome was even better than before.

“Just because you are not constantly worried about producing the "perfect" result does not mean you are not working towards your goals.”

I found out about DevRev in August 2021 and knew straight away that this is something I want to be a part of. I am ready to embark on this journey and I feel very honored to do it with such amazing people by my side! 🥰

Growth Engineering

Tjaša Šinkovec

I'm a naturally curious person and always looking to learn something new. I'm constantly hungry for knowledge and have made major changes in my career, zealously pursuing new knowledge and experiences. I've found that expertise gained in each one provides unparalleled versatility and adaptability on new teams and solving problems others just accepted. Cooking has been a passion of mine for years because it combines technical ability, creative expression, and community. A dish can be simply made by the books following a recipe, but for me, each new recipe is a lesson providing new spice combinations or skills to master and apply to other dishes. My love for cooking comes from this improvisation, using different skills and knowledge to create new memorable dishes to share. I love building and tinkering with technology to get things just right both at work and at home. My most recent home project has been setting up my office as a studio for no other reason than I wanted to create the best home Zoom setup. I've always been someone who loves to understand why and how things work; I can't truly advocate for something without this! As a kid, my parents learned quickly not to leave me alone with anything – like the TV remote – as I would quickly disassemble it. Luckily, I've gotten much better at rebuilding the technology since then!

Chris Brown

I love curiosity. It has been with me from the very beginning of my life. In fact, it was curiosity that helped me experience many different things that would not have been otherwise possible. For example, I got into a range of extra-curricular activities like chess, puppets, ecology, chemistry, maths, logic, media creation, sports, etc., because I was driven by an urge to learn more. It was a quest to find out more that exposed me to a great variety of different experiences.

Initially, I had a hard time finding something I wanted to pursue in life. It was not until 3rd year in high school when it became clear to me that I wanted to become a software engineer. The main thing that drove me into software engineering was the ability to work and integrate with so many different fields. I need that diversity to satisfy my curiosity. I do not believe any other field offers so much versatility as software engineering does where you can never stop learning.

I like mixing creativity, reliability, and indulging in innovation as a software engineer. I think that it is my curious nature tha helps me find out-of-the-box solutions to complex problems. I would not be able to live without that challenge. Curiosity makes me; it shapes me.

I always dreamed of working on tools that would help people to achieve their dreams. I believe DevRev gives me the unique opportunity to do precisely that.

Dejan Mesar

I think of myself as someone who is always in the pursuit of happiness, and happiness can mean many different things to me. For example, spending a day at home watching movies and TV shows with my family is just as special as the satisfaction of completing a passion project after working on it for several days and nights. The key, I believe, is to have faith and pay close attention to everything you do - no matter what it is.

Ever since childhood, I've had a strong interest in art and craft. This meant that I spent the majority of my time in school making tiny drawings on the margins of my notebooks rather than paying attention to what was being taught. Giving tangible form to my imagination was far more fascinating to me than any math or geography lesson. So it seemed natural after that to pursue a career in design.

An aspect of design that really interested me was that, in essence, it was all about solving problems with a humane approach. No matter how complex, any design problem could be addressed by breaking it down to its most essential components and then figuring out how each one could be tackled. This approach made a lot of sense to me, not just while creating designs but also in everyday life. When every single part of a larger whole is catered to and treated with care, it's natural for the big picture to function well and be in perfect harmony.

Right after hearing about DevRev and the problem, it's aiming to solve - I was sold on the idea. After that, the infectious enthusiasm of every team member I spoke to further motivated me to take this leap of faith. I believe DevRev is going to do something amazing, and I absolutely look forward to being a part of the team that gets it done.

Saloni Dhawan

Growing up an expat, an immigrant, and an optimist meant embracing the journey — from one school to another, or perhaps country to country.  My life has been about approaching each journey and encounter with curiosity and humility; since childhood, I was drawn to not just doing, but watching intently as others did their life's work, whether it be a car mechanic, a sketch artist, a cook, or a salesperson.

When the journey led you to an apartment with bare necessities and a typewriter, it became a great opportunity to pick up speed typing, develop a love for typography, and begin to put thoughts on paper at any point in the day.

And when the journey took a young adolescent to another hemisphere, it was an opportunity to discover new friendships and passions.  For me, this meant discovering berries, papier-mâché, digital library catalogues, and organized sports.  And with technology at your fingertips, it also meant tinkering with hex editors, virtual memory, and building PCs.

College offered incredible access — to wonderful teachers and lifelong friends, no doubt — but also intramural sports, art exhibits, and city life. On a free day, I would go door to door to see if local shops wanted a web storefront; there were also short stints as a valet driver, a mobile phone salesperson, an SAT tutor, and a salad-maker at the school cafeteria (sometimes working the back-kitchen prepping catering orders for university events).  Not quite the same as my software internships or RA-ships, but each and every one of these experiences ties back into my work in some shape or form, to this day.

After briefly flirting with research and academia, I embarked on an epic journey at Apple, helping launch products that bring surprise and delight to both users and developers worldwide; this coincided with another amazing journey as a parent of two kids discovering their own journeys.

Today, I see myself as a team builder, a life-long learner, a champion for outcome-focused planning, a force multiplier, and, yes, an optimist.  As a leader, I believe it takes effort to build an inclusive, empowering culture where folks are secure enough to engage with authenticity. Just as before, I still embrace new beginnings with genuine curiosity and a desire for deeper understanding.

And so begins this journey at DevRev where, hopefully, we can redefine the journeys of developers around the world.

Ahmed Bashir

Born and brought up in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, I first moved away from home to pursue Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

The journey from then on has been driven by a purpose of constantly getting better, remaining ever-curious about the 'Why' and making a difference.

Focussing on the 'Why', I see one overarching implication of fulfilling DevRev's Why as reducing "work about work" and being a driver for efficiency at developer-centric companies.

Having always been interested in efficiency at work, that's what brings me to once again prioritize yet another ship at an early-stage startup.

Prithvi Sharma

I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to help people. When you're young, you only see the strongest connections and the only connection I saw was between helping people and being a doctor, so that was that: I was going to be a doctor.

I did well enough in high school and found myself at the world's best public university: UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, In my first year of classes, I failed and I failed hard. I wanted to major in biochemistry then go to med school then residency etc etc, but I wasn't passionate about biology or chemistry and the classes were so... boring. I knew I had to pivot but I just didn't know where to. I had so much tunnel vision about being a doctor that I had failed to open my eyes and see other opportunities. 

Thankfully, Berkeley had my back. They came out with the data science major and after hearing a friend who happened to be in the first data science class talk about the program, I decided to take some classes on whim and that's when I met the love of my life: programming. It sounds cheesy but after the first day of classes, I knew that I had found what I wanted to do. Even though it was too late to switch into the official computer science major, I carved out my own path within the data science major and consistently worked to prove myself to be on par with, if not better than, my peers who had been coding for years. It took six semesters of late nights, some tears, and lots of coffee but in the end, I found myself at DevRev on the AI/ML and backend teams. 

The best part about it all is that I never had to give up on my ultimate goal of helping people; at DevRev, I get to create a product that will help millions of users, a number of people that I can't even begin to fathom. Life doesn't always go the way you want it to go and sometimes the path that you want to take isn't the path that's right for you. I'm thankful I was able to find my way to a path that I enjoy and I'm excited that we're building will help others find and focus on their own paths.

Violex Ming

I truly believe that life is something where every moment should be enjoyed and lived with complete energy, even when doing the most mundane of the tasks. This present moment, be it with parents, kids or colleagues will not come again !I am not writing this from a quote copied from somewhere but something I truly believe in.

I was born in a middle class educated family in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Both my parents had a passion for education and always encouraged us kids to do our best in whatever task at hand. We were instilled with the value of self respect and being respectful/helpful to others in the society. After finishing my Engineering, I went to the US to pursue a Masters in Computer Science. 

My first job was at Oracle in the Bay area.  I had the opportunity to be part of the Database Security team where I worked with some of the most talented and knowledgeable people. In the next twelve years at  Oracle, I grew not only as an engineer but also as a person. I developed repetitive stress injury on my hands to the extent that even driving a car was painful. I overcame it with exercise, yoga and sheer positive energy.  Looking back, I think this is the best thing that ever happened to me. Only tough times make you more compassionate, empathetic and better individuals.

On the personal front, I wanted to be there for parents and have them enjoy time with my kids. I moved from the Bay area to Bangalore eight years back. It was a bold move when I moved to India with my husband and two school going daughters. I am very happy I made the decision. 

During the last eight years, working in the Oracle's Database Cloud Services area, I saw PaaS and SaaS  grow in leaps and bounds. I got an opportunity to work on Oracle's Autonomous Databases and realized that gone are the days of traditional DBAs and that the world of automation is the present and future. I got a call from DevRev at this juncture in my career. DevRev's idea to automate mundane tasks and allow developers to work on real stuff (as opposed to triage and maintenance issues) is something I could relate to and appreciate as a developer. I was thrilled when I got onboard DevRev.  I believe there is a solution for every problem. You just need the right attitude. This "can do and will do " approach with humility is what makes DevRev special and unique. I feel honored and excited to be part of the DevRev team.

Srividya Tata

I believe in destiny and the power of propitious timing. “There’s a perfect timing to everything, trust the delays, he’s got you”. As a child I was passionate about sports, badminton being my first love I would say. When that didn’t work out well I wanted to study in one of the finest tech universities in India and explore! Design for me happened by fate. Soon enough I realised how interesting it is and there, I embarked on my journey to learn design and problem solving only to realise there’s no going back. As I matured and did a couple of internships, I realised how much I love product thinking and design to think of anything else as a career option.
  

For most of the time in last 3 years, I have dreamt of building world class products and begin on a Zero to One journey. When I got to know about DevRev, it was a no-brainer and thought this is the one in a lifetime opportunity to imagine, dream and build everything that I have always wanted to. I want to be a great designer and DevRev just seems the right opportunity to learn and grow! Looking forward to work with the amazing DevRevelers.

Ankit Jain

Ever since I was a kid, my parents always told me that I should pursue a career in something that I enjoy doing. At the time, it didn't make much sense because I only liked playing video games :) When I did my first Android development course, I knew straight away that this was it. This is what they were talking about, and I want to pursue it.

There have definitely been ups and downs on the journey that I've started, but I realize my passion for the work all over again with every new beginning. It's the constant change of architecture, patterns, and technology that keeps me on my toes, keeps me wanting to learn new things and approaches each day. With learning new things, I also learned that there are no impossible challenges, and I like to believe that only the sky is the limit when bringing new ideas into life.

Another aspect of my career (as a remote developer) is that I love getting to know people all over the world. Getting to know their cultures, cuisines (I do like to eat :D) views, and also ideas that sometimes expand my horizon. And with that said, I found my other passion - traveling :). 

Joining a startup like DevRev is exactly what brings those things into the light. Creating a product I can see disrupting the industry and standing behind something like that is what I can see myself doing. I believe the journey for starting DevRev will bring great new experiences in my life, and I look forward to seeing the growth of the product from the front line.

David Breskvar

Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.

I belong to a middle-class family where I am the first to get an undergraduate degree. My father owns a bookshop, and I remember when I was a kid, I used to try to read the books from our shop even though I didn’t understand a single word. My parents always motivated me to try anything I liked and taught me to embrace my failures and become a better version of myself after failing. I failed many competitive exams and always tried to give my best in the next exam, which led me to pass some prestigious exams.

As a life-long learner, I believe there has been a significant factor in my growth- my curiosity to explore things. 
Being at DevRev, I firmly believe there will be enough opportunities to satisfy my curiosity. I am excited to join DevRev at my early career as well as products’ early stage, as I always wanted to be part of something greater than just individuals, something big which could revolutionize the way things work in today’s world, and I think DevRev has the plan, team and the motivation to do it.

Kush Trivedi

My story is that of an average guy. Brought up in a small city, I was a shy, introverted who was decent at studies. One thing that caught me early was curiosity. It has been my driving force ever since. I was fascinated by science and maths during my school days. I remember, back in school I came to know about "unsolved mathematics problems". I used to think how hard maths can be, picked up some random problem, and wasted hours trying to move forward (poor, silly me).

I also spent a lot of time reading books (mostly Encyclopedias) all my childhood. As I grew up, I started developing many more inclinations: watching soccer/football, playing soccer/football (still pretty bad at it though), messing around with physics, playing with dogs, cycling, traveling to unknown places, and many more. 

Once I moved to university, I heard about this term called coding. I did get into it initially but only in the third year did I seriously 'find out' programming and that is when I fell in love with it. This was my first coming-of-age experience with something so fascinating and so vast. I tried and played with multiple languages in college.

I then worked with a healthcare-based startup. I experimented with different technologies there, learned a lot, and became the 'Jack of all trades'. With every new thing I learned, I discovered 10X awesome things that I didn't know about. As Einstein once said, "The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know". I eventually decided to move to DevRev because I believe this is the place where I can grow manifold. Can't wait to work with amazing people to build something magnificent.

Growth Team

Lakshya Khattar

I have always believed in the power of getting early into action, stepping out of my comfort zone, and trying new challenges. I have seen people spending way too much time on planning, like trying to time the market before investing, waiting for the right time to start etc., not realizing that there's never a right time. It's all about starting today and being consistent in your efforts. Sharing a quote really close to my heart "A year from now, you will wish you had started today".

Born and brought up in a middle-class family, I realized the importance of hard work pretty early in life. I did well enough in high school and made it to one of the best engineering colleges in India: BITS Pilani. Those four years at BITS have been some of the best years of my life so far. I was surrounded by some of the brightest minds, which helped me become a better version of myself.

I started my software development journey with Nutanix and then moved to Microsoft, before joining DevRev. I realized pretty early that I enjoy building products that can bring a positive change in people's life. When I got to know about DevRev, it was a no-brainer. Building a product that is going to make the lives of millions of people out there so much simpler sounded really exciting & fulfilling and I immediately decided to join the flock. I'm really excited to work with such an amazing team here and looking forward to what the future holds for us!

Shivam Gupta

I did not own a computer until I was thirteen. And I did not have access to the internet until I was eighteen when I started studying medicine at the University. Because of this, I developed a rather pragmatic relationship with technology. I never used computers to play games or watch videos much. I mainly use them to try and make my and other peoples' lives easier.

I say "mainly" because something changed during my first programming task. I was extracting MESH descriptors from medical articles when it hit me: designing and coding algorithms can be fun on their own. I did not care much that I had to deal with XML. Or that I needed to use Perl. Creating something that solved a real problem was all that mattered.

The components I used at that time were simplistic out of necessity. I did not have the programming experience to use anything complex. But with my stubbornness, I managed to get things working.

So, where does the sine wave fit in this story? For me, it represents the three virtues I value the most: simplicity, resourcefulness, and perseverance.

The sine wave on its own is rudimentary. And it is hard to imagine that it could be helpful in anything serious. But if we put some effort into stacking multiple copies, we can mimic any other wave. And the more we stack them, the better result we will get.

So here I am, trying to stack sine waves at DevRev ;)

Tadej Borovšak

My career began serendipitously when I found myself in need of a job, unsure of what to do, and turned an internship into an incredible adventure. That adventure has brought me from advertising to manufacturing, from Minnesota to over 45 countries, and from small, entrepreneurial companies to multiple Fortune 100s.

I've had these opportunities because of the support around me, coupled with an ethos instilled within me from a young age.  My grandfather was an Iowa corn & soybean farmer and taught me as a child to "get your work done first, then play".  I first saw at University that some of the most rewarding parts of life come from things you have to work the hardest to achieve, but also that it's possible to have a lot of fun in the process! 

I’m fortunate to have an incredible support system around me, which has led me to be a glass-half-full type of person, focused on what we can do vs. what we can't.  These experiences have created a deep-seated desire to achieve the goals of the team by engaging across boundaries to find new solutions or opportunities.  You never know what the next twist, turn, meeting or trip may take you. 

Because life has taught me to always be prepared for that next moment of serendipity, when I began to understand what DevRev was building, I knew this would be my next adventure.  I could see being a part of this incredible team would push me out of my comfort zone, to be inspired by new ways of thinking, to learn from new diverse perspectives, and definitely to have some fun!

Mollie Holland

Learning new things has always been a constant force in my life. I like trying new things, love to take risks, and never get afraid of failures in life. There is always learning involved in each step and that's what drives me. 

I am just another guy from a hamlet that has not changed ever since. I grew up in a modest home, with parents willing to sacrifice their part of bread for my education and they did. I have been raised lavishly in terms of education in a family that could not afford it. From a very young age, I knew I had to be their backbone, I had to at least try to repay them for spoiling me so well. Hence, I never took my education for granted. 

I studied hard. Throughout school, I made sure to be competitive, to be the first in line. When I finished school, I chose the line of education I knew would pay me well. I did not get into an esteemed college the first time, so I dropped a year. Gained perspective about life, family, and everything else I could from that one year. Dropping that one year changed my life, made me who I am right now, or at least used to be before the pandemic. 

I have always lived a life of simplicity. A life that is not led by the materialistic attraction of this world but through nature, peace, and sustenance. Here, when I say sustenance, I mean preserving the qualities that make me who I am. I am a commoner, never having the dream of being in the limelight, even if it’s for the right things. 
Apart from that, the only thing essential in my life is travel. Traveling and connecting with nature is therapeutic to me, an essential that keeps me sane.

The people and culture brought me to DevRev. Right from the start of the interview process, I can see the people possess the four cultural values and it convinced me greatly to get onboard on a journey of learning and creating something great together.

Divanshu Aggarwal

I think the circumstances and the experiences I had till now, have molded me into someone who is pragmatic but at the same time, ambitious with a bit of naivete. For a large part of my college life and till now, I have been an intern. And I definitely think I will and should never lose this intern mentality. 

Interns have tremendous potential to “absorb” whatever they are seeing around them and be humble at whatever job they are doing. These qualities can be handy, at any stage of one’s career.
Building something gives me an immense sense of responsibility and inspires me to think more. Looking forward to have a great journey ahead at DevRev.

Shashank Singh

I’ve always been a fan of curiosity, and find joy in learning things. I’ve a zeal for improving myself and making myself better everyday. The idea of building something that enhances the lives of people has always fascinated me, and I strive to walk on that road.

During my college days, there wasn’t ever a time when I wasn’t learning or building something. It made me feel involved and happier.

As a new graduate, I’ve a lot of things I want to learn, and I find that DevRev will be the best place to kickstart my career. As DevRev is in its early stage, I’m excited that I’ll get to learn a lot here.

Looking forward to starting an awesome journey as a DevRevler!

Nitesh Dubey

From the very beginning, one thing that has enticed me eminently is the life cycle of a product,  the journey of an idea to prototype to bringing it to life that will be solving real-life problems. Being a person who is immensely inspired by movies and anime, there is a very famous dialogue "There is no shortcut to becoming a Hokage". The same is very true when it comes to product development. There are no shortcuts to building a great product and this is what fuels me to wake up every day and do my work. It is the desire to know the process behind the product-creation culture as in how people from different social-economic backgrounds come together to solve a problem and in the process, they create something so astounding that will reach out to millions and millions of people thus making the world a bit better than before.
Software Engineering is one of the professions that have an exceptional impact in bringing the above dream true. As Shakespeare has said, "Time travels at different speeds for different people", for me it gallops when I am working on a problem or developing a feature. From discussing potential ideas to participating in multiple hackathons to developing an entire social media of my own, and still, I haven't even scratched the surface. It is this field that made it possible to build a Billion Dollar company sitting in your college dorm room which is helping people in ways that no one could imagine. So if someone asks me, "Why Software Engineering?". There is only one answer that comes to me, "I was too lazy to get out of my comfy chair but too ambitious to give something back to the society.
So, here am I starting a new chapter of my life which probably will be written in Javascript, Java, and who knows how many languages. Always ready for some production bugs and hope to keep releasing new and better versions in the future.

Shivam Budhia

I’d been a reader and a puzzle solver since the first few days that I can recall. My first few toys had been puzzles and Software engineering is yet another puzzle solving exercise that gives me the parallel of creating an impact while tinkering with my logical side. Reading and writing have continued as well. Starting out with science fiction, I’ve fallen for works around human behavior and psychology. As of June 2022, I’ve gifted 7 copies of the book Atomic Habits on 7 different occasions. As with investments, I strongly believe in the compounding power of atomic practices in daily life. One of the fundamentals that I try to live by is to spend 15 mins on learning something new on a daily basis. This singular habit has contributed significantly towards the progress that I’ve made so far.

While pursuing a degree in Electronics, I had stumbled upon web development by chance, and I had quickly begun to love the sense of impact that I gained by putting my code out there and I had already made up my mind before the end of my degree. DevRev too has started similarly by chance, but midway into the process, it is one of the easiest career decisions that I’ve ever made.

Saransh Gupta

As an only child, I was raised in a family that had endured many hardships in communist Albania. My parents sacrificed and went through a lot to support me and give me a better life than they had. A parent's primary goal is to raise their kids in a world better than theirs. Ever since I was born, my parents sacrificed their ambitions and dedicated their lives to that one goal.

Growing up in a small city, opportunities were very limited, and my path was set. I was to finish my education and take over my family's business. That did not sit well with me. I wanted to be free and do exactly as I liked. I believed back then, and still do, that freedom is the true meaning of joy, and joy leads to happiness. "Stand up and walk. Keep moving forward. You've got two good legs. So get up and use them. You're strong enough to make your own path." - this quote from one of my favorite fictional characters as a kid really affected me. As much as I appreciated that path my parents laid out for me, a path that many kids around me envied, I wanted to abandon it and build my own. The first stone in my own road was winning my first Math Olympiad in second grade. Since then, I have repeated my achievement year after year. In ninth grade, I went to my first International Math Olympiad, and I realized how much bigger and more advanced the world outside of my country was. I realized that if I wanted to keep chasing after my own freedom, I could not do that in my current environment. Therefore, I decided to move to the capital of Albania and continue high school in my country's best high school. I continued getting my math achievements, which opened the door to Vanderbilt for me. During my four years at Vanderbilt, I changed from Math to Computer Science, as I believed that would give me a freer future and allow me to become a builder—free to create what I wanted, use what I wanted, and do what I wanted.

And now, I have decided to start my career at DevRev, a company that I believe will give me the best opportunity for growth and help me keep moving on the path I have been building for myself. My motivation might seem trivial, but I have to move forward as I have to live up to the hopes of the ones who have supported me. The "two good legs" supporting my walk down this path have been my parents. Before I can continue to the future I dream of, I first need to let go of the past and repay my debts to my family. To provide them with a better life than what they have. My work will not be complete until I find my way to make the world a freer place so that everyone can be free to build and follow their own paths.

Safet Hoxha

Born and raised in San Jose, CA. I've always had a love for Technology. My grandfather, a computer software engineer would often bring over the latest software, game, or gadget. I'll never forget the day he brought over our first computer. It wasn't the best looking one but at my age, I was excited to be able to explore something new. I would spend a great number of hours exploring each program and how it worked. Over-time as technology progressed, my interest for it grew. Technology plays a huge role in my life today in everything I do. From using Notion and Trello to manage my projects to using productivity apps to strategically organize my day.

Patrice Robinson

I grew up in the municipality of New Belgrade, in one of the largest cities in the region. The municipality was built as a planned city on reclaimed land which used to be a swamp. This unusual set of residential blocks was heavily inspired by the Housing Unit design principle developed by the famous french architect Le Corbusier. The municipality strictly followed brutalist architectural style and philosophy. Despite this architecture style being heavily criticised, I believe that it represents the embodiment of the startup mindset. It is offering essentially a new approach based on a new technology for known challenges.

Experience of building a shortwave radio for a local school competition inspired me to become an engineer. I was equally inspired by the rewarding results of making something useful and the opportunity to understand how the system I've just created actually operates. Unlike many others I was rarely satisfied by the fact that it just works. Quite contrary, every successful project inspired me to learn, experiment and understand about the system internals. This quest for learning what's under the hood continued and profoundly impacted the soon-to-follow humble software development episodes. While learning in those years unavoidable BASIC I wasn't satisfied just with the results. Instead, I had to understand how this code is actually executed. This urge to understand the technology and purpose of every single component in the system stayed with me ever since. It actually helped me a lot.

Thirty years forward, I'm again at the beginning of a new journey. I've spent my whole professional career building and creating software driven products. In all these years I've learned to follow the instinct both when designing but also when choosing the next challenges. Leaving a well established telecom company 8 years ago and joining the startup needed a lot of courage. The decision raised some eyebrows. I've followed my instinct and it proved to be the right decision. The product I've helped create there changed the market and customer perception. Such a decision as well as many other choices I've made wouldn't be possible without the unconditional support of my wife to whom I owe a lot. She has always been my huge supporter. We are blessed with a son, and I have to express a huge thanks to both of them.

Just before joining DevRev I discovered a new word - serendipity. It is after all not only about instinct. The reason for joining DevRev is not building yet another software product, but to actually help the software industry transform itself. After so many lines of code, meetings, designs, and projects postmortem analysis, I've concluded that there is something inherently inefficient in the established development processes. Creation of software products is in a way an art, not just an engineering. The artistic part in the process is predicting customer expectations but also predicting product journey and adding the prediction in product design. This is what makes some products great. What really matters to customers is the experience that starts with "unboxing". Maybe even more important is the product support years after the initial purchase. Maybe the most comical description of customers' expectations could be found in the movie "Sleeper", when a protagonist tries and successfully starts the engine of a 200 years old Beetle.

Today we are missing a tool for improving customer experience. Once again, I'm going to try to make a tool which will change the market and our perception of what's possible.

Mladen Barjaktarević

I strongly believe that learning has no age. As human beings we learn something everyday consciously or subconsciously; we are absorbing tons of data. We might as well pick something worthwhile, something that adds value to our lives.
I was born in Mussoorie and spent most of my time close to nature. My mom worked really hard to provide for us. I am extremely grateful for my mom to teach us conviction, diligence, integrity and importance of growth right from the beginning. Being the eldest I took care of my siblings; which helped me understand the concept of responsibility and empathy at an early age. I loved going to school. It was at this beautiful location with a lots of oak trees and just the calm that I found when we snuck out to go to a lawn in the middle of the jungle down the hill during lunch hours was surreal. Even today I enjoy mountains more than anything.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family dynamics, human behaviour always intrigued me. I would spend hours pondering on social concepts, cultures, religions, biases  and why we do what we do, etc.!? Although, I don't have all the answers today but I do take time to learn about what, why and how of life.  Engineering happened by chance and in that duration I explored a whole new world of possibilities and how I was one step closer to problem solving for the real world. While, I was pursuing my masters I began to become more interested towards the user experience part of the process along with technical aspects; which made the front-end job very exciting. It allowed me to be part of something where I could contribute organically and at the same time helped me dwell into the user experience part as well. 
Apart from this, I love watching web series'/documentaries/movies/videos etc. I consume a fair amount of content on astrophysics; it helps me grab a hold on reality. It shows how much is out there yet to be explored; how fragile life really is and yet here we are trying to make most of it. I try to learn ways to be more self-aware as nothing/no-one holds the power to bring changes in yourself but you and the road starts from being self aware. I try to pick up new hobbies every now and then to test my limits. I hope to continue doing so as I grow older.

Meenakshi Sharma

In high school, I had a choice to opt between Economics and Computer Science. I remember choosing Computer Science purely because I could get a chance to play with a computer (I did not own a computer at the time). I was introduced to programming a few patterns and displaying them. I instantly loved the idea of writing a few lines of code to manifest these patterns. Even today building something through code excites me. 
There were a host of reasons for me to join DevRev. I was very impressed with the product itself, and I also wanted to test myself at a start-up. But the most crucial factor that helped me decide was the people I spoke to during the interview process. Each and everyone of them showed great passion when they talked about DevRev, and I could sense a genuine excitement in their voice. I wanted to be part of that, so here I am.
I see to it that whatever I am doing, may not necessarily be coding, I put everything into it as I have experienced satisfaction and happiness when I am completely involved. This has helped me grow as a person and helped me in my career.

Manohar Rajaram

Everybody has a subconscious longing for leading a happy life where you are at peace with yourself. As this feeling materializes into a conscious desire, the urge to find oneself happens. Something similar hit me in 2013 as I started my studies in Hyderabad, and I needed to find my zen. I started trying different things to see what resonated with me. My alma mater IIT Kharagpur provided me with a lot more avenues to discover myself. I liked building things, and the fact that one can develop entire ecosystems with Software fascinated me. I tinkered around with pet projects, attended hackathons, and realized my love and knack for it. Looking back, I feel everything is connected. My love for engaging the left side of the brain led me to prepare for IIT. And my love for building things led me to a career in Software Engineering.
I stumbled across DevRev at the right time as I was looking to join an early-stage SaaS company where I could create an impact. My decision to join was a no-brainer as I could feel that being a part of such a driven team would only push me beyond my limits.

Mahesh Medam

One Saturday afternoon, when I was 6 years old, we went to the hockey hall to watch a game. Ice hockey impressed me and made me want to step on the ice. I started playing hockey the following week when my parents bought me my first gear. I played hockey throughout elementary school. In high school, I finished playing hockey and started playing floorball. I still play floorball, now only recreationally, once a week.

Participating in team sports has shaped my personality and taught me many lessons that are also important in everyday life. I learned to trust, help, motivate, work together, set goals, find strategies, and manage stress. A team that works in the spirit of “all for one, one for all” can overcome many obstacles and win a lot of victories. If we train hard, trust, and help each other, nothing is impossible. Above all, I learned through sports that falling is part of life and that we are even stronger and more determined to win the goal after every fall.

When I was given the opportunity to join the DevRev team, I grabbed it with both hands. DevRev works as one big synchronous team, where all the players work hard, motivate, and teach each other, are determined, and are committed to the same goal. I am optimistic because teams with such a spirit and mentality achieve great victories.

Luka Košenina

Nothing is impossible in this world as long as you are willing to attempt and each attempt provides new exposure and unlocks the possibilities of experiences you have been missing in life. It's one life, experience it all as Experience is the real treasure. I always believed that I could do more than what I am satisfying, create more impact, touch more lives, change things for good and that is what kept me driving towards different paths in life and career. It is important to me to be honest and disciplined to the cause, that's the ONLY way of life. DevRev comes to me just at the time when I felt I needed to grill myself at unknown things and do justice to my potential. It's so visionary (& dreamy) how DevRev is looking for not just the most brilliant minds (to do the job) but also the honest hearts (to do it right); hiring people for not just what they know but for who they are. And that is a recipe of Trust and Success to me.

Khushboo Mittal

Long ago, when I was just a high school kid. I had a teacher who would tell us many adventures stories that she had been with her husband. One story that I cannot forget was about risking skydiving. She spoke about facing fears, learning to be strong, and living on the edge, but honestly, none of that surprised me. 

But a student suddenly interrupted my teacher and asked how they had so much time to take up all these adventures. I was quite surprised too, but something she mentioned almost changed my life. I know this might not sound like a great deal, but she said, "Mind you, A person who says they don't have time in life has already failed.", But for some reason, this always stuck with me. 

Whenever I felt to quit something, I always told myself I could push myself a little more. Whenever I had a feeling that I should not be trying something risky, I always promised myself to take the risk. This kind-of mentality eventually set up my belief system, which turned out to be my profound core memory (Like from the movie Inside-Out).

Intern

Jeevan Surendran

As soon as I read in a kid's magazine about “Ad Genius” Jeski Yi and his eye-catching ad campaigns, I immediately knew that advertising would be my destined goal. As a 12-year-old child, I spent all night toying with my mom’s lagging laptop and stitching fun images to craft my own ads work.

My desire to create only deepened as I grew up. In high school, during my first visit to New York City for a school trip, I was utterly enchanted by the huge electronic billboards of Times Square. I was standing still and staring up at the billboards, captivated by the colorful lights beaming from magnificent signs. I let myself showered with colors, as I told myself that someday I would have my own ads up there.

However, my move away for college brought me to California instead. Everything there seemed opposite to what I had dreamed of. All my friends seemed eaten up by their monitor screens, obsessed with dull coding and programming. Desperate, I sought anything I could do to ignite my inner passion, from joining creative clubs to winning ads awards.

Ironically, all my creative work seemed to be too shallow, and none of them was enriching really. I began to question myself as I achieved more and more — What, or why am I even creating? A different kind of passion was instilled then.

I started to envision creativity as a “value.” Values can change over time. Values can change as society evolves. Values can change as people accept them. Now, what values am I going to embrace with my creativity? How will I understand, or measure, the values that I create?

Flying to New York, I stop by a cafe at Times Square and grab a seat by the window. I sit back and close my eyes while colors wash over me. My journey to answer inner questions has begun just now, with my long-been passion to create staying inside of me.

Here at DevRev, I am so ready for this new adventure.

Revenue Intern

Hyun Jie Jung

Growing up in the by-lanes of old Mumbai, friends were life and cricket the religion, the young mind knew no fear and was confused. I wanted to join a culinary school (Yes, I am a damn good cook and so says my daughter ☺) but got beaten into engineering though I hated math and science. In the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s in a middle-class Indian household you were deemed successful only if you were an Engineer, Doctor or Chartered Accountant. However, the best part was that I saw it through, that I believe was my first show of grit & it instilled much needed confidence in me. 

Starting out in customer support, in a short-time I realized this is what I enjoyed, loved every bit of breaking and fixing machines, interacting with customers, solving their problems, and building relationships with customers, partners and colleagues. These have stood the test of time, some of them went on to become CxO’s and have helped me learn and grow. 

The lessons I have learnt…

- Invest time in relationships. I am still friends & close with my gang from school….!!! 
- You can never be successful alone. When you are successful there is always someone looking after you & helps comes in different ways. 
- Always…Always…Always…Be humble, help anyone you can and remember those who helped you. You are just a means to execute the plans of the almighty. 
- Talent is useless without determination, grit & perseverance.
- Customer is King, never lie to them, never let them down!!!  

Being comfortable in my day-to-day job made me uncomfortable. I needed a challenge, joining DevRev provides me an opportunity to build from scratch, challenge the existing systems and norms. Working with young and talented colleagues is a learning and I am looking forward to it so much…

Gaurish Lawande

You can only find a solution once you have found a problem.

Whether it be a theoretical math problem or a practical engineering problem, I've always been drawn to complex problems, even if at first the task seems impossible. I’m one who enjoys sitting down for a few minutes or a few hours just to think about a problem, trying to break it down and explore various solutions. There are few things that can beat the rush of finding an ingenious solution that is simple, clean, and elegant.

For me, problem-solving is not just another skill on a resume. It is not just something you do for a few hours at work and forget about when you get home. It is an integral part of who I am, a part that is restless and never shies away when a challenge presents itself. It is something that is present in the back of your mind no matter where you are. I was at a track meet once, but they had no stickers for number 14. The organizers were starting to panic, but I suggested a simple solution: take a one from a number 11 sticker and a four from a number 24 sticker. 

Problem-solving is what motivates me every day to push my limits and go beyond what is required. It is the reason why I will always try to solve extra credit or challenge problems, even if I do not need the grade boost. It is the means through which I can better understand myself, others, and the world around me.

When I first learned about DevRev, I saw a collection of individuals that had identified a problem they wanted to solve, and I am excited to be a part of building the solution.

Engineering Intern

Eric Gan

I think like many people I felt I had something to prove, particularly as a woman in engineering. Entering university as a computer science student after being initially waitlisted, I felt I couldn’t ask for help or they’d know I didn’t belong. In my 3rd year I had to make the tough decision to change my major to something I could finish in three semesters or I wouldn’t graduate on time. It was the first time I could remember that I had truly failed at something.

After graduation, I took up running. I’m not a natural endurance athlete and I was, objectively, very bad at running. My first 5K took me nearly 50 minutes to finish. I was pretty close to what runners refer to as ‘DFL’ (Dead F*ing Last). But, I threw myself into the sport, spent hours reading about running speaking to other runners and of course running.

The next year I ran my first 50K (31 miles or, about 4.8 miles longer than a marathon).
The funny thing about ultra running is that no one really cares what your time is. The fact that you finished something longer than a marathon is impressive enough.

This taught me to run my own race and that it isn’t failure unless you DNS (Did Not Start). Even if you DNF (Did Not Finish), there’s another race next weekend. There’s a reason a DNS has a greater negative impact on your overall ranking in the sport than a DNF. Given a reasonable amount of time I can finish anything. Even if I’m initially, objectively, very bad at it.

Sure, it’s nice to get a medal, or be on a 30 under 30 list. But only doing what you’re good at can rob you of the opportunity for growth. Improving on sh*t I’m bad at, is 1000x more satisfying than continuing to do the same things I’m already good at.

If I can run 8+ hours through the woods with nothing to occupy me but my own thoughts and the occasional pickle juice and Vegemite sandwich, there isn’t a lot I can’t do.
To that point, after nearly failing out of undergrad while attempting to get a computer science

 degree, I took a year to reevaluate, went to community college where I built back my academic self confidence, and am now pursuing an MS in business analytics with a concentration in data science. A degree which requires a significant amount of coding. I wouldn’t say it comes easily to me but taking on new challenges in areas you may not be naturally talented in forces you to acquire a deeper understanding of the subject. Do sh*t you’re bad at, you won’t regret it.

Bonus points if you do it dressed as a koala.

Emily Dworkin

When I was a teen my family moved a lot and I had changed my school and living environment a couple of times with which I was very unhappy at the time. Leaving so suddenly I had to say goodbye to my close friends and schoolmates and move to a new location where I had to meet new people and make new friends over again. Throughout those life experiences, I have gotten comfortable with challenging the status quo and not being afraid of the future and what it holds but rather seeing it as a challenge and a new beginning for all the great opportunities to come.

While meeting new people and experiencing new things I’ve tried to grow and learn in as many aspects of life as I can. I learned to nurture and greatly value the genuine connections I’ve made over time.

DevRev is on a mission to help customers and developers better connect and communicate with each other and this effort of making communication easier and more direct attracted me here to help and innovate how people connect with each other.

Dario Gavranović

I started with a very humble background. My father came to the city from the village. He studied and worked hard and established himself as a good banker and great man to support his family. I grew up looking at him and was astonished with his abilities to do a variety of things irrespective of his background. For me it is a life lesson, that life is about a continuous learning process and experience is the best teacher. My mother also has a significant role in my growth. She always supported me in whatever endeavor I wanted to pursue. Support is something very important, especially when things are unpredictable and you are taking risks.

Doing my masters was a great learning experience. That enriched me not only in terms of academic growth but it improved my personality overall. It taught me about struggles, determination, perseverance and persistence to achieve success.

When things are going smooth there are times when you are shaken up. At that point you have two choices. Either get shattered and be miserable or bounce back and come out stronger. I had few such occasions in my life. I chose to bounce back and come out stronger. Another lesson that I learned from all this is that "You can't calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.". This does happen.

Moving back to India from the US was not an easy decision to make. But my belief is if you are good at something, place does not matter. You will always find a path for success. I truly believe in this.

Finally, I believe in this simple philosophy. Surround yourself with smart and humble people and in return you will grow yourself exponentially. Joining DevRev is one such decision to surround myself with smart and humble people and I am sure in return I will grow exponentially. The sky's the limit.

Amit Gosavi

Ever since childhood, I have been curious, curious to know, curious to learn. Learning something new drives me to focus on myself better, to hone my skills. From spending time at the library, reading comics as a kid to learning Indian Classical music and also trying my hands at dramatics, cricket and table-tennis, I have tried to cultivate my interest in different areas. They have helped me gain knowledge not only about the said activity but also pushed me, drove me to keep trying, striving to achieve, staying hungry for more and more. Even at school, I loved getting into important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation. That's when my love for Science and Mathematics began. I loved taking up new experiments, building models to understand and demonstrate how and why of the concepts I came across. Highlight of my school days would be in 7th grade, when my
project got selected at the National-level Science Fair and I had the honour of meeting the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Narendra Modi.
Data Structures and Algorithms captivated my mind when I joined college for my bachelor's degree in Engineering at DA-IICT. It led me to Competitive Programming, understanding key concepts of time and memory, which helped me build the foundation for my passion of building software. The passion to code eventually landed me an internship in my second year, followed by a full-time job offer before the placement cycle at college. For someone at 19 years of age, this was nothing short of a milestone. Outside of work, I enjoy playing chess, spending time reading or strumming my guitar and follow Cricket and Formula One, from where my motto drive to survive comes from. The thrill, the sheer hard work and commitment of not just the driver but also the pit crew to lead the team to the finish line and not just maintaining the performance but to improve every time ! The drive in my life being open to new opportunities, the urge to keep trying, give my best to excel at it. My hobbies have become my passion over time and they motivate me as much as my love for building software that generates value for the organisation and end-users - that also holds a great meaning for me! My drive for the next one, another day, another challenge!

Adit Shah

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