Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders

Harshil Parikh is the father of 2 daughters, as well as the father of 2 dogs. Most of the time spent outside of work is with his family, although he does love to cook, especially experimenting with pizza. Through his life, he has realized that sleep is overrated - humans can function on very little sleep... maybe not forever, but for a few weeks at a time. Through their experiences, Harshil and hi...

When asked what he does for fun, Gavin Mendel-Gleason likes to program for fun. He builds stuff in his spare time, as tech dominates his life. Outside of tech though, he has 2 daughters, and his family enjoys spending time outdoors, specifically in the alps. At Trinity College in Dublin, Gavin and his teammates were working on a project that required the storage and relation between loads of compl...

Jennifer Smith had an abnormal path to tech. She was born in upstate New York, and was not exposed to tech or startups or building companies during her early years. Post school, she interned at Lehman Brothers but didn't enjoy the feel of the money obsessed tribe. She went into management consulting for 7 years, which eventually led her into business school. Post that, she decided to stay in S...

Liam Gerada comes from an eCommerce background, building websites, stores, etc. He is passionate about providing people ways to find cheaper products through online commerce. Liam loves to solve problems, and finds it is hard to find a replacement hobby, now that his hobby has become his full time gig. He and his brother have worked together for years, as they do now on their current venture. They...

Today's episode is sponsored by Microsoft ! Guests: Girish Bablani and Junior Diarrassouba, two Microsoft employees at different stages in their career. One seasoned veteran at the company, and one up-and-coming engineer, who share how Microsoft has expanded their career horizons and provided many different opportunities for growth and experience. Questions: Junior, how long have you been work...

Addison Higham is a father of 2 kids, and has been married for 12 years. His family is of the utmost importance to him, and he has been happy to be able to balance his career and personal life along his journey. As he puts it - he has been a nerd since day 1, building, fixing and playing with computers from a young age. Along with his CS interests, his family was very entrepreneurial growing up. D...

Tutelage of Treehouse, sponsored by Treehouse ! Guest: Graham Morby is a Senior Software Engineer who works as a dev for hire. He has developed applications in Python, PHP, JS, Vue, and even coded BASIC in the 90's, hacking games for his Commodore 64. He's been doing computers since before they were cool. Questions: Tell me more about the book you are working on. How did you get into progr...

Irina Bednova started programming when she was a kid, starting out with a smash the cockroach game written in Delphi (which is object oriented pascal). She obtained her Computer Science degree in Russia, and moved to the UK to work in a few startups, including Monzo a popular fintech product. Outside of tech, she cycles her hobbies from time to time, and has landed on gardening at the moment, alon...

Andre Ferraz was influenced heavily by his parents, as they were both computer scientists. When he was 10 years old, his first science project was themed around computer hacking, which got a lot of surprise at the science fair. Outside of tech, he enjoys to surf on a short board several times a week and spends time with his family. Twelve years ago, Andre had the amazing idea to create a unique id...

Ever since he was a little kid, Robert Cooke always had a fascination with computers. Even when he was super young, when he didn't know much about them, he was still intrigued by this magic box. At the same time, he loved legos - but found it very expensive to expand his lego set. To contrast that, he could build as big as he wanted within a computer - and he was hooked. He built video games,...

Tutelage of Treehouse, sponsored by Treehouse ! Guest: Daniel McElroy is the Founder of the West Virgina Coding Club. He has been helping young people thrive for a number of years, in many different facets, and has started a number of businesses.  Questions: What is the West Virgina Coding Club?  In supporting the kids learning how to code, what sort of tooling do you use to help them thrive in le...

Tyson Kunosvsky was born in South Africa, and travelled a lot as a kid. When he was a kid, he was majorly influenced by his parents, who ran the Gottman Institute. It was his parents job to take the content that the Gottmans created, and deliver their research to the world, and Tyson helped them do that by building the first version of their learning management system. Outside of tech, he loves to...

Saksham Sharda likes to make short films, or anything that is related to videos. In fact, he has narrowed that down to creating trailers, which he attributes to being in the right role in marketing. He's always active in making social media clips, and is always recording everything (even the most boring moments, in his words). The founders of Saksham's current venture started out building...

Mike Cruz grew up in Guam, near Japan. He spent 18 years before moving to the US for college. He has always been in tech - everywhere from the Discovery Channel to startups like Trunk Club, and always in building tech products. He has a young family with 2 boys, and his oldest is getting into programming from the lens of gaming. He reflects on how far games have come these days, as they were much...

Tutelage of Treehouse, sponsored by Treehouse ! Guest: Dustin Usey is a Treehouse graduate and a full time technical evangelist for Treehouse. He has pursued numerous tech degrees, after switching careers from the Oil & Gas field into technology. Questions: How did you come across Treehouse? What attracted you to it? What skills did you have professionally that helped you learn faster? How man...

Gina Bianchini grew up in Cupertino in the 70's & 80's, which was a place where people were tinkerers and creators. What she learned from that experience was a deep appreciation for the interests and passions of people. When the early days of social tech happened, she fell in love with how they worked - specially around creating communities. Outside of tech, she played field hockey at...

Omer Rosenbaum lives in Tel Aviv, with his wife and 3 month old son. He loves to teach, and he shares his knowledge on his YouTube channel. He loves coffee, traveling, meeting new people, and learning languages (not just coding languages). In High School, he took an after school Pascal class - and he loved it. And around that time, he installed a virus on his computer, and established a new hobby...

Andreas Creten has been in tech for as long as he can remember, and even started a company when he was 18 years old. He is a family man, with 3 kids, which is what he spends most of his spare time. He likes to do carpentry as well, and he recently built a cabin in his garden, for him to work remotely. His bucket list item is to built a truly remote cabin in the forest someday. In the past, Andreas...

Tutelage of Treehouse, sponsored by Treehouse ! Guest: Cynthia Kao is the Executive Director at Operation Code. Previously, she has spent time as a combat journalist, and was deployed in the Air Force twice. She is passionate about serving and advocating for the families and for the military. Questions: What is Operation Code? In supporting our service members and spouses, what sort of tooling do...

Aria Hahn grew up in Okanagan, in British Columbia, Canada. She's always been on the entrepreneurial train, though at times she says she may not have known it. She started out studying business - but hated it. She eventually went into grad school (cause she wasn't ready to work full time). By the end of grad school and a small stint in teaching, she pursued her PhD in Genomix. When she obs...

Chakri Devarakonda finds it strange how he got into Quality Engineering starting out as a security guy. That being said, he can definitely see the intersection of both. Where he used to test a lot of security devices and labs, he has shifted into the quality side of things and ensuring things work properly. He is a family oriented guy, with 2 boys nearing the end of grade school. Three years ago,...

Ben Turner's grandfathers were both an entreprenuer. One grandfather went to Cornell, but ended up buying a fishing boat and then eventually, a hardware store. His other grandfather started a grain elevator after WWII, followed by going into real estate. He learned to be blind to risk, which is important in starting something new. Outside of tech, he likes to do outdoor activities, like kayaki...

Tutelage of Treehouse, sponsored by Treehouse ! Guest: Jason Gilmore is the CEO of Treehouse. He is also a principal at Xenon Partners, along with a startup advisor. He has spend many years as an engineer, consultant, and conference leader, along with making significant content contributions to prominent tech sites and writing several books on programming. Questions: How to you come to land in thi...

For Tom Hacohen, coding started when he was 9 years old. He took after school robotics classes which required coding... and once he stepped into the programming aspect, he realized he didn't really care about robots anymore. Outside of tech, he surfs, cycles, and longboards - when the conditions are right. When asked where he likes to longboard, he prefers the roads on a sunny day for long dis...

Mark Porter has always been fascinated with puzzles, so tech just fit for him and a great journey for him. He got his first 4k computer in middle school, and then moved into doing programming for the Department of Education. His big learning from this was that you can use tech to do social good. He's married with 5 kids, and as he puts it, they put up with his deep tech obsession. Mark joined...