Open Source Geek, Subhranath Chunder; The Awesome Startup Employee from Reviews42 (Who’s Looking for a Bride)
Subhranath Chunder believes himself to be lazy and there’s nothing wrong with that because as someone rightly said, "Being lazy is the most potent trait that leads to great innovations." On a slightly serious note, Subhranath is a complete tech geek who loves digging technology, gadgets and is a big fan of Python- the language of course. So, what does Subhranath do? He is the Lead Architect of Reviews42 and leads completely on the technology team. And what is Reviews42?
In brief, Reviews42 is a product research platform which enables its users to buy the best products. Having raised capital from Blume Ventures and VentureEast, Reviews42 is a promising startup that is founded by Neeraj Jain and Surjendu Kuila.
Shifting back to Subhranath and how he landed up at Reviews42, he says, “Well, it all started around one and half years back. I was already working for the 3rd startup of my career, Knowlarity at that time. That's when Surjendu (co-founder) first found me on LinkedIn. After a brief discussion, I came to know of the sort of business he had in his mind, and of the role he had to offer. There were too many things happening and starting up on my own was also on my mind but after a lot of back and forth for about 4 months I decided to join Reviews42 as a part of the core team.”
Family Resistance?
This is a common issue with people who want to join startups would have. And it is understandable. Traditionally, Indians are not known as risk takers and the mind shift takes some time. “It was more of concern showing on their faces rather than any resistance. But, I guess they believe me for what I am, and understood my decisions. I'm always so happy about it!” explains Subhranath.
And in case of Subhranath, having always worked for startups, the case was a bit relaxed. “I just hope that everyone else also understands that here in India,” he adds and rightly so!
Work Satisfaction
This is the single most benefit a startup can offer. Always. And so is the case with Subhranath. “As a core member of the company, my role is to manage the entire technology side of the product. Right from devising a solution to a problem, deciding upon the technology stack, architecture of the product, to the people working on it and its implementation, everything is my responsibility,” he says. And this is huge motivation for anyone who wants to build something of value.
From hiring technical people, to assigning work to them, is all his work. “My entire technical team is very much hand-picked and they are really good at what they do. So it's pretty easy-going with our daily work and friendly environment,” he says about the culture.
The Motivation
"The entire work environment: The people, the work, new challenges, and the ever changing challenges that keep coming in. Unless you have a friendly and healthy work environment, where people assigned to their tasks keeps performing over and over again, you can't be motivated. Here we do, and this keeps us motivated," says Subhranath.
Another thing which keeps him going the flexibility. "Flexibility in terms of voicing in your opinion, flexibility in bringing about positive changes, working-hours, or mere flexibility to come up to office even on national holidays, by choice, is what matters. Having the liberty to play with the technology stack, is something which keeps me happy and motivated too," he adds.
And the bride hunt!
Here’s an incident that is worth sharing from Subhranath’s’ life:
It was a Saturday afternoon when I was coding my way to glory (as a founder there are very few days when I get to code) when an elderly gentleman entered our office. He walked towards me to strike a conversation; what follows below is a verbatim - to the best of my recollection of the incident - account of the conversation.
(From Surjendu's point of view now)
Stranger: I am looking for Subhranath. Does he work here?
Surjendu: Yes
Stranger: What does he do here?
Surjendu: He is our lead architect and takes care of our technology.
Surjendu: But, why are you looking for him?
Stranger: Talks are on, regarding a marriage proposal between my daughter and Subhranath. So I came to Delhi to get a first-hand account of where he works, how big is the office, etc.
This made me nervous. I am well equipped to run my company, but to be at the receiving end of a volley of questions, especially on someone else's nuptial matter made me shudder. But, then my sales avatar had already taken over me.
Surjendu: Oh great. Subhranath is a great guy. Sober, meritorious and is an intelligent chap. He has single-handedly built our entire platform. He would definitely do wonders in his career.
Stranger: All that is fine but how much does he earn?
Surjendu: He earns more than enough to take care of his family.
Stranger: But, why is your office so small. I was expecting a much larger office because your company name has no Indian tinge. Isn’t it a multinational? And, what about stability?
Surjendu: No Sir. You are mistaken. We are an early stage startup and we, being in the product business, do not require big buildings and workforce as you can find in companies such as Infosys, Wipro etc. This company is built by people with great pedigree; we have a great team and we are venture funded. We are here to make this company successful and stability is not an issue. We are here to stay and leave a mark. So you can be rest assured on those parameters.
But all these spiel fell into deaf ears. The elderly man was looking for a big sprawling office, social status of the company and despite putting in a lot of effort I could not make him understand that we do cutting edge work from this small office also.
And, I felt bad for Subhranath. He would have to wait for few more months to shrug of his "single" status.
We wish Subranath all the best in his journey and Reviews42 as well. We also hope this encourages some more people to take the startup plunge and follow what their heart says...
Do join us for Mobisparks on 24th of November to see this vibrant startup spirit in action!