Venkatesh Panyam hails from Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. He did his B.Tech in computer science from Jawaharlal Nehru Technical university in Anantapur.
His fascination with computers began when his brother got enrolled in college. That was when the first Windows PC was brought to his home.
Like many kids his age, Venky too played a lot of games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Bionic Commando among others. But he was keen on learning more about computers as well. Rebooting windows, fixing and updating software during the early days brought him closer to tech.
In college, he built web pages for his university and also designed them. It was in his campus placement that he landed his first job.
But, life is not peaches and cream everywhere we go. Things fall in line and sometimes they don’t. Before joining Rang De, Venkatesh Panyam was working in one of the leading firms in software development. After working for nearly three years as a developer, he decided to move on from the firm. He had some unpleasant experiences and wanted more for himself.
Venky decided it was time for him to get a change. He started looking for new jobs and shortlisted a few.
One among them was Habba. And that’s where it all began.
Habba is an e-commerce platform that supports handmade art crafts - an entity of Rang De. Venky came down to Bangalore from Hyderabad to give his interview. He had little idea about the working of the organisation but as he learned about it through the interview rounds he found it inspiring.
Venky took up the role of a Full Stack Developer. The work wasn't a lot different from his previous job. But the workplace really was. Venky said he would have a great time working at Habba because of the teammates. In his previous job, people were stressed out and barely discussed anything beyond work. At Rang De, he experienced a better work-life balance.
In his interview, he learnt what Rang De and Habba were enabling. This gave him a strong affinity for his work. Venky recalls that during his college days, he used to go to orphanages to teach children and help the community in little ways he could. He frequented old age homes and spent considerable time there. He says the same feeling comes to the fore when he works for Rang De. He feels like he is helping people leverage technology and use it for their benefit. And in that lies his fulfilment.
“Rang De has helped me to have a clear understanding of what kind of work I should take up’’ - Venky. He frequently gets offers to work on third-party gigs like building an online healthcare app, website etc. But now he only focuses on taking up work that has the power to impact people.
It has been five years since Venky joined Rang De. During his early days, he was on a sharp learning curve. He mentioned how Sunil D’monte, our Chief Technical Architect at Rang De supported him to learn spring-boot and other back-end stuff. After a year he started working on the Rang De platform, which was then transitioning from .org to .in, Venky was a part of the development from the beginning. In this transition, Swati Agarwal, our VP, Technology helped him a lot in understanding .org and has been very supportive in his journey.
Venky says he was able to take up work at a pace that suited him. He never felt rushed. Everything could be planned beforehand and the execution felt seamless.
Over the years, he has seen rangde.in evolve. He says the new platform is now more intuitive, modern and user-friendly - something the tech team has been working day & night to achieve. The UI/UX has been updated as per the current styles. He says it feels like Rang De is headed in the right direction when it comes to product development though there is still a lot to be done.
In the future, Venky is keen to work on new campaigns. The tech team picks up a lot of steam whenever Rang De switches lanes to explore new roads and it is teammates like Venky who make it happen.
If you wish to know more about the Rang De team, head here.