Meet Ashish Derhgawen – Mobile Software Team

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members each month. 

Meet Ashish, a mobile software engineer specializing in mobile app development for Android. When he’s not debugging Bluetooth issues or writing an app from scratch he enjoys hiking through nature, ping pong, archery, and playing the guitar and flute.

What were you doing before working at Punch Through?

I went to Utah State University (in the beautiful little town of Logan, UT) where I completed my graduate studies in the field of Computer Science. Before that, I was in India and completed my undergrad in Computer Science. I briefly worked at Mobile Robotics Lab at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, where I built robots and wrote code to allow them to fly or drive around autonomously.

I found out about Punch Through from Colin, our founder. It’s a long story. But back in 2006, I was in India, and Colin was an engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He was participating in a robotics competition for which he was designing a robot that could find and shoot down moving targets, entirely on its own. I had worked on some computer vision-related projects, and one of my projects happened to be similar to what Colin was trying to build. He found out about my project from my blog and left a comment on one of my posts. That’s how we came in contact. We stayed in touch over the years, but had never met in real life. A few years later, he started Punch Through. When I moved to the US for grad school, I visited SF and met Colin in person. 

Later, I joined the team as an intern, and then stayed on as a software engineer.

What is your favorite thing about Punch Through culture?

I like the atmosphere. It’s a tightly knit group of people that feels like family. Everyone has a sense of humor, there’s a lot of laughter, and we all have empathy for each other and help each other out. Some of my coworkers are also my closest friends.

Tell me a story about your most memorable moment while working at Punch Through

I’ve always enjoyed the company retreats. It’s a nice way to meet the entire team and get to know everyone. On one trip, we went to San Luis Obispo in California. We toured a goat farm there, and it was a lot of fun playing with them and seeing how they made goat cheese.

What cool or rewarding things do you get to do on a regular basis?

At Punch Through, I get a lot of opportunities to work on a wide range of projects. This gives me a lot of experience working on different hardware and software platforms, as well as working with different clients. This keeps work new and interesting.

I get satisfaction knowing that the work that I’ve done for a client helped them solve a problem. The best feeling that I get is when I know that something I’ve contributed to is being used by people and making their lives better in some way.

What is the most valuable part of your work to you on a personal level?

I’m happy to know that my work contributes to the success of the project and helps the company we’re working with. I like knowing that whatever I’m doing is important and making an impact in this world.

What is different about Punch Through versus other places you have worked?

The atmosphere. We’re an unusual place in a sense that what makes Punch Through different is that we’re casual. Casual while being very professional about our work. The atmosphere here feels laid back and friendly, everyone is highly motivated and has a “can-do” attitude. It makes me happy to be surrounded with such positive and skilled engineers.