Ashish Kulkarni was born and brought up in Dombivli, Mumbai. He is merely a 17 years old and the website developer of one of the biggest trekking companies in India, Trek Mates. He started his journey by making basic html static pages. He took interest in the web designing subject in his college. Later, he started developing dynamic websites and within an year he created a social network called Bloup. He was approached by a company called Keyhire for making chatbot for their company. Ashish started learning android programming and further developed two apps, Eventalk and Attiry. Let’s know more about this brilliant mind:
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When did you decide to do programming when did it all start?
Before finishing my school, I had a lot of interest in technology and how computers and everything works. After my SSC, I learned C and C++. I got a clear understanding of a lot of things after that. Soon I started learning all other languages and frameworks. I learned web languages at first. Html, CSS and Javascript. Then I learnt python, Django, Java and Android. I soon began to notice that I was really good at this.
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How did you get inspired to be a programmer?
I always loved computers and technology. I always had a curiosity of how everything worked. I have a habit of seeing something technological and going beyond it. How it would have been built and all that. That is what inspired me and got me started.
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Tell us about your greatest strength and support system in your journey so far.
Well, my greatest strength and support are my family. Specially my brother, Aditya. And my best friend, Arthav. These guys motivated me and kept me going.
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Tell us about your educational background.
I went to Vidya Niketan, Dombivli for my schooling. I am currently doing my diploma from KJ Somaiya, 2nd year in polytechnic.
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Who is your role model in the field, someone you look upto?
Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs.
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Tell us about the social network ‘Bloup’ created by you.
It was a social network for creative people to connect with other like-minded people to write and share stories. We created it in June 2016. We had around 300 members and many writers. Unfortunately, due to not having enough funds and not having any income from the venture, we had shut it down in November. Anyway, I have collected enough funds by building websites so that I can now build something like that again.
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What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself in the coming five years?
Well, I want to start my own venture. I am working on something. Let’s hope it takes off. In the coming years, I really want to make a change, a dent in the universe. I have high goals.
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What all problems did you face in your journey so far, as a programmer?
Well, I did face a lot of problems. Not enough capital was one of the biggest. That was the main reason why I had to close Bloup. I had a lot of members and active users but I was not able to afford servers and there was no income from the website too. Second was not enough people to work with. I tried searching people to work with me on my projects but no one was that skilled for the job at my age. I did it anyway, though it took more time.
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What advice would you give to young students who have just started out in the field of programming?
My advice would be to keep practicing and not lose hope. It’s hard at first and you’d face a lot of problems. But just keep going. Mark Zuckerberg says “move fast and break things. Unless you’re breaking stuff, you’re not moving fast enough”. This is what I follow.
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What would you suggest for our country in the terms of betterment at technology?
We are already advancing in technology. But we still need good people to take India further in the race of technology among other countries.
