Home Kathmandu Leapfrog hosts Silicon Valley Experience Sharing and interaction session with IT students

Leapfrog hosts Silicon Valley Experience Sharing and interaction session with IT students

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Kathmandu, May 1, 2017: As many as 100 IT students in Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon were engaging with people having work experiences in the Silicon Valley. They discussed the work culture and innovation over there as well as the IT industry of Nepal at large.

The meetup was made possible by Leapfrog Technology Inc., a software company working on software development. Headquartered in Seattle, USA, the development center of the company is located in Kathmandu.

“Silicon Valley is not the only tech-hub these days. Numerous other cities are gearing up for the innovation and ICT development,” said Chris Sprague, CEO of Leapfrog initiating the session. An alumnus of Stanford University, Chris had worked for Oracle and some valley startups before starting his own company, OpenStudy, and later joining Leapfrog in 2013.

Similarly, Chandika Bhandari, Principal of company also shared his experiences of working at Microsoft for 7 years before he joined a tech-startup where he thinks he learned a lot and gained vast experiences.

Likewise, Himal P. Karmacharya, President and Chairman of Leapfrog, who did his Bachelors and Masters degree from MIT shared accounts from his work experience at Motorola. He had later joined Oracle, and D2Hawkeye (now Verisk IT) before returning Nepal in 2009 to co-found Leapfrog Technology Inc.

Chris shared on the occasion that they are hiring only the freshers since 2014, whereas they earlier used to hire experts or experienced ones. “Once you join Leapfrog as a novice, you will leave the company as a Ninja,” he shared explaining the personality and skills development possible at the company.

Clarifying that programming languages are simply tools to build a workable programme, Bhandari mentioned the necessity to have an idea of writing codes in multiple programming languages. “We need to be able to switch languages as required. We need to use it as required by our work,” he said.

Similarly, Karmacharya shared that we need to understand the value of fundamentals and professionalism: deadlines and commitment. “Once you make a commitment, you need to deliver it on time. It is a must have trait while working with foreign clients,” he said.

Sharing what one should keep in mind before starting a company, the experts mentioned it to be all about forming a team and keeping the team-members focused on the goal. “You need to build a team first, and include those in the team whom you completely trust, and whose DNA matches to yours.”

Giving an example of Instagram, initially a camera app which later evolved into one of the most used social media, Chis mentioned, “You need to be able to experiment, and change the course if the time demands you to do so. Don’t get attached to a wrong idea that doesn’t sell in the market.”