Name: Andrew Kirpalani
Bio: I’m a series of contradictions, a developer who scored better on the SAT verbal than the math, nerd who loves playing sports and a beer connoisseur who loves a long day tailgaiting and drinking Coors Light. The list goes on …
Title: Software Engineer
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Age: 30
Residence: Des Moines, Iowa
Website: andrewkirpalani.com
Twitter: @_kirps
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kirps
Intro music: “Deep in the Levels” by The White Panda
Silicon Prairie News: Living in Des Moines but working for a company, Ensighten, that’s based in Cupertino, what are some rules of the road you follow to make the most out of working remotely?
Andrew Kirpalani: Well, I’ve just started the remote arrangement — this is the end of my second week — but so far I’m forcing myself to adhere to a routine as much as possible, still starting work at approximately the same time I would if I were in an office here, etc. I am allowing a few indulgences however. I eat breakfast every morning at Baby Boomers around the corner from my apartment, and I don’t have to take it to go anymore. The hardest part for me is allowing myself the time to train on a new language and system as I was so used to pumping out work that even taking a few weeks or months to get up to speed makes me feel guilty.
SPN: As someone who’s done freelance Drupal development for a couple of years, what do you enjoy most about that CMS?
AK: I found I really enjoyed the community built around the Drupal system. Drupal has a very robust module ecosystem, blocks of code that have been built and tested by the community. It’s very interesting to be able to quickly assemble sites out of pieces others have built for community use. There is a real “standing on the shoulders of giants” feeling that comes with it.
SPN: You’ve written that you “live startups.” What are three ways — aside from the obvious, working for them — that you try to make startups a prominent part of your life?
AK: 1. I’m helping organize Startup Weekend Des Moines 2012.
2. I attend as many startup/entrepreneurial events as I can. I don’t have ANY entrepreneurship background from my experience growing up, so I view the resources available around Des Moines as a second university for me.
3. Most importantly, the people in the startup scene have become my friends. Beyond teaching me, motivating me and inspiring me, they are just a truly amazing community of people who help and support each other without fail. I feel sorry for people who can’t work like this and actually had a huge personal struggle with taking a job outside the immediate Des Moines startup community.
SPN: You have blogged extensively about “social capital,” an idea for group funding of early-stage companies that you once called “interesting … but illegal.” Can you briefly explain the idea and where legislation regarding it stands at the moment?
AK: Social capital is the idea that initial drove me to reach out and become involved in the community. That was around two years ago. At that time investment in startups was regulated by laws created to protect investors from things like the stock market crash of 1929. That may be a slight exaggeration, but the laws are archaic. Since then there has been a groundswell of support for the idea of crowdfunding, driven by the success of sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. There is currently legislation that has passed in the House, H.R. 2930, The Entrepreneur Access To Capital Act, that would remove some restrictions like public advertisement and limitation to “Accredited Investors” (read: rich people) that would allow the average person to invest in any startup to a certain level. As far as I know it has yet to be scheduled for a vote in the Senate, and there are a number of questions to be addressed with regard to enforceability, government mandate over private spending, and burden of documentation etc., but we seem to be moving in a positive direction.
SPN: Perhaps more so than with any other sport, I’ve never encountered a rugby player that wasn’t extremely enthusiastic about the game. How do you, as a rugby player yourself, explain the passion that the game seems to excite in people?
AK: Rugby is not a sport, it’s an addiction. At least, that’s how I explain it to people. I’ve never played a sport as holistic as rugby, meaning that not only did I practice and play games with the team, but we ate meals, watched movies, studied, hung out and drank beers together. To this day, many of my friends are guys I played rugby with at Iowa State and in Des Moines. It’s similar to the startup community, as it is just that, a community, not just something you do.
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Andrew Kirpalani.
Prairie Portraits: To learn more about this series, see our introduction post, or visit our archives for past Prairie Portraits. To suggest an individual for a future Prairie Portrait, contact editor@siliconprairienews.com.
