How Dharmi’s Web3 journey led him to become a Web3 Product Dev | DevStories
Meet Dharmi Kumbhani, a Web3 Developer with a knack for building and networking. He is currently leading Product Development at Buidler’s Tribe; essentially, he’s building a coordination tool to connect investors and startups. He is a mechanical engineering graduate and a full-time hobbyist designer ever since the beginning of his college days.
Read ahead to know how he got into Web3, joined Buidler’s Tribe and so much more.
How did you discover blockchain technology?
I had a brief stint with Ethereum and Bitcoin back in 2016–17 but that rolled into reading books. So, I read this book called Blockchain Revolution, by Alex Tapscott. That really opened up my eyes to a lot of things. Then I was doing my exam preparations, so I had a year where I could not do much of Web3, and then back again in the third year of college, I again picked up Web3; just like understanding Ethereum and everything else that was new.
Also, I got into a bit of degen stuff with Dogecoin and everything else. But everything apart, I really like reading about Web3 and had never stopped it. I always had a keen interest in what’s going on with Ethereum, what are some of the dApps that are working out, and the new trends in the industry. Well, this was my entry into Web3 — just exploring, being on Twitter, and looking out for new things.
Any interesting college clubs that you were a part of?
In college, when I started off, I was actually, doing video editing and other stuff. I took part in the annual fest of college, helping them with everything digital. Then I also took part in social impact stuff where we did a bunch of things in Bombay, especially for kids, pets, and everything that could help the social side of things is what we did.
We even had an annual event with United Nations which is a social conclave, which is a three-day conference that we created wherein there were delegates coming in from all over India and we had a few problem statements that we had laid out where everyone could go do in-person visits to various places of Bombay and give out their best solution.
And that was one of the events that we did. But yeah, I did a lot of stuff in college like social impact events, social conclaves, and annual fests.
How did you balance building your Web3 knowledge and pursuing your education?
Most of my free time was spent on Twitter and reading articles, so it wasn’t like I had to manage. But of course, like engineers, we usually study one week before the exam, so it’s not about much managing, it’s more about when you realize that an exam is coming up and you start studying for the exam. But there’s almost like second nature being online and reading about stuff in Web3 kept doing.
Plus, my friend circle was also deep into Web3 so we had a lot of things to discuss also. Keeping up in terms of the social circle, also help with what’s new, and what’s upcoming.
Where are you currently working?
I’m currently working at Buidler’s Tribe and helping there with the product. One of my very good friends in college had joined Buidler’s Tribe as an intern back in December while I was still figuring out what to do in my career, that’s how I got to know about them.
And last year, I needed some spare cash for a few months of runway, and I had Web design and Web Dev knowledge. So, I started working with Buidlers Tribe as a freelance Web designer and Developer. I made their Coinbase event website, helped them design their main website, buildertribe.com, and then that rolled into a full-time offer from them, which is still ongoing.
What are your other interests?
I have been trying to learn languages for a while now — Spanish is something that I’m learning. I am not sure if you consider that as a hobby, but just picking up new things, like playing instruments or learning a new language.
I’ve been recently doing a lot of gaming too, but I’m not sure if it’s still considered a hobby. I also love driving. And just learning new things.
What was your Eth Global hackathon experience like?
We are building something called a feed hook. Essentially with the new Ethereum attestation services that came in, Optimum also built their attestation service, and what we were trying to do is feedback was never taken in a Web3 way.
For most apps where you should take feedback, you should do it via centralized entities like Intercom, where you have a widget that, users can easily use to read the page or give any feedback, but given the new attestation services that were coming up with all these. We thought that feedback also could be made in a Web3 way where what we were building was essentially a widget that any developer can easily integrate on their app, and once they’ve integrated, they can start taking feedback via testation on a chain.
So instead, so we are trying to decentralize the real estate of the website. Also, that feedback was, we realized that most sites weren’t taking any feedback and the few that were, were using Intercom, and other services, and we wanted to decentralize that as well. So that was our attempt at making the project.
What is your most amazing Web3 story?
I’ve had so many moments in web3 but I think if I had to pinpoint one, it would be Eth Global Hackathon.
After a long time, I was working on Projects, in a very small duration where you have to build out something. And I love the high that you get when you build it out and present it.
We had a chance to present in front of Kelvin and Evan, even though the project was not entirely completed, but just having that opportunity to get selected from the second round and present it in front of them was incredible. It was a great moment, something that will always I remember.
Was it easy finding web3 folks in and around your college and how has it impacted your journey so far?
There’s an abundance of information and there is new information coming in. And very few people have that in them to keep up to date with all these things.
So having those set of friends that you can just talk to and know what’s going right now, what’s upcoming, and other stuff really helps like broaden your, understanding of what’s going on in the industry.
For example, let’s say I might be deep into MEV on L1s, only to realize that one of my friends is deep into like the entire roll-up scene and modular blockchain scene. And then he can probably explain to me briefly how it works, what’s the thing that they’re solving. So just keeping up with new projects, keeping up with new developments, with every new app that comes out, which is interesting.
It’s great to have an understanding of what problem dApps is trying to solve and why that problem exists in the first place. So if you have that set of friends that you can chat with, who are also deep into Web3, that just lets you get up to date with what’s going on in the entire space.
What is your dream job? Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I wouldn’t say a job. For me, it’s always about creating something. So maybe a job that helps me create something. It could be an app, or it could be a website that, is used by and helpful to multiple users. I wouldn’t say it’s a dream job, but I really wish to create something great.
I don’t really know what it is, or what it could be, but, building something that is widely used is the dream.
Driven by a will to create new stuff & solve complex problems, he reaches out in search of knowledge and skills. Dharmi’s story is a glimpse of the hard work and dedication he puts into learning about Web3 every single day.
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