Ankit’s phone keeps buzzing throughout the day with the tons of messages he receives on WhatsApp. Most of these messages are from the pros that work with his city team. Many of these are small problems that they might be facing while some others are messages from those who have finally made it big, telling Ankit that their lives have changed after joining UC.

Now, this is not a post glorifying Urban Company (there are a lot of reasons to do it though) and how so many partners are making so much money after having joined UC, neither is this…

Can monoliths compete with microservices or even beat them?

In this episode, Raghav Chandra (co-founder, UC) and Kanav Arora (SVP Engg, UC) talk through how to make monoliths scale. They discuss microservices, monoliths and the importance of boundaries in code and data. They build a compelling case of how it is possible to scale up monoliths to do better than microservice yet why people still tend to move to microservices still.

You will hear about:

• Advantages & disadvantages of microservices
• How to structure code & data in a monolith
• How to improve deployment strategy in a monolith
• Why companies still…

Do languages even matter today?

In this episode, Raghav Chandra (co-founder, UC) and Kanav Arora (SVP Engg, UC) discuss the choice of programming languages and how it influences a tech startups growth. This episode has a special focus on #Javascript, its history with Urban Company and the #NodeJs / #React / #ReactNative stacks.

You will hear about:

• #programminglanguages and their impact on creating the #10xEngineering leverage
• choosing a #techstack for a startup
• one vs multiple tech stacks
• deep-dive into #nodejs (goods and bads)
• #typescript , #eventloop , #performance
• other tech stacks like #reactnative for clients, #python for #datascience
• #scripts in…

Is there a 10x Engineer? What are we 10x-ing? What is the secret behind 10x?

In this episode, Raghav Chandra (co-founder, UC) and Kanav Arora (Head of Engineering, UC) discuss the fundamentals behind 10x Engineering and share insights on what have been their most reliable levers (ahm, platforms!) in building such teams.

Here is an accompanying blog post for more details on this topic.: UC’s Secret to 10x Engineering

About the Series:

Urban Company’s 10x Engineering is a podcast by engineers for engineers on all the hot debates inside a high-growth engineering team and what it really takes to create true 10x…

On a hot day in 2015, 50-odd passionate (albeit slightly hungry) people are huddled inside a glass room to identify their company culture. Fifty of us engaged in an intense discussion to figure out what we wanted our culture to be and what it ‘smelled’ like to us. We landed at three culture values that defined us and we took pride in embracing:

• Ownership — everyone is an owner
• Basic — focus on the basics, keeping things simple
• Reimagine — constantly rethink better ways of doing things

Finding our way

Five years later, in 2020, we are in the middle…

Industry spotlight • align magazine

Trivia #1:
Collects elephants and accepts them as gifts

Can you describe your childhood growing up in Bengal? How did your background influence the career choices that followed later on in your life?

I grew up in a small town called Chinsurah in West Bengal, and spent the early 17 years of my life. Trust me when I say this, I had the most stereotypical Bengali childhood. You name it, and I have done it. Singing, dancing, drawing, learning musical instrument, all were part of the package growing up. My mother had been a strong example before me of a confident, financially independent woman, which quite early on in my life helped me build the image of the woman that I’d like to become.

Industry spotlight • align magazine

Journey from being an engineer to a lead product designer at the boldest Indian startup today.

Can you describe your childhood growing up in Udaipur and Jaipur? How did your background influence the career choices that followed later on in your life?

Udaipur — the city of lakes, surrounded by Aravali hills, is one of my favorite cities to date. My love for sunset & sunrise gradients at the horizon is an obvious one!

My father is a civil engineer, and my mother is Principle in a Sr. Sec. school; hence, like most of us, I grew up in an environment where scoring well in academics is of great importance.

While I liked studying as a kid, I had a keen interest in craft & drawing…

Industry spotlight • align magazine

Behind the scenes of his viral blog posts, his journey from a studio to now designing one of the most influential apps of our times

Can you describe your childhood growing up in Patna? How did your background influence the career choices that followed later on in your life?

I wish there was a good story here. My childhood was spent on a lot of activities that weren’t too important. I was bad at studies and average at sports. I don’t remember having any strong ambitions as a kid, all I wanted to do was have a good day, everyday. Pass a day without getting thrown out of class, watch Pokemon, eat good food.

Towards, 7th-8th I developed some interest in Maths, and I…