Dinesh Chugtai

Grew Up... in Islamabad, Pakistan, before moving to the United States, where he earned the nickname “Pakistani Denzel” and became a naturalized citizen.

Living… in Palo Alto, in a “Hacker Hostel” tech incubator run by Erlich Bachman along with fellow programmers Richard Hendriks, and Bertram Gilfoyle. As the Hacker Hostel doubles as his workspace, Dinesh can go days without leaving. 

Profession… software engineer at Pied Piper, a new company that almost accidentally developed a killer compression algorithm. Richard is the company’s CEO and the originator of the algorithm, while Dinesh and Gilfoyle are his programmers who can usually be found exchanging insults rather than actually coding.

Interests… his prized collection of rugby shirts, the Mass Effect series of video games, and coding in Java.

Relationship Status… single. Dinesh “didn’t even shake a woman’s hand until [he] was 17.” At the TechCrunch Disrupt convention in San Francisco, he becomes infatuated with a woman for the “elegant, tight” Java code she wrote. Little does he know, the code was actually written by Gilfoyle – to Gilfoyle’s great amusement.

Challenge… helping Pied Piper grow into a functional company, despite being full of overgrown man-children. Venture capitalist Peter Gregory gave them $200,000 in funding, but the checks will stop coming if their progress doesn’t satisfy him. With the length of their financial “runway” uncertain, Dinesh and the team must overcome their own immaturity to keep Pied Piper afloat.

Personality… nerdy and bumbling, with a knack for cynical humor. Dinesh spends most of his energy skewering everyone in the Hacker Hostel with his dry sarcasm, especially Gilfoyle.