Dennis Lysenko

Since sixth grade I've never been able to imagine doing anything for a living other than programming.

The short version: You could give me $10 million right now and I'd still code all the damn time. I love to pick up random projects and slam on the gas until they're done. I had no business being able to apply compiler theory without having taken a class on it, or conduct 3D networked game development with no prior experience, but I did them anyway. Nothing is off-limits unless you believe it is.

If you want my life story: I initially started programming because my friends and I were tired of playing other people's video games and wanted to make our own. In my first year of programming, I picked up very limited HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Java. Throughout middle school I honed my PHP and web design skills, dabbling in 6502 assembly, and in high school I got better at Java and jQuery, learning Python and Ruby on Rails. Finally, in college, I picked up C (basic, but enough to understand the ffmpeg source code). Outside of college I picked up Android and iOS development and got much better at Ruby and Rails while working on my startup.

Currently I work as CTO of Riff Digital where we have developed a music messaging app and an app that facilitates artists' promotion of their music on social media.