Publish the reasoning, not just the code
A README says what a tool does. The dead ends, the rejected designs and the trade-offs are what the next engineer actually needs, so they ship alongside the code.
Nipun Theekshana
නිපුන් තීක්ෂණ
Engineer & founder · edition 2016
- Role
- Co-founder & CTO, PerfectUs
- Also
- Founder, Prabhava Labs (non-profit)
- In production
- 10 years, since 2016
- Teams led
- 50+ engineers
- Shipped
- 1,000+ smart contracts
- Incidents
- 0 critical security incidents
- Based in
- Colombo, Sri Lanka · there
- Education
- BSc in Computer Science, University of Ruhuna
- Serial no.
- @theetaz
Story
- 2014
Computer science in Matara
Three years at the University of Ruhuna, where the fundamentals stuck: algorithms, systems, and the habit of asking how something actually works underneath.
- 2016
First real users
A traineeship at Crowderia AB, building Coqeep, an Android app for booking services. The first time code I wrote was used by people I would never meet.
- 2017
Freelance, everything at once
A storage-booking platform for Sweden, a Sampath Bank payment plugin, thirty-odd online shops, and Hope SL — soil sensors, Kafka, Spark and machine learning to decide when Sri Lankan farms should be watered.
- 2019
Leading teams
Tech Lead at Parallax Technologies, then at KeenEye across Colombo and Paris: 21 engineers, IoT logistics (EFL Symphony), radar camera detection for a US client (Cedar), and 50+ engineers mentored along the way.
- 2021
PerfectUs
Co-founded a blockchain development studio and became its CTO. A 50+ engineer organisation, 1,000+ smart contracts for clients worldwide, an in-house audit practice — and zero critical security incidents.
- 2026
Prabhava Labs
Prabhava (ප්රභව) means origin. A non-profit for independent open-source work in civic data, on-device ML and embedded systems. Every project ships with its code, the story of why it exists, and the decisions behind it.
Principles
Precompute everything that fits
Sri Lanka is ~70K populated square kilometres and 14K GN divisions. That fits in one SQLite file. Do the spatial work once, offline, and every request becomes an indexed read.
Private by default, local when possible
A bank SMS carries balances, card digits and merchants. The classifier should come to the phone, not the other way around.
Build for here
Trilingual from day one — English, සිංහල, தமிழ். Real bank formats, real bus routes, real power cuts. Global tools rarely know what a DS division is.
Cheap to run, easy to own
If a tuition teacher cannot self-host it on a small VPS, or it needs a tile server to show a map, the design is not finished yet.
Say where it stands
“Incubating” means incubating. Synthetic benchmarks are labelled synthetic. Honest status is a feature, and it is how trust compounds.
Toolbox
Languages
- Solidity
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Go
- Rust
- Java
- PHP
- Python
- Kotlin
- Dart
- C / C++
- SQL
Blockchain
- EVM chains
- Smart-contract development & auditing
- DeFi
- NFTs & GameFi
- dApps
- Tokenisation
- Hyperledger Fabric
- Crypto payments
Backend & data
- Node.js
- Laravel
- PostgreSQL / PostGIS
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Elasticsearch
- Kafka
- Spark / Hadoop
- ETL pipelines
Frontend & mobile
- React
- Next.js
- Astro
- Vue.js
- Flutter
- Android
- PWAs
Cloud & DevOps
- AWS
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Jenkins
- Ansible
- CI/CD
- Linux
AI & ML
- On-device ML
- LLM applications
- Model evaluation
- AI & bot development
IoT & embedded
- ESP32-S3
- Arduino
- MQTT
- Bluetooth LE
- Firmware
Life
Music
The soundtrack behind most of the code.
Photography
Noticing light and framing places.
Cycling
Distance, wind and a clear head.
Swimming
An hour with no screens at all.
Bowling
Friends, lanes and friendly rivalry.
Hardware
ESP32 boards, AMOLED panels and a soldering iron on the desk.