For some software engineers, the greatest way to grow is to step away from the keyboard.
That was the case for Saachi Wadhwani, a software engineer at Gusto. After hearing about a lightning talks event hosted by one of the company’s senior engineers in 2019, she felt inspired. So when that same engineer decided to rerun the event in 2024, Wadhwani was more than happy to help her.
Wadhwani now co-leads the planning committee for the lightning talks series, which spans all three of Gusto’s offices and is geared toward women and nonbinary individuals in tech. She shared that, since the series was launched, she has enjoyed seeing attendees come together to share their insights and encourage others to do the same.
With support from others, Wadhwani has been able to drive the success of the lightning talks series. And as a result, she has been able to hone a wide range of skills, making the experience a fun — and enlightening — one.
“Working on these skills makes me a better collaborator for cross-functional partners on design and product teams at Gusto, and it makes me a better advocate for myself and my team,” Wadhwani said.
Below, Wadhwani shares more about her involvement with Gusto’s lightning talks series, how she has been empowered to succeed in this effort and how the experience has helped her grow as an engineer.
About Gusto
Gusto’s platform is designed to support the success of small- and medium-sized businesses. Businesses can use the platform to run payroll, offer their teams health benefits, automate HR tasks, and hire and manage global contractors and employees.
Describe a side project you’re working on right now. What inspired its inception, and what do you wish to gain from it?
I’m co-leading the planning committee for a lightning talks event series hosted across all three Gusto offices. In 2019, a senior engineer at Gusto hosted a standalone lightning talks event at the Denver office. When she wanted to rerun the event in 2024, I was happy to join the planning committee and was even more excited we made it an event series across all offices for the first time. After seeing women and nonbinary individuals come together in a local tech community at the San Francisco event, I was excited about the opportunity to continue hosting these events at Gusto. We had 75 attendees in person and 30 attendees online, all of whom were excited to hear from other women about their passion projects and journeys in the world of tech. I hope that as a company we can host an annual lightning talks event series that allows us to provide networking and learning opportunities and bring together engineers at and outside of Gusto.
“After seeing women and nonbinary individuals come together in a local tech community at the San Francisco event, I was excited about the opportunity to continue hosting these events at Gusto.”
How has Gusto encouraged you to pursue this project, and how has this support fueled your ambition further?
When I expressed interest in joining the planning committee for the lightning talks, my PE not only encouraged me to get involved but also offered his own time and resources to help the event succeed. When we were navigating the new territory of planning an event in the office, he was happy to offer suggestions based on his previous experiences. When we needed to order happy hour food and drinks for the event, he lent his Costco and Instacart membership to the team. I’m incredibly thankful that my PE sees the importance of spending time on this project in addition to my everyday engineering work, and that’s what made me feel comfortable to take it a step further for 2025 and co-lead the entire committee.
How has this project helped you stretch skills and/or adopt new ones, and how has this positively impacted your day-to-day work?
Working on this event gives me the chance to use skills that aren’t usually a part of my day-to-day work as a software engineer. I did everything, from planning the event to ordering food and taking care of outreach, marketing and day-of event logistics, all of which falls into the hands of the planning committee. Working on these skills makes me a better collaborator for cross-functional partners on design and product teams at Gusto, and it makes me a better advocate for myself and my team. More importantly, a result of these events is the increased hiring of women and nonbinary individuals for our tech roles, and seeing this continue to improve at Gusto is incredible.
