Sometimes the world around us confuses me. I am part of a jury looking at finalists of a competition that seeks to identify the encryption scheme that can safeguard offline digital cash transactions.
A fool proof encryption scheme is like a virus free existence. It is unlikely you can live your whole life without contracting some virus. It may or may not kill you but it will definately make you sick. But none of us in the digital world look at it that way. The vaccine we look for is called cyber security audit. But today I am looking for foolproof encryption. We also hope it will be light on computing resources, so it can run on a featurephone rather than on a super computer. As they say, “no harm trying”.
I overestimated the time required to get to IIT Powai from Churchgate by a full one hour. Google had agreed completely with my completely incorrect estimate. So I land up a hour before I am supposed to.
I decide to take a round of the campus. I drive to the main building which was built in 1960. The opening scene of a movie I had cinematographed in 1986 had this iconic building. I now see it has a new name. It is named not after the person who built it or on the name of the late parent of a philanthropist but of a famous living alumnus. I hop across the road to the convocation hall. I had participated in countless debates on this stage. It was now called the Victor Menezes hall – my senior from my hostel who had gone on to lead Citibank. It was named after him when he was alive. Now, he was no more.
I then walk down to the open air cafe called Gulmohar. Most tables are occupied by solitary individuals. Most are in shorts and have large headsets around their heads. Why would you sit in a cafe alone ? And why the headset ? Am I missing something.
But that wasn’t all. I enter the elevator to go up to my venue. There is a digitally printed poster in the elevator with a QR code. The ad is looking for co-founders. It says “scan to apply”. I applied. I am told that they are pitching for funding in 20 minutes – and I could meet in 10 for a briefing. Now this really got me intrigued.
I have heard of thirty minute pizza delivery. But finding a cofounder thirty minutes before pitching for funding was a new one.
I had just one question for each team, “how long do you know each other ?”. The answers ranged from 1 day to 1 month. I don’t think the innovator with the elevator sticker found a cofounder. But he was trying. I had three missed calls.
Are we going horribly wrong somewhere. Or is this the new normal ? I don’t think you can hire a office pantry boy in thirty minutes.
But you can, it seems, find a cofounder in thirty minutes and pitch fifteen minutes after that to get funding one hour after that.
And people say – investors take too long to decide ??
Am I missing something. Or do we live in a mad mad world. Getting madder by the day.