CHAPTER THIRTEEN

START UP, INFACTO AND SOMETHING I HAD NEVER IMAGINED

I turned 23 yesterday. I quit my job in the American MNC. I had lost Varun. I had no idea how Ashwin was doing. Naina was in coma. My parents were in Mumbai and were shattered with my decision of quitting the job especially when not having a job in Indian society meant shame for my parents. I had no idea what to do or where to go. All I knew was I wanted to make a difference to the world. I had chosen Mechanical Engineering to start with but down the line I realized it had no significance in my life. I always wanted to script write for movies but it never worked out. The American MNC was a piece of crap. Now, I was sitting in Pub World and gulping some whiskey to contemplate on things better. Suddenly a short guy with a French beard and spiked hair walked towards me and sat down beside me.

‘Hi, so on a roll is it?’ he said and looked at me and smiled. His smile irritated me. I chose to ignore him and continued sipping on my tenth “on the rocks”.

‘So, are you from Bangalore?’ he asked again.

‘Yes, I am from Bangalore and a freaking loser. You want to know anything else?’ I stared at him.

‘Hi, I am Akash Saxena. I was just waiting for a friend so thought you wouldn’t mind some company until my friend arrives,’ he said and expected a reply from me. I calmed down and felt I needed to be nice to this guy.

‘I am Armaan Rodriguez; presently an unemployed 23-year-old Mechanical Engineer from Silicon Valley of Engineering who just quit his job because he could not take any more crap from the American MNC which employed him till yesterday,’ I said and downed the entire glass.

‘So, what’s your story?’ he asked me and asked the waiter to refill my glass.

‘My story is long; your friend might have to wait for a long time if I start,’ I said and laughed.

‘Oh, don’t worry about that; I am cancelling that right away,’ he said and made some calls. I was surprised that some random guy wanted to know the past life of a loser like mine. I somehow felt like sharing my story instantly. I started explaining my entire journey from how I escaped IIT’s and NIT’s and my love for Bangalore. I went on to tell him about my life at the Silicon Valley of engineering: the hostel, the mechanical engineering, Varun, Ashwin, grass, Rakankote forest, my scriptwriting ideas for films, Varun’s death, the American MNC, Naina, the love story, the accident, the coma, the sick IT life in India, my ambition, the will to change India, quitting the American MNC and… he listened patiently. It was way past midnight. The waiter was pouring my 32nd glass and his 21st glass of whiskey. We were drunk. He had not uttered a word throughout the past three hours. I went on speaking. He paid the bill and …

[NEXT DAY: Akash Saxena’s house]

‘Good morning,’ he said and woke me up with a coffee.

‘Good morning,’ I said and looked around to check where I was. I was hung over. My head felt like it was being hit with a hammer.

‘Quite a drunk night,’ he said and smiled. The smile reminded me of the entire conversation yesterday. I looked down to recollect if I had said anything stupid yesterday.

‘I am sorry if I said anything stupid yesterday,’ I said and sipped on my coffee.

‘No, you did not say anything stupid. In fact it was the best story I have heard from a person in my life. I just thought I would add to the story from today. See you in ten minutes downstairs,’ he said and walked outside the room.

I turned around to have a look at the room. It was a studio flat which was beautiful. It still looked like a bachelor pad though with things thrown around. I saw the x box connected to the LCD screen right in front of the bed. I quickly washed my face and got out of the room. I saw a group of people sitting and working on their laptops. I turned left and spotted the lift. I entered the lift and assumed downstairs would be the ground floor and pressed the G button. I had no idea where I was. I got out of the lift and there was a cabin in front of me. I entered and I saw the same French bearded short guy with spiked hair sitting on a chair with his legs on the table and earphones plugged into his ears. He wore a shirt which said BUSINESSMAN. I went ahead and sat across his table. He quickly looked at me and got his legs down.

‘Hi Armaan, so do you want to know my story?’ he asked me.

First he had got me completely drunk and asked me to narrate my story yesterday and now when I was hungover and he was sober, he wanted me to listen to his story. I had no idea what he wanted from me. I knew it would be pretty rude if I said that I did not want to hear his story especially when he got me drunk yesterday with his money and also handled a drunk idiot like me and got me back to a safe place where I could sleep. I did not care about his story. I just wanted to get out but where would I go? To my house and sleep? At least I did not have to go to the god forsaken American MNC since I threw away the job with pride. I had no money to go to Maldives for a holiday. I could not go to Mumbai and ask my dad to get me a job which would confirm to them that I am a loser. I did not want to apply to another MNC in India. I could not ask Naina for help since she was still in coma. I wished she was around. She would have comforted me even though I would have had to hear a lot from her. Going to my friends at this point would mean self destruction. After contemplating on all the various options I decided to listen to Akash Saxena’s story. I leaned back while he started his story.

‘I am a Bangalorean. I studied in Priest College and went on to pursue my Bachelors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Singapore. At the age of 19 while I was studying, I started my first company in the technology space and we received an angel funding for it, but it failed miserably. After this I went on to graduate and did not want to work for the blood sucking MNC’s. I decided to earn some money. I started with my pocket money and earned 18,000 dollars in the stock exchange at Singapore. I came back to India; I wanted to start a company. I wanted to beat all odds to bring out a Facebook or a Google or a Yahoo from India and since then, I have not looked back.

A start up in India is not the greatest thing to do especially when people hardly appreciate it. The Silicon Valley of India is quite different from the Silicon Valley of USA. There is a wide contrast. In India, a start up would take ten years to bootstrap, another twenty years to receive funding and till then, it’s dead and becomes a company which just looks to earn daily bread for its employees rather than sticking to the vision of creating something revolutionary. The valley in USA is quite different; it might take a good idea from a coffee table to bootstrap, receive funding and generate revenue in one day. I started my company Infacto last year in Bangalore. We have been awarded the best mobile application this year from Bangalore. My vision in life is to change India. I want the world to know that we are not a country filled with software labourers and that’s the reason I decided to start my own company. The start-up was named Infacto by me. It is an application which will revolutionize the way people seek information from the internet. I firmly believe that Infacto will be the next big search engine which the world will see and appreciate. We have created a new layer over search,’ he said and looked at me in the eye. WOW, I thought in my head. I really wanted to listen to him more. I wanted to change India as well. Even though I had worked in a technology MNC for the last one and a half years, I had not felt the goosebumps I was presently feeling. He was the first guy I met who did not talk about working in an MNC and going to US, appraisals and crap. He had a vision. I could see it. He wanted to create the next biggest tech revolution from India. He asked me to follow him. I entered the board room behind him. I saw two people seated around the table.

‘He is Krishna, the guy behind the application Infacto and our CTO,’ he said, and I shook hands with Krishna. He looked like Mark Zuckerberg but the Indian version.

‘This is Priya, our Web Development Head,’ Akash said, and I shook hands with Priya who looked like a little kid.

‘This is Armaan Rodriguez, our newly appointed COO,’ he said, and introduced me to Priya and Krishna once again.