In conversation with failure.
The year, 1997. A dimly lit room. Worn out chairs, outdated equipment. Clearly, this was a big budget interview. On one side sat an interviewer who couldn’t care less if he tried. And on the other side, was a nobody, a trough in this crest-loving world. He was a failure. A man who had tried. And that was his biggest achievement. Ten people in the audience. Three of whom came to sleep. The interviewer began his broken line of questioning. Interviewer: So, sir… (turning to his assistant) Do we have a name? A loud voice speaks up from across the table. “Matsya. Matsya Khapse.” Interviewer: Oh, yes. Mr. Matsya. The founder of First.ly. A URL shortening service and a link management platform. Interesting. Tell me, in a world where URLs are so easy to remember, why do we need to shorten them. Matsya: Well, in the immediate future, no, we don’t need to. Today, there are about 1.1 million URLs in existence. Most of them being hyperlinks to private corporations and a few independent pages. But ...