Karthik Kastury

PayPal Developer Meetup @ Chennai

Over the last weekend, a friend of mine at PayPal invited me for what was being dubbed as “Meet the Leader Series.”. The only catch was that it was in the middle of the week. Either ways I managed to drag myself to Hilton Chennai to be a part of the meetup. 

My whole reasoning of being a part of the meetup was simple. I wanted to put my views forward on how the world of commerce is changing, and I think being the youngest in the room, I was able to bring a little bit different to the conversations that were built over tea and dinner. 

The most interesting conversation of the day was with Matthew Mengerink, VP PayPal Platform. Over casual chat over tea he shared insights on how the world is changing rapidly. The time it takes for a new technology to penetrate the market, is reducing exponentially by the day. For eg. the first million phones took more than 10 years to reach the hands of the customers, and when iPhone launched, a million phones vanished in 10 minutes. That’s the change in the rate of adoption of new technolgy. Key takeaway, build something for the future, to be the first with a solution when the world finally needs it. 

Once the 30 of us huddled into the room, a lot of discussion on Open Commerce, Open Standards ensued. Thanks to the careful interruptions by Carolyn, Praveen, Naveed and Matthew the discussions ended quite fruitfully, coz they were so easily getting drifted apart from the core idea of what was being discussed. 

The one suggestion that stood out, was if the entire silo of Commerce, from invoicing, shipping(logistics), payments, and support could be integrated into some kind of service a la Amazon Web Services, it would really help SMB’s worldwide. For all you smart thinkers, ask yourself this question. I think there is tons of potential and market for a such a service. 

A lot of interesting ideas were thrown around, and I’m sure it did help someone like me, who’s just taking the baby steps in the industry. My eventual dream of starting a company and see it become successful still remains, and I think yesterday’s networking will definitely help in that regard. 

Matthew began the evening with a sincere apology to all the Indian merchants who have been affected by the recent regulatory norms by the apex bank in India. He promised a solution was on its way. The exact specifics I’m not at liberty to discuss, but good things are definitely on its way. Cautious Optimism sums it better.

A Sumptuous dinner followed the discussions, and I think it was the perfect end to the evening. Picked up a bunch of goodies from Paypal, including an uber cool “I’m busy Hacking” tee. 

I am definitely hoping that PayPal has a lot more planned for the developer community in Chennai and more so in India. A PayPal organized Hackday in Chennai would be a great start. It was a brilliant evening. Loved the ideas that were tossed around. 

Let the spirit of innovation continue. I’d love to see the world of shopping change, change in ways we’d never imagined. Thanks PayPal for the awesome evening. 

On a side note, the event was at Hilton Chennai, which opened for business just a couple of days. Apart from the clueless Security staff when I walked in, everything at Hilton was a pleasure. 

Some pictures to tease you!