The story of KNOLSKAPE's birth

Stories of Role Models

My story today is the story of KNOLSKAPE’s birth. 

I did my engineering from BITS Pilani and then went to the US to do my masters. Both in Computer Science. 

After graduation - from 2000 to 2007 I did software development for Oracle, in the Bay Area. This was my day job.

Successful at it, my life’s path seemed to be all laid out for me.

Up to now, I had focussed on putting the tick-marks in all the right places. Studies. Academics, Left brain excellence, Competition. 

Now, settled in the US - Thousands others around me had done the same. I had a quarter-life crisis. ‘So What!’, I asked myself.

I had this creative itch to scratch as well. With a sizable south-asian population in the valley, I came across this active theatre group. I wanted to get involved. 

I showed up for an audition. Up to now - even when in Pilani, where it is easy to loosen up :) - I had done no such thing. I got selected. It opened a new world for me.

My weekends were no longer my own. Every weekend, I was on the stage. I loved it. Even more than working the weekdays to write code.

I took a screenwriting course in the evening at community college. Then, I made my own short film. It won an award. 

I knew I was hooked. I wanted a life for myself that would have both the left brain logic and the right brain spontaneity.

Yet, life seemed to say, Pick one. Left brain success? Right brain fun?

With an intention to find my sweet spot, I decided to take a break from my double life and go for an MBA, to INSEAD in Paris. 

I wanted to start over afresh.

I chose this hectic 10 month program, because it provided me an additional 14 months, over a 2 year MBA. The additional time was like a magic wand to me. If the MBA did not answer my quest, surely this additional time would.

Later, I would make a list of stalwart companies like Pixar and IDEO where I could go and work, but all this never came to be.

A business policy course  - had a simulation game - where you role played the CEO. 

While playing it, I made organisation wide changes - and lo-and-behold - left a trail of destruction for everyone to see. I did not fare well in the Sim.

Yet, I remember - a very engaged me - firing questions at the professor the next day early morning. 

Normally, I was your typical back bench doodler. There was something here that had got to me. 

My Aha moment! 

It was this software created universe where I was the protagonist. A universe where my actions told a story. Technology and Storytelling - in holy matrimony - were beckoning me. 

I knew at that moment, my professional life would have something to do with manufacturing active curiosity for learners everywhere, in this fashion.

Like all good ideas, I filed it in my notebook. It was one of my best ideas. I loved it in the beginning. 

Then, like all good ideas, it began to scare me. In my mind, I held daily trials and shot it down repeatedly. Most of us don’t really need others to shoot down our good ideas. Do we?

To this day, I don’t know who he was. 

He came and sat on the same table, where I sat chewing the stub of a pencil, notebook open in front of me, fighting a losing battle to muster courage. 

I shared my dilemma with him, as you can sometimes only do, with a total stranger.

‘Assume you are 60 and you did not make the choice. How would you feel about it?’, he had said. 

Just before he finished his coffee and walked away, he asked me, ‘What is the worst that can happen?’

That put me out of my misery and onto the road to action. 

From my software and theatre backgrounds - I knew I could build it. Would I be able to sell it? - was the question.

Here I was, sitting in a business school. If world-class professors did not buy my pitch, who would?

I knocked on many doors. Some did not open. A few disinterested yawns were not going to stop me. I persisted, until 1 professor said, ‘Wow! Let us start working on it’. 

In the 2nd year, I moved to INSEAD’s Singapore campus. I met Vijay - my co-founder - there.

We found it easy to tempt professors with our SIM idea. Especially the good ones.

Most of them have great frameworks and concepts in place. They are not particularly interested in seeing a commercial outcome for their ideas, academic publishing being their first priority. That we could bring them the icing on the cake, was enough for them.

We started converting their concepts to code and playing stories on top of them. With practice, we quickly learn to do this well. Our SIMs were soon running on several machines in the campus.

Our idea found traction with other business schools as well. By the time we passed out, our SIMs were already running in august campuses such as INSEAD, Wharton, ISB.

KNOLSKAPE was like a 3 stage rocket now, rising up to go into orbit. The first stage was the work we did in the academic world and built a solid conceptual foundation for ourselves. 

In the 2nd stage, we would take our experiential learning engine to the corporate world. KNOLSKAPE would grow dramatically. 

In the 3rd stage - more recently we would embrace scale, with the help of venture funding. 

Those two are stories for another day.