Word of mouth works best for me as a security researcher: Devansh Lala

Savio Rodrigues, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Incubees in discussion with Devansh Lala – a young entrepreneur who started his first company at the age of 22 in 2016 in EdTech and IT services domain. He is a FLOSS (Free, Libre and Open Source Software) contributor and security researcher since 2 years and he has recently started providing his services to individuals and public figures.

INCUBEES: Tell us about your product or services?

DEVANSH: I help public figures like celebrities, influencers, business leaders, models and so on secure their data and improve their privacy and personal life. This includes fundamental changes to their hardware and software while ensuring a smooth and quick transition. The list includes securing their phones, accounts, networks, computers, tablets and software/tools. 

INCUBEES: What makes your product/services unique and what competition do you see in India and globally?

DEVANSH: The service I provide requires a lot of hand holding and support which is not feasible for any cyber security firm. I don’t know of any other individuals that provide this service for public figures but it’s definitely the need of the hour because public figures have their data breached, privacy invaded and accounts hacked all the time. 

INCUBEES: What are the challenges you see in the market at this point of time?

The challenge is to educate the stakeholders (public figures, general public) on why it’s important to undertake these changes but I have seen a dramatic increase in people being forthcoming about securing their data and improving their privacy in the last 2 years. 

INCUBEES: Tell us about your team and what inspires them?

DEVANSH: I am a one man show and I’d prefer to keep it that way for as long as I can. I am their single and only source of trust and it could be very beneficial in such cases. 

INCUBEES: Where do you see your product/service reaching in the next five-years?

DEVANSH: I see the cyber security industry grow at an exponential rate in the next 5 years considering the amount of sophistication in the techniques being used to breach data. I think a recent estimate put this figure at roughly 3 billion USD by 2022 just in India. 

INCUBEES: Do you have plans to raise funding to grow your business or allow your business to organically grow?

DEVANSH: I am open to partnerships and funding but word of mouth usually works better for me. It’s all about your reputation in this industry. Funding is an option I have considered recently. 

INCUBEES: What are the challenges you face as a startup?

DEVANSH: As an individual running a relatively new business, I had issues at the start but you usually overcome these over time, some challenges that I still face involve people just not being aware of how important their privacy and security is over the short and long term.