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Founder@ Interview
With Utkrist Varma
“My advice to anyone starting would be to embark on the entrepreneurial voyage with the audacity of a dreamer, the resilience of a phoenix, and the wisdom to dance with uncertainty. In the grand tapestry of business, let each challenge be a brushstroke, painting a masterpiece of resilience. For in the chaos of creation, you’ll find the symphony of success, conducted not by the fear of failure, but by the courage to start!” – Utkrist Varma
Today we feature Utkrist Varma, the founder at Cywreck . We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
My name is Utkrist Varma and I am the founder and CEO of cywreck.in . My friends know me as the crazy restless allrounder, my peers call me an overachiever, my parents ironically enough say I could still be a bit more responsible, but I call myself an energetic learner. I come from a naval background in India, which means I’ve had the privilege to do a lot of things like scuba dive, play any sport under the sun, I’ve always also been into art, dance, music, debating, quizzing etc. My name Utkrist means the best In Sanskrit, so to live upto my own names expectations, I involved myself in everything! I was always the guy winning medals and trophies in school but my teachers were tired of me since I was also the trouble maker. I did my graduation in Computer Engineering at Amrita University with a 90% scholarship. From my first year itself I was involved in two university sport teams, started my own society for game development and hosted a few events in and out of college and published a paper in machine learning.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
From a young age I realised how modern education is just a long way to become a corporate slave and I wanted out. I dropped out and eventually started working full time to get experience. I had previously done a few courses in marketing and sales which helped me land a job in real estate. There is quickly learnt the heart of sales and marketing and dove my head in the B2B SaaS space. I was appointed Head of marketing at three companies back to back from the age of 21. So I picked up a lot from a young age. I then started learning product, finance and parallels building a large network of founders.
At the age of 23, I contacted my old friend who happens to be one of India’s best cybersecurity experts having being the head of team BiOS and my schoolmate. From Middle school we always planned on doing our own thing as we were both risk takers and didn’t want a normal life. We then started Cywreck with just the two of us sitting in a room together while we still had our jobs. Our first goal was to get a few clients to provide cybersecurity services and then Pivot to creating our product, Wreckbot. And that is what we did, I remember making over 50 cold calls a day to founders around India!
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
Cywreck is a cybersecurity and AI startup which aims to change the product game in cybersecurity. Currently our company provides VAPT services along with help in compliance, certifications and more, but will move into a product (SaaS) based environment soon. We’re creating an AI bundle called wreckbot which can detect and solve bugs and issues in any product and any sphere! It comes with an AI bot that will communicate, report and find fixes for all your issues as well. A product never seen before! We are based in Singapore and Mumbai but operate from Mumbai Itself, a totally remote setup.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
I wouldn’t call myself successful yet, I have a long way to go; but the first step is wanting out. What people call the matrix, or taking a red pill or wanting a different life, that mentality is the first thing you need. My aha moment came in college. I was a top student with an scholarship, I was going to go to Germany to study for free as my college was sending me there, I was on the university basketball and badminton team, I had started my own society for game developers, won quiz and debate competitions and published a paper in ML and yet, I felt like this will all lead to me working for someone else’s dream.
What’s the point of me being an allrounder. This term all-rounder lead me to realise, a founder has to be an all-rounder. A founder lives a life that I want to make. Which is why I dropped out and went to make my own. Starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.” – Reid Hoffman; That is what it felt like, feels like even. But it’s fun! Id rather work for myself. I believe in smart work over hard work, because if hard work paid off, even a farmer would be a millionaire. Starting my own thing after dropping out and leaving a high paying job did cause a lot of issues between my parents and I, but once I showed them that it was my passion and a well paying one, they got behind me.
My biggest help were my friends, who even paid for my shenanigans when I was broke and figuring things out. Having relationships while building your company is either the best or just horrible, either you get tons of support or you get left thinking what went wrong, for me, it was the latter. But just like any motivated heartbroken young man, I worked harder, went gymming and did everything those reels ask you to! All I would say is, Smart work, a good partner, perseverance and a shit ton of luck is what you need to get there!
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
My biggest downfall in my company wasn’t business related at all. I had recently quit my job and wanted to go full-time on my company and I was owed compensation of 3 months from that company as per our contract. This money was supposed to get me through for a while as I was renting out with my friends in a very expensive city. The company didn’t pay up and declared bankruptcy.
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I was financially and emotionally destroyed and my motivation went down the drain. This is when my friends, sorry, my alcoholic best friends sat me down, gave me a lot of booze and let me cry on their shoulders while telling me how I’m meant for great things and that I’d make it. My Co-founder Nikhil Nair, one of my oldest pals listened to me rant about my issues for hours! The biggest lesson I learnt was, It doesn’t matter what you are in life, what you achieve or how successful you are if you don’t have your buddies to celebrate or cry with you.
The power of manifestation! In my culture of sanatan dharma, the universe is often explained as infinite energy that reflects your own. A lot of times when I thought the worst would happen it did, Murphys law. This would also mean that If I think the best would happen, it might just. But manifestation, meditation and detachment really work, as you must perform your obligatory duties because action is indeed better than inaction. Even the maintenance of your body would be impossible using inaction.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
I’m quite young now, but I’d advise my 18 year self to just keep doing the same things. Whatever I am today is because of whatever I did or learnt in the past, good or bad. My journey has led me to be here. But If I had to advice someone else, Id say this: Throw your degree away, start networking and learn a skill you can be the top 1% at. I would also recommend people to find a mentor, as no matter how much skill one has, wisdom comes from experience. Funnily enough, no one doubts you when you start something, in fact most people will blindly encourage you the same way they encourage a circus elephant on a ball, they just want to see you fall. Follow your passion, learn from your mistakes, fix them and start over if you need to as life isn’t a race.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
The power of manifestation! In my culture of Sanatan Dharma, the universe is often explained as infinite energy that reflects your own. A lot of times when I thought the worst would happen it did, Murphy’s law. This would also mean that If I think the best would happen, it might just. But manifestation, meditation and detachment really work, as you must perform your obligatory duties because action is indeed better than inaction. Even the maintenance of your body would be impossible using inaction. 
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
This question has me divided. One answer is something not at all related to me being a founder and the other kind of is, but I think my coolest achievement so far was to land our first big client, Raiseholding and finding a mentor, the CTO, Alok Pandey!
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
India isn’t very strong when it comes to its cybersecurity capabilities. I want to be the face of India’s cybersecurity domain. Creating a unicorn is obviously a goal I aim to achieve one day as well!
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
My advice to anyone starting would be to embark on the entrepreneurial voyage with the audacity of a dreamer, the resilience of a phoenix, and the wisdom to dance with uncertainty. In the grand tapestry of business, let each challenge be a brushstroke, painting a masterpiece of resilience. For in the chaos of creation, you’ll find the symphony of success, conducted not by the fear of failure, but by the courage to start!
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Cywreck “
To learn more about Cywreck Visit https://cywreck.in/
Find on social media @ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utkrist_varma/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CyWreck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/public/Utkrist-Varma
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utkrist-varma-b916a92a0/
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