Pawan Desai, co-founder and CEO of MitKat Advisory Services, discusses the transition from naval and corporate roles into entrepreneurship. He explains how he learned to lead the business rather than be controlled by its daily demands, why he deliberately leaves room for unplanned exploration, and what founders should understand about passion, culture, and identity.
Pawan served in the Indian Navy with a specialisation in submarine operations and later worked at the Mahindra Group in cybersecurity. His roles have also included IVLP fellow, adviser, visiting faculty member, and supporter of initiatives for women from the armed forces entering cybersecurity.
His professional links:
Pawan says many people carry an idea for a business, but timing, place, and partnership determine whether it moves forward. At a turning point in his own career, he chose to try entrepreneurship without over-analysing the decision. His cybersecurity experience gave him confidence that he could return to corporate work if necessary, while the right partner helped make the venture possible.
He does not suggest that planning is irrelevant. Instead, his experience shows that complete certainty is unavailable before a founder begins. Some of the most important learning starts only after entering the market.
A sentence on a roadside billboard stayed with Pawan: was he running the business, or was the business running him? He recognised that many owners remain in permanent firefighting mode. Since then, he has made a conscious effort to direct the company, even though that effort does not succeed perfectly every day.
His schedule uses broad blocks rather than planning every minute. He identifies no more than three essential outcomes for the day. He then leaves a large portion—sometimes close to half—unplanned so he can think, explore ideas, contact someone he has not spoken with recently, or respond to an unexpected opportunity. This open time is a deliberate source of creativity rather than empty space.
Pawan allocates meaningful time to LinkedIn because connection is part of his job as a CEO. For him, genuine business relationships cannot begin with an immediate product pitch. Understanding people’s work, milestones, and ideas helps establish rapport. That requires consistent participation rather than a burst of posts followed by months of silence.
He also protects time for books, articles, and other forms of learning. If a leader’s day consists only of answering messages, the longer-term responsibilities of the role are neglected.
There is no perfect day to become an entrepreneur, Pawan says; practical learning begins after the leap. At the same time, entrepreneurship is not for everyone and should not be pursued because peers make it appear desirable. The work must genuinely call to the individual because it demands more time and commitment than the promise of greater freedom suggests.
His advice begins with doing something one is truly interested in, which is different from choosing a field that merely seems interesting. Pawan’s own academic training in metallurgy and marine engineering did not prescribe his later work in intelligence and cybersecurity.
He also warns against accepting mediocrity. A startup’s culture depends on people who care about the cause and bring sustained effort. Finally, he argues that work should not become a person’s entire identity. A job title or technical speciality describes only one part of a human being.
