Shubham Mittal, co-founder of RedHunt Labs, shares the transition from a secure technical career to building a cybersecurity company. His account focuses on preparation, execution, customer success, and the less visible challenge of learning business functions outside a technical founder’s comfort zone.
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Shubham is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and community contributor who has also served on the Black Hat Asia review board. He attempted to start a company early in his career, but abandoned it after roughly two months when it was clear the effort was not progressing. The desire to build something remained, and he continued discussing the possibility with mentors and peers while waiting until he had greater experience and a problem he genuinely wanted to solve.
That later became RedHunt Labs. Before committing, Shubham and his co-founder spent months testing the decision, discussing the concept, and preparing several fallback plans. Leaving a well-paid role also required accepting a loss of comfort and explaining the risk to family. Community support helped him make the transition.
Shubham once treated ideas as secrets that competitors might copy. Experience changed that view. Other people will eventually encounter similar problems and develop similar concepts, so secrecy cannot substitute for delivery. A valuable idea without capable execution has little practical value. Founders should discuss and validate their thinking, then test it quickly enough to learn from failure before spending years in the wrong direction.
A founder can impose routines, but Shubham says the day rarely follows them. He starts by checking customer-facing work: active projects, scans, conversations, and anything that could affect delivery. The calendar may then contain product demonstrations, technical calls, research reviews, and development discussions. He tries to preserve a block of uninterrupted time to examine strategy and whether the company is still following its vision, although urgent team needs can consume it.
In the early days, the founders handled design, development, management, and whatever else the company required. As the team matured, some of that pressure eased, but prioritization remained more useful than expecting a perfectly systematic day.
A young company needs revenue to hire, yet may need more people to win and deliver work. RedHunt Labs had to break that deadlock with initial contracts and gradual growth. Shubham was comfortable evaluating security researchers and developers, but recruiting sales, marketing, and even human resources specialists was unfamiliar. The team learned through repeated attempts rather than waiting for complete knowledge.
Shubham favors open communication and transparent policies over rules that create unnecessary pressure. Even when someone leaves, he wants the relationship to end without resentment. Above all, a business must make customers successful; technology has little value if it does not improve their experience.
That focus must be sustainable. Long nights may happen, but continuous overwork eventually weakens both the founder and the company. Travel and driving help Shubham reset, and he recommends taking a meaningful break after an intense stretch rather than treating burnout as commitment.
