Trishneet Arora - The Cyber Whizkid

Within six years of its launch, Trishneet Arora’s TAC Security is one of the most talked about startups in the world of cybersecurity. Read on to find out how Arora, a school dropout, made good without walking the beaten path.

- Jui Mukherjee

On his right fore arm a little above the wrist, Trishneet Arora, TAC Security Solutions’ founder and CEO, has ‘Scorpion’ tattooed in elegant running hand. Resourceful, brave, stubborn, and passionate—these are the traits of a Scorpio. Arora, 25, ticks all the boxes. How else can one explain a school dropout without much formal training in computers and related technologies launching, at 19 years of age, a cybersecurity firm which now has a 150-plus clientele? On this point, Arora, too, does not have much to say, except “I love my work”.

At the company’s sixth annual general meeting in Chandigarh on April 9, Arora said that TAC Security had grown 270% in revenue in FY19 and was on track to repeat its stellar growth in FY20. He announced commencement of operations with a direct subsidiary in Africa. Today, the company services noteworthy names such as NSDL, BSNL, Canara Bank, PhonePe, Airtel, Reliance Capital, and the Indian Navy. Its U.S. clients include the state of New Mexico. Some 40% of its total revenue comes from the U.S., which Arora says will continue to remain an important region for the company. He has set his sights on Australia and Europe, too.

Arora’s affair with technology began when his father, a tax consultant in Ludhiana, Punjab, brought home a computer. He was nine then. Arora, who would take apart appliances and gadgets to figure out how they worked, did the same with the computer, too.

“I played games on it for a few days but then I wanted to take a look inside. So I opened it up, but I couldn’t put it back together,” he says. At the technician’s where father and son had taken the computer to get it fixed, Arora was riveted by the proceedings. “I asked questions and tried to understand what he was doing,” he says.