We invited Susmith Krishnan, Co-Founder & Lead Developer at Expert Evidence.org for an interview with Most Popular Stories. Let’s get to know about his entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur.
I am an engineering drop out, who loves coding and physics. I grew up breaking my toys and putting them back together. I joined engineering to feed my curiosity and to add life to ideas. Much to my dismay, engineering was more of repetitive assignments and exams that pushed me down than helping me grow. The course of my life changed when my friend, a law student asked me about the possibilities of developing a tool that captures content from the internet with evidentiary quality using forensic methods that comply with the local law and international standards. We have given this tool to cyber police departments from various states such as Kerala, Karnataka, etc for the pilot testing.
2. Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I choose entrepreneurship because it offers creative freedom, flexible work hours, and every day there is a new challenge and learning opportunity. A job offers security and is less stressful but I like this challenging nature, the sheer pleasure of finding solutions motivates me.
3. What was the vision behind it?
The increasing cybercrime rates in India is alarming. We hear a lot of cases daily about online harassment, cyberbullying, and such. Most of the time, when cyber crimes are reported, the evidence presented will be screenshots, which does not comply as evidence in the court of law as they can be tampered with. We have developed a web extension that helps the user to capture the content with hash functions and time stamps to hold authenticity. The vision is to let everyone use the internet without being worried and help them get the justice they deserve.
4. What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
The initial days were difficult, as I had to go against the norms of society. For ages, we are stuck in the rat race of high school, college, job, and retirement. I felt this process stagnant and wanted to break free. Almost everyone I know tried to stop me from discontinuing engineering. It took me a lot of self-motivation and self-belief to stop listening to everyone who tried to pull me down and to start focusing on my dreams.
5. How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I try to focus more on the work I do and enjoy every bit of it. I don’t see my work as a task, rather as a new thing I get to do. I feel relaxed when I have to work on new solutions. I do occasionally take breaks to hang out with my friends.
6. How many hours a day do you work on average & can you describe/outline your typical day?
I tend to work more during the night than day. I start my day pretty late and end mostly in the mornings. There are many occasions where I have spent days sitting straight for a day or two solving bugs. My workday depends on the kind of work I do and I stop when it is complete.
7. In your opinion what are the keys to success?
The key to success is perseverance. Trying harder and harder constantly and never stopping. It does take time to see the results you were hoping for. Pausing your work is only going to make it longer. Aim for the long term goals. Keep your curiosity alive by learning something new every day.
8. What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
You cannot wait for someone to pat on your back or to believe in you. You should be your biggest fan. You should believe in yourself, focus on your dream, and let nothing stop you. There will always be people who try to stop you, who try to demotivate you and drag you down. Your dream should be your motivation and nothing can stop you.
Connect here,
Website: https://www.expertevidence.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusmithKrishnan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sk1337/
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