From SOC Analyst to Co-Founder & CTO: What Six Years Taught Me
I started in 2020 as a cybersecurity analyst at BERRY9 IT Services, watching SOC dashboards and testing web apps. Six years later I'm co-founder and CTO of CRIS InfoTech and lead trainer at Hacktr Technologies. These are the lessons that mattered most.
2020–2025: learn both sides
At BERRY9 I did VAPT across web, API and mobile apps and worked in the SOC. Doing both was the best thing that happened to my career: every bug I found, I also understood how a defender would (or wouldn't) see it.
2025: freelancing teaches ownership
A few months freelancing — SOC detections, malware analysis, VAPT, audit support — meant nobody else owned the outcome. If the client couldn't act on my report, it was my problem.
CTO: building a practice, not just doing tests
At CRIS InfoTech the job changed from testing to building how testing is done.
- A written methodology on OWASP, MASTG and PTES
- Report templates every tester follows
- A bench of 4 freelance testers I train and review
- In-house AI tools that take the grind out of delivery
Teaching made me better
Training 4000+ students at Hacktr forced me to explain things simply. If I can't teach a technique to a beginner in a lab, I don't understand it well enough to use it on a client.
Advice for anyone starting
Pick one side to start, but learn the other. Build a home lab. Write up everything you find. And get comfortable explaining risk to people who don't care about payloads — that's what gets you promoted.
Tools mentioned
Breaking and defending are two halves of one skill. Learn both, write everything down, and teach what you know — it compounds.