Meet the school dropout who is building safety nets for Bollywood numbers

Manan Shah's early craze for computers and internet has helped him build a successful cybersecurity venture step by step

He's calm and composed, with a razor sharp focus on solving the problem. Yet you could easily pass by Manan Shah and never know that this young 20-something is the one working with your favourite Bollywood stars. As what, you wonder. As a cybersecurity professional. 

Shah is the CEO and founder of Vadodara-based Avalance Global Solutions, a cybersecurity firm incorporated in 2015, and has worked with the Gujarat and Rajasthan police, Ministry of Defence, CBI Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Ahmedabad Airports and most recently with Bollywood. 

Last month, Raj Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, invested in Shah’s company, acquiring a 50 per cent stake. 

Shah’s firm Avalance has provided Anti-Piracy as a Service (APaaS) for films such as Aiyaari, Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se, Namastey England, The Accidental Prime Minister, Badla, and Total Dhamaal. 

Coming from a humble background, Shah has achieved what many aren’t able to even after spending a lifetime at work. 

A school dropout, Shah hated studying but was fascinated by the world of computers and internet. He solved a Facebook-related cybercrime case for a friend in school, but never found the rigid education system in India appealing.

“I spent most of my time with the computer. I tried learning how a computer and internet works. I also spent time watching online videos on programming languages. But after seeing a seminar on ethical hacking in Vadodara in 2009, I decided to push myself to learn hacking full time,” he said. 

Building trust was of course, not an easy task. It also doesn’t help that he looks younger than his years. How did he then, manage to work with the likes of best security agencies in the country? 

“Building trust isn't easy. But I don’t believe in sending marketing people to sell the products we make. I go for demonstrations myself. Once people see what we have to offer, the road to trust becomes easier,” he said. 

However, the route to the present was strewn with uncertainties and challenges. As a teenager, Shah was helping people solve cybercrime, training government departments and corporates, but there was no direction he was following. 

The real “break” came in 2015 when he helped solve a case of corporate data theft for a large real estate company in Gujarat. A senior executive, while congratulating Shah, asked how he earned a living. 

That’s when he began thinking about converting his hobby to his career.

The real estate executive helped Shah with initial funding of Rs 2-2.5 crore, and thus began the journey of Avalance. 

Making parents understand was another challenge. His parents weren’t happy about their son having dropped out of school to begin a venture at such a young age. 

But once orders began coming in, things improved. Today, they’re very proud of what their son has achieved.

What does Avalance mean though?

“Oh nothing. But when you don’t have a common or big name, it helps in Google SEO (search engine optimisation), which determines top results in a Google search,” he said, very matter-of-factly.

Today, Avalance has offices in Vadodara, Mumbai and the United States. The company employs around 70 people and provides services like brand protection, brand abuse, rogue websites, and social media impersonation.

Avalance also offers products that can help sellers maximise their position on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and so on by automatically detecting and removing fake products. They also have technology that can scan the site for illegal copies and report repeat offenders.

This is in addition to cybersecurity related services to clients that include the likes of Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, ABB, Adani, ITC, Novartis, HUL, ONGC, pepsico, TATA, Reliance, Sun Pharma, Snapdeal, Oyo Rooms, Swiggy, Vadodara and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in cases of fraud, social media issues, digital forensics and so on. 

At present, Shah is occupied with building and perfecting the film anti-piracy product that will remove the manual effort of dealing with online piracy. “The manual process takes anywhere between one to two months and often we have to delete 15,000-20,000 links (with pirated content). So we are developing a product to automate the repetitive parts of the process.” 

In the long run, Shah wants to expand in newer geographies and contribute towards India's cybersecurity mission.