It is unfortunate to witness what unfolded at Cyara during my tenure. The company has tremendous potential: an experienced and talented workforce paired with a product suite that had real product-market fit. Under the right leadership, this could be a CEO’s dream scenario.
Instead, Rishi Rana’s leadership has created a deeply dysfunctional environment. He has a unique ability to make even the most seasoned professionals question their own competence. His approach relies heavily on forceful, performative declarations rather than thoughtful strategy. Roughly 95% of directives were reactive “shiny object” pursuits that were abandoned within weeks, leaving teams scrambling with no continuity or ownership.
Input from experienced professionals is neither welcomed nor valued. Industry best practices are routinely dismissed, with employees expected to execute top-down orders even when they clearly run counter to the company’s best chances for success. Any perceived sort of failure is never his fault while he speaks at length about "accountability." He is apparently exempt from that expectation.
The culture of communication is especially corrosive. Colleagues with 10–20 years of experience spend an astonishing amount of time crafting and recrafting basic emails to avoid receiving aggressive, belittling replies from Mr. Rana. This climate of fear is not only demoralizing but also an enormous waste of organizational energy.
Perhaps the clearest example of poor leadership was the demand to deliver a product roadmap on entirely unrealistic timelines while simultaneously cutting critical resources. When deadlines inevitably slipped and the output suffered, Mr. Rana’s response was not to address root causes but to convene meetings aimed at publicly berating those involved. Unsurprisingly, customer-facing teams quickly lost confidence in the product’s quality (justifiably so) given the impossible expectations and lack of support behind those initiatives.
The impact on individuals is real. I was not going to leave a review, but after leaving Cyara, I realized how deeply the culture had affected me. It took weeks in my new role to rebuild the confidence to contribute openly and communicate with other leaders without fear of being berated or made to feel inadequate. No one deserves to work in an environment where respect, trust, and professional judgment are consistently undermined.
Cyara’s culture under Mr. Rana is not normal, and no professional should be treated the way he treats those working extremely hard for him.
