The Ledger
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Mathrubootham: No enterprise software company has successfully transitioned down to SMB
“Oh, start high and go down never, never works. In the history of software, you can tell me which company has succeeded in starting at enterprise and actually winning in SMB. It's not happened. But if you look at many companies, including Salesforce and Freshwo…”
Mathrubootham: Building company culture without in-office presence remains unsolved
“I did not know. I still don't know how to build culture when nobody's coming into the office.”
Users will replace Google search with ChatGPT for software product discovery
“तो यही भविश्य है लोग खोज के लिए Google पर नहीं जा रहे हैं बलकि चैट GPT पर जा रहे हैं इसलिए हमें वह करने की जरूरत है”
Freshworks maintains transparent public pricing for mid-market and enterprise customers
“अब हम यह साफ रखते हैं कि हमारी कीमते खुली होगी, यह सब कुछ website पर ही available होगा”
No Indian venture capital fund focused specifically on B2B before Together Fund
“उस समय एक भी VC फंड नहीं था, जो B to B पर focused था”
Indian SaaS startups win by expanding globally before targeting domestic market
“If we win globally and then go to India, like the chances of success are actually even better. Like if you see most of the even Indian startups who are doing well, like I would say BrowserStack, Chargebee some of the newer age companies they're all global comp…”
Mathrubootham: Generative engine optimization will replace SEO for software marketing
“Now we have generative engine optimization, right? Like if a lot of people are going to go to ChatGPT and ask about, hey which software should I use? How do we make sure that the AI models are trained to tell customers that Freshworks is a great product? So, s…”
Mathrubootham: The 2020s will be the decade of India as a product nation
“This is the time. I would now say now is the time for Indian tech product companies, and this is going to be the decade of India as a product nation.”
Hiring senior executives based on prestigious resumes failed at Freshworks
“मैंने वास्तव में कुछ मौकों पर resume से खुद को बहेकने दिया, जैसे अरे वे एक बड़ी company के लिए काम करते हैं, एक अच्छे college गए थे, वो बहुत smart हो सकते हैं, और मेरी company के लिए अच्छा काम कर सकते हैं, लेकिन मेरा अंदाजा गलत था, उन्हें basic knowledge भी नह…”
The 2020s decade will see massive success for Indian tech product companies
“अब मैं यह कहूंगा कि अब भी भारतिय तकनीकी प्रॉडक्ट कमपनियों के लिए समय आ गया है और यह दशक भारत का प्रॉडक्ट क्षेत्र में सफलता पाने वाला है”
Mathrubootham: Indian software buyers expect custom development over off-the-shelf products
“So I think to some extent that could be true, but also India Indian customers are used to a services mindset. Like if you go to us or Australia, customers there know that they are buying A shrink wrap product. They know that, Hey the product is the product. If…”
Mathrubootham: India has over 6,000 SaaS and AI startups in 2024
“This year, there are over, I think, 6000 companies startups in SaaS and AI in India, 1600 of those founders were attending our event.”
Together Fund is India's only operator-led SaaS and AI fund
“Even today, we are the only operator led fund in India, and we are the only fund that's focused on SaaS and AI investments only.”
Mathrubootham turned a $25K angel check in Chargebee into $3.4M
“I think it was 2.4 million pre-money valuation. A 25 investment turned into a 3.4 million.”
Freshworks was built to operate globally from day one
“हाँ हम पहले दिन से ही global थे ये एक हमारा सोचा समझा निर्णय था”
US SaaS startups spend two-thirds of customer acquisition costs on sales
“अमेरिका में CAC, दो तिहाई sales, और एक तिहाई marketing होगा, क्योंकि salesperson बहुत महेंगे होते हैं, अगर आप San Francisco में बैठे हैं, या उस मामले में London में भी”
SolarCity paid Freshworks $1M annually across 13 separate team accounts
“बेशक, यह एक enterprise व्यापक सौधा नहीं था, लेकिन यह बड़े enterprise की एक team के लिए था, जैसे अगर आपको याद हो, Tesla ने जिस company को खरीदा था, वो दूसरी Elon Musk company Solar City थी, तो हमने तेरह अलग-अलग टीमें इसका उप्योग कर रही थी, वे हमें लगभग एक मिलिय…”
Freshworks generates 87% of revenue from customers paying over $5,000 annually
“اور دو ہزار سے ادھک گراہک ہمیں ہر سال پچاس ہزار ڈالر سے اوپر کا بھکتان کرتے ہیں اس لئے ہمارے پاس SMB گراہکوں کی ایک لمبی لائن ہے مجھے لگتا ہے کہ ہماری کمائی کا ستاسی پرتیشت ان گراہکوں سے آتا ہے جو ہمیں سال آنا پانچ ہزار ڈالر سے ادھک کا بھکتان کرتے ہیں”
New SaaS products require two to three years post-launch to gain momentum
“جب آپ ابھی کام کرتے ہیں تو آپ شاید اگلے سال اسے لانچ کریں گے اور پھر یہ دھیرے دھیرے بننا شروع ہوگا اور پھر آپ کو گتی پرابت کرنے میں دو سے تین سال لگیں گے”
Freshworks' ideal mid-market customer size is 500 to 5,000 employees
“हमारे लिए सबसे अच्छा स्थान पांच सौ से पांच हजार कर्मचारियों के बीच में हो सकता है।”
Executives can bring their thinking to new roles, but not old playbooks
“जब आप नौकरी बदल रहे होते हैं, तो आपकी सोच अपने साथ ले जा सकते हैं, लेकिन प्लेबुक नहीं”
Freshworks under-hired software engineers relative to sales during its 2015 growth
“दो हजार पंद्रह में हम वास्तव में बहुत तेजी से बढ़ रहे थे और हम sales team को nuket कर रहे थे और sales का पहिया engineering के पहिये से तेज घूम रहा था. हमने जरूरत मताबिक engineers को hire नहीं किया”
Freshworks' second product, Freshservice, reached $1.5M ARR in its first year
“और वह product पहले वर्ष में डेड़ मिलियन और दूसरे वर्ष में छे दशमलव पाँच मिलियन तक पहुँच गिया”
India currently has approximately 6,000 SaaS and AI startups
“लगभग छह हजार कंपनियां, स्टार्ट अप्स, भारत में सास और AI में”
Girish Mathrubootham has seven unicorns in his angel investment portfolio
“मेरे पास अभी भी साथ यूनिकॉर्ण है”
Girish Mathrubootham invested $25,000 in Chargebee at a 2.4 crore INR valuation
“मुझे लगता है कि यह दो करोड़ चालीस लाक प्रीमर्नी वैल्यूएशन था पचीस हजार निवेश”
SaaS startups can expand into higher price points as features grow
“And my learning as a product manager has been that you can always grow into a much higher price point. You can build more features and create all these enterprise versions.”
US SaaS customer acquisition cost is two-thirds sales, one-third marketing
“So in the US, the CAC would be two thirds sales and one third marketing because salespeople are so expensive if you're sitting in San Francisco and, or even London for that matter.”
Freshworks expanded SolarCity from a 25-seat deal to nearly $1M ARR
“We entered SolarCity, I think with a 25 seat deal. And two years later when we hired our first president of sales in the US, he went and spoke to SolarCity. We found out that 13 different teams were using it, more than a thousand licenses. They were almost pay…”
Freshworks' $50K accounts often originate as SMBs adopting multiple products
“Pretty much all of our 5000 dollar customers probably started off paying us hundred dollars or 50 dollars or whatever, and even some of our 50,000 dollar plus customers are actually SMB customers who have adopted three, four products from us.”
Product leaders must focus on revenue two to three years out
“See, I always say that my job as product manager, I have to worry about the revenue that's going to come in 26 and 27. My sales VP or my president can worry about the revenue that's going to come this quarter and next quarter, right? So product person has to w…”
Freshworks has two product lines surpassing $300M in ARR each
“We are second product recently crossed three hundred million dollars in ARR. So now we have two product lines north of three hundred million in ARR.”
Enterprise SaaS customers require systems integrator partners for implementation
“When you're building for the enterprise customer, they are not going to do it themselves. You need an SI partner who will be trained to use it.”
Freshworks mandates transparent website pricing over contact sales gates
“So now we make a philosophy that our pricing will be open. It will be on the website. So that's the company policy, right?”
Finding executives who master both inbound and enterprise GTM is difficult
“When you're hiring leaders, like it's incredibly hard to hire leaders who understand both the nuances of both these businesses.”
Skipping reference checks on investor-referred executives was a costly mistake
“Number one, I did not do ref ref checks on candidates who actually came through like investor referrals. So Costly mistake. I should have talked to people who reported into those leaders and got a style of their management style.”
CEOs must stay closely involved during a new executive's initial onboarding
“One of the most important lessons I learned, which every CEO should do is while you can be hands off the initial period of letting the leader transition and settle in, you have to be closely involved in all the big decisions. You have to be watchful of how the…”
Mathrubootham: Executive philosophies are portable between companies, but playbooks are not
“When you're changing jobs, philosophies are portable, playbooks are not. So, so basically you can bring your philosophies and values, but you cannot take, bring your playbook and use it as a template to run in the new company.”
New startup executives must solve immediate problems before teaching strategy
“As a new leader, when you come with all your experience in a fast growing startup, you have to understand that there are already hundreds of cows that are falling into ditches. So if you want to be successful at Freshworks, you have to ask the question, which …”
Mathrubootham: Indian talent dynamics lead CS engineers into non-technical roles
“In the context in India, you have to understand this. Everybody finishes computer science engineering and then figures out what they want to do in life, right? So, so I have folks working in sales and pre-sales and marketing who are all computer science engine…”
Mathrubootham has seven unicorns in his angel portfolio
“By the way, my, one of my, one investment returned all my entire angel portfolio. So, and I still have seven unicorns there.”
Mathrubootham: My main leadership weakness is not holding people accountable
“My biggest weakness is probably I don't hold people accountable. I like to inspire. I like to tell people what needs to be done, but I expect them to do it. I'm not the kind of person who will like hold the whip and like ask for status updates and make sure ev…”
Market underestimation and co-founder disputes top founder mistakes
“Underestimating the market, fighting with co-founders.”
Freshworks acquired 100 customers in 100 days before raising external capital
“फिर हमारे पास सौ दिनों में सौ ग्रहक थे, दो सौ दिनों में दो सौ ग्रहक यहां तक कि हमने अभी तक कोई भी फंड नहीं उठाये थे, इसलिए हम एक अच्छी शुरुआत कर चुके थे.”
Freshworks' early Indian traction came from digital-native startups like Flipkart
“भारत में हमारी शुरुआती सफलता डिजिटल नेटिव स्टार्टअप के साथ भी थी और यह सब फ्लिपकार्ट दुनिया की ई-कॉमर्स कंपनियां”
Freshworks faced 600 helpdesk competitors when launching Freshdesk
“जैसे जब हमने fresh desk शुरू किया था, बाजार में पहले से ही छे सो help desk मौजूद थे”