Girish Mathrubootham
Co-founder & Managing Partner, Together Fund. On 3 shows, 4 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestor@mrgirish ↗LinkedIn ↗together.fund ↗
Girish Mathrubootham founded Freshworks in 2010 and led it to an IPO on Nasdaq in 2021. He also co-founded SaaSBOOMi and launched Together Fund to invest in early-stage SaaS and AI startups.
3shows
4appearances
108statements
31resolved
17supported
5contradicted
55%fully supported
27said about them ↓ Everything Girish Mathrubootham said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
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.”
Mathrubootham: Indian buyers hijack product roadmaps, making global expansion impossible
“It's actually much easier to sell to global customers than selling to Indian customers. You know, Indian customers are notorious for hijacking your product roadmap, and you can never sell outside once you start selling to India.”
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.”
Mathrubootham: 2011 Hacker News response cemented Freshdesk as Zendesk alternative
“We responded to the website, we exposed what was happening, and the whole internet community, we were on Hacker News, For 30 hours at the top post, and for three days on the top page, the entire community supported us, and from that point onwards, like Freshde…”
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.”
Mathrubootham: Freshworks built its second product before reaching $1M ARR
“We actually built our second product when Freshdesk, our first product, was not even a million dollars in revenue.”
Mathrubootham: Invest in a second product immediately after first PMF
“The work that you do in product today is going to help you in revenue two, three years down the line. And especially once you have product market fit in the first product, when the revenue is coming in, that's when you will have the time to actually invest in …”
Mathrubootham: Every PLG or inbound company eventually adds field sales
“Every company that started with PLG or inbound, at some point of time, you can see they will overlay a field sales motion.”
Mathrubootham: Startups facing funded competitors should raise VC, not bootstrap
“So I think if you are in a category where there's a lot of competition and if some of your competition already funded, it's probably a better idea to get funding and scale rapidly because VCs are going to look for other players in the category. And if you are …”
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”
The other half of the tape: Girish Mathrubootham's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 26 times in 16 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 9Saravana Kumar 4Kalyan Varma 3Anupreet Singh 3Harshit Agarwal 2Fani Sama 2Sham Rajamani 1Sarov Gupta 1
Statements about Girish Mathrubootham, by other people (1)
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Top Founders 25
20VC 1
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 10 mentions in 7 episodes 1 per episode
- How this pre-revenue SaaS startup raised $1m last week at a $5m cap
- He's spent $200k already, pre revenue, list of 3,000 users. How to convert them to paid?
- Mobile Security SaaS Hits $1.7m ARR, Huge Profits, Growing 100% YoY
- She hit $250k MRR in November for Partnership SaaS, 4000 Customers, approx $90m Valuation
- Look Back: UserZoom Eye's 2022 IPO, $100m Run Rate in User Experience Management Space
- His software does $15k/mo helping you rent empty tennis courts (and 22 other sports)
- $12m profits, Bootstrapped, $95m ARR out of India
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- Slintel Breaks $6m ARR, $20m Raise on $100m Valuation Ready to Take on B2B Intelligence Space
- Testbox Lets You Try Software Without Sales Calls, Landed 1st Customer, $2.7m Raised at $12m Post Money Cap
- UserZoom Eye's 2022 IPO, $100m Run Rate in User Experience Management Space
- Linkedin Automation Tool Bootstrapped to $25k/mo From Parents Basement, Big Profits
- The $30 Million Marketplace Out of India
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Girish's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Co-founder & Managing Partner, Together Fund | 2 | 66 | 54% 13/24 | full record on 20VC → |
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Co-founder & Managing Partner, Together Fund | 2 | 27 | 57% 4/7 | full record on Top Founders → |
 SAASTRLEDGER | Co-founder & Managing Partner, Together Fund | 0 +1 | 15 | — | full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast → |