This episode carries Girish Mathrubootham's own address, with nobody on the show putting
questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham recounts how responding to public accusations of being a Zendesk clone catalyzed early brand positioning in 2011.
“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 Freshdesk was the alternative to Zendesk”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Girish Mathrubootham
Opinion
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.”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 1:50Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
AssertionNot checkable as stated
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.”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 13:17Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
Insight
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 …”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 15:51Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
Insight
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.”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 21:25Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Mathrubootham: Freshworks raised $1M from Accel with $2,100 MRR
“The first round of funding when we had 70 stranger customers from all around the world, Paying us an average of 30 dollars a month, so we had 2100 dollars of MRR, but that was enough to get us a million dollar funding, and that's why I said it's a big bet that…”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 6:09Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Mathrubootham: Freshworks hired zero Ruby on Rails devs until employee 69
“Till employee number 69, we did not hire a single programmer who actually knew Ruby on Rails. We hired great programmers and figured out that, okay, they can learn Ruby on Rails and then contribute.”
Girish MathruboothamSep 15, 2023▶ 10:23Building a Global SaaS Empire | Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
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