The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 15 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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.”
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…”
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: 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…”
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.”
Mathrubootham: Freshservice is north of $260M ARR
“So this second product, FreshService, Which we launched in 2014. Today is north of two hundred sixty million dollars ARR.”
Mathrubootham: Celebrate employee craftsmanship instead of pushing revenue metrics
“They're important for the board, but you cannot push down the metrics to the people. So you have to celebrate your employees for making biryani. So like if your marketer is writing a brilliant blog post or your AdWords person is coming up with a creative campa…”
Freshworks landed Burger King, 3M, and Sony through inbound leads in 2013-2014
“Like even as early as 20 13 and 14, we had closed Burger King, three M, Schneider Electric, Macmillan Publishing, Pearson, Sony, all of these customers actually came inbound.”
Mathrubootham: 31 startups have been founded by Freshworks alumni
“Like we have 31 startups that have come out of Freshworks.”
Mathrubootham: 40% of Freshworks revenue comes from inbound SMBs
“We have 40% of our revenue. It's completely SMB customers, a hundred percent inbound.”
Mathrubootham: Freshworks' early CAC was 80% marketing and 20% sales
“Our sales, if you look at our early years, our sales cost would be like 20% of the CAC. Marketing would be 80%.”