20VC: Three Core Lessons Scaling Freshworks to a $5.2BN Market Cap | Biggest Product and Pricing Lessons from Scaling to $597M in ARR | How India Can Compete Globally in Tech and AI with Girish Mathrubootham, Co-Founder @ Freshworks

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, India’s first SaaS company to list on NASDAQ. Today, Freshworks has over $596M in ARR with a $5.27BN market cap, with investors like Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, and CapitalG. Girish is also a founding member of SaaSBOOMi, Asia’s largest community of founders and product builders, and has invested in over 60 startups. On top of that, Girish is also the Founder of Together Fund, a $150M fund focusing on Indian B2B companies going global from day 1.

In Today’s Episode with Girish Mathrubootham We Discuss:

From Online Forum to the Founding of a $5BN Company:

How did a horrible customer service experience prompt Girish to start Freshworks? What was the aha moment?
What were Girish’s biggest challenges founding Freshwork in 2010?
How was building the first product? What worked? What didn’t work?

Biggest Lessons on Product, Pricing and People Scaling to $5.2BN:

Why does Girish believe Indian companies have to win globally before winning India?
What were Girish’s biggest mistakes scaling Freshworks? What were his lessons?
Why does Girish believe starting high and going down never works in software?
When does Girish think is the best time to build the second product?
How did Freshworks lose against Slack? What did he learn from the experience?

The Biggest Lessons to Becoming the Best Leader:

How has Girish’s leadership style changed over time?
What were Girish’s biggest hiring mistakes?
What was Girish’s biggest challenge in building culture during COVID?
What is one piece of advice Girish believes every CEO should follow?

How India Will Become a Global Player in Tech, AI and Football:

Why does Girish believe now is the time for India tech?
What are the most common misconceptions of India tech?
What traits does Girish look for in founders he invests in?
What was Girish’s biggest investment mistake? What did he learn from it?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	First thing is, what gives them the right to win in that market?
0:03.2	You have to have spent a lot of time in the problem domain to be able to solve that problem.
0:08.6	Number two, craftsmanship, everything that they do, whether it's a deck that they send or a product
0:13.9	mock that they have. Can I see them to be world class? Because you cannot win in a global market
0:19.6	without being a truly world-class product.
0:22.5	And then their ability to hire a great team. The great founders who go the distance are the ones
0:28.2	who are able to build a great team. If you hire a great team, the work will get done.
0:32.8	This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbing. And what a special day. I think it's the first Indian
0:37.3	guests we've had on a show in seven years. And I'm so excited for this. And what better
0:41.8	guest than Gyrish Mathra Bootham, founder and CEO of Freshworks, India's first SaaS company
0:47.6	to list on Nasdaq. Today, Freshworks has over 596 million in ARR with a 5.2 billion dollar market cap.
0:57.0	Gyrish is also a founding member of SaaS Bumi, Asia's largest community of founders and product builders,
1:02.0	and on top of that, Gehrish is also the founder of Together Fund, a $150 million fund,
1:08.0	focusing on Indian B2B companies going global from day one. But before we dive
1:12.6	in, let's face it, your employees probably hate your procurement process. It's hard to follow.
1:17.6	It's cobbled together across systems, and it's a waste of valuable time and resources. And as a
1:22.3	result, you probably are facing difficulties, getting full visibility, managing compliance, and
1:27.4	controlling spend.
1:28.6	It's time for a better way. Meet Zip, the first modern intake to pay solution that can handle
1:33.7	procurement and all of its complexities, from intake and sourcing to contracting purchase orders
1:38.9	and payments. By providing a single front door for employee purchases, Zip seamlessly orchestrates the
1:44.6	procurement process across systems and teams, meaning you can procure faster, with the least
	...

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