Founder & CEO Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham: Success Is In the Big Things, Happiness Is In the Small Things
Grit18 Heinä 2022

Founder & CEO Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham: Success Is In the Big Things, Happiness Is In the Small Things

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, the first Indian SaaS company to be listed in NASDAQ — and when he’s in his home country, he gets the celebrity treatment. Freshworks’ 2021 IPO was a milestone for the country’s tech sector, and Mathrubootham has also attracted a “take a selfie with me!” level of fame for trying to change the conversation about entrepreneurship there. “You can be successful in business without doing bad things,” he says. “Being a good person and winning is not mutually exclusive.”

In this episode, Girish and Joubin discuss the silver lining of COVID lockdown; learning how to make mistakes and fight for what you want; why Girish started Freshworks after finding success at Zoho; the challenges of starting a small business in Chennai in the early 2010s; the “modern jail” of being a CEO; immediate job offers; “Indian cowboys”; why multi-product startups should hire in India; why moving to the US was like competing in the Olympics; and why the IPO is not the endgame.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Growing up in a “tier-two town” and social norms in India (06:03)
  • Why entrepreneurial people don’t always fit in at big companies (13:00)
  • Being a celebrity businessman in India, breaking up biases, and the pressure of being an idol (20:49)
  • 500 crorepatis and generating wealth for employees (24:27)
  • Why Girish started Freshworks, originally known as Freshdesk (28:09)
  • Keeping up morale & being scrappy when Freshworks didn’t have much funding (36:35)
  • Nostalgia for the early days and the luxury of time (39:44)
  • “Ripoff or not” and doing battle with a respected analyst (45:29)
  • Growing from one product to many, and the support needed to do that (49:58)
  • Deciding to build a billion-dollar company, and moving from India to the US (58:43)
  • Why Girish has re-committed himself to Freshworks for at least seven more years (01:04:24)
  • Finding happiness in small things and not letting others control your feelings (01:07:57)

Links:

Jaksot(278)

Co-Founder & CEO Charm Industrial, Peter Reinhardt: “All That Matters Is What the Customers Are Telling You”

Co-Founder & CEO Charm Industrial, Peter Reinhardt: “All That Matters Is What the Customers Are Telling You”

Before Peter Reinhardt started his current company, Charm Industrial, he was the CEO and co-founder of the customer data platform Segment, which almost died in its first year. Why? He was afraid to as...

4 Heinä 20221h 10min

Co-Founder & CEO Clari, Andy Byrne: Machine Learning and Human Feeling

Co-Founder & CEO Clari, Andy Byrne: Machine Learning and Human Feeling

Clari CEO Andy Byrne says he never wants to look back and see that he put more into his work than his family. But that doesn’t mean he can’t learn a thing or two from running a 600-person multi-billio...

27 Kesä 20221h 2min

Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO

Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO

In the early days of Okta, co-founder Frederic Kerrest was courting a 3,000-person company in Louisiana, which was considering Okta and one other vendor. When he learned who he was up against, he said...

20 Kesä 20221h 19min

Founder & CEO Flock Safety, Garrett Langley: Tech That Makes Everyone Safer

Founder & CEO Flock Safety, Garrett Langley: Tech That Makes Everyone Safer

In April, a young girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Yakima, Wash., and later told police she was picked up by a stranger in a car. The case might have gone cold there, if Yakima hadn’t just...

13 Kesä 20221h 9min

COO Ironclad, Leyla Seka: More Equal Is Always Better

COO Ironclad, Leyla Seka: More Equal Is Always Better

Leyla Seka has a clear idea of “what makes me great” as the COO of Ironclad: She’s incredibly direct with her team. Although many people are not comfortable with getting direct feedback, she says, “I ...

6 Kesä 20221h 12min

Chief Freemium Business Officer at Spotify, Alex Norstrom: The Power of Setting Impossible Goals

Chief Freemium Business Officer at Spotify, Alex Norstrom: The Power of Setting Impossible Goals

When Alex Norstrom started working at Spotify in 2011, CEO Daniel Ek told him there were three goals: Growth, growth, and growth. But Alex — now the Chief Freemium Business Officer — argued that his t...

30 Touko 20221h 23min

#87 Founder & CEO Thrive, Arianna Huffington: Life Is About More Than Money and Power

#87 Founder & CEO Thrive, Arianna Huffington: Life Is About More Than Money and Power

Thrive CEO Arianna Huffington is best known for the pioneering online publication she founded, the Huffington Post, which she left in 2016. The experience of running the site awakened her to the most ...

23 Touko 20221h 1min

CMO Airtable, Archana Agrawal: Success Is Not a Formula

CMO Airtable, Archana Agrawal: Success Is Not a Formula

Archana Agrawal started her job as CMO of Airtable on March 18, 2020 — the same week that the US began to “shelter in place” as cases of the novel coronavirus rapidly rose. With kids who would be stay...

16 Touko 20221h 3min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
psykopodiaa-podcast
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rss-rahamania
herrasmieshakkerit
rss-neuvottelija-sami-miettinen
rss-h-asselmoilanen
rss-seuraava-potilas
rss-paasipodi
inderespodi
rahapuhetta
pomojen-suusta
sijoituspodi
rss-markkinointitrippi
syo-nuku-saasta
asuntoasiaa-paivakirjat
rss-laakispodi
rss-bisnesta-bebeja