This story is from September 23, 2021

The SaaS Thalaiva who rallied Chennai techies around him

The SaaS Thalaiva who rallied Chennai techies around him
Chennai: From the temple town of Trichy to ringing the bell at New York City’s Nasdaq, Girish Mathrubootham’s journey has been nothing short of the script of a Rajinikanth movie. Like his “manaseega Guru”, Mathrubootham too is a superstar for every SaaS startup founder in India, and has brought the X factor into the B2B software industry at a time when e-commerce founders often figured as heroes of the Indian startup ecosystem.

He has not just managed to create a $10 billion+ company in just 10 years and has also inspired product builders to dream big and put the country on the global SaaS map. While no startup success can be a one-man show, Mathrubootham as a leader has successfully rallied a talented team around his vision. “Girish is a dreamer and the team is making it a reality, beautifully executing on it with him,” Chargebee founder Krish Subramanian said. “The Freshworks journey is a story of belief for other SaaS entrepreneurs competing on a global stage.” A former employee says the company’s greatest strength is its distribution prowess.
“They didn't just have a great product, but knew how to sell it to international customers from day 1,” the person said. “One of the most important decisions that G (Girish to his team) made is leveraging AdWords to get customers to the door early on.” Another Freshworks employee said Mathrubootham’s ability to match employee roles to what they enjoyed doing helped “everyone discover true happiness in the company” and as a multiplier effect, this culture accelerated growth.
As a completely self-taught founder who learnt to build and run his startup with resources on the web, Mathrubootham is a big proponent of paying it forward and continues to support Indian founders even after moving to the Valley.
Thiyagarajan M, partner at SaaS accelerator Upekkha, says that in taking Freshworks public, Mathrubootham has also unleashed the floodgates for India SaaS IPOs, and established that India is for SaaS what Israel is for security. “Like his idol Rajnikanth, Girish has overcome incredible odds to reach great heights just like him. And now he serves as a Manaseega guru for 100s of Saas founders in India,” he added. By Mathrubootham’s own admission, Freshworks listing is the victory of the underdog. “Whether we could differentiate ourselves in crowded markets, or compete with larger players, or build a global SaaS company from India, the doubts were always there,” the founder writes in the company’s S1 filing.
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