Get All Access for $5/mo

The 'SaaSy' Innovator Freshdesk has been a global venture from day one, here's how!

By Sneha Banerjee

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Freshdesk

Girish Mathrubootham had officially launched the cloud-based customer support platform Freshdesk in 2010. Over the years, the company has successfully brought onboard a marquee league of investors and has successfully grown from strength to strength.

Freshdesk, spearheaded by Mathrubootham, a Zoho protegee, has been a global venture from day one. "Our first six customers were spread across four continents. About catering to the foreign markets and Indian consumers, we believe that people from different countries are culturally diverse – some prefer to meet in person before closing deals, while others close deals over phone," Mathrubootham said.

"There is no "one size fits all' approach to selling. At Freshdesk, we try and understand each market demographic before we start selling there. What works for one market need not necessarily work for another, but at the end of the day everyone is just looking for a partner who can work with them to grow and scale their business," he added.

According to a joint research report by Google and the US VC firm Accel Partners, by 2025, India is likely to become a $10 billion revenue industry with eight per cent share of the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market. The SaaS innovation in India is about bringing affordable and easy-to-use business solutions based on cloud. Thanks to a fantastic talent pool combined with falling costs of data center infrastructure, Indian entrepreneurs are innovating at par with the west in SaaS.

Freshdesk, under Mathrubootham's leadership, has changed how one looks at customer success as a function and made it a highly a data-driven based service on its machine learning (ML) capabilities - innovating on features, on boarding practices, pricing strategies and based on very high quality segmentation. The company is using ML across the board in its products like sentiment analysis to help understand the customers better.

Its products complement each other to help high-growth businesses. Freshdesk has also been on the forefront in acquiring companies and integrating new technology into its offerings constantly.

Technology and product innovations include launching new products focused on mobile-first companies, an app-marketplace and building features that are firsts in collaboration in the customer support world.

Freshdesk today has 900 employees globally and helps over 100,000 businesses and organizations around the world to offer better, more personalized support to their customers.

(This article was first published in the May issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)

Sneha Banerjee

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Staff, Entrepreneur India

She used to write for Entrepreneur India from Bangalore and other cities in South India. 

Business News

Y Combinator Helped Launch Reddit, Airbnb and Dropbox. Here's What I Learned From Its Free Startup School.

The famed startup accelerator offers a free course on building a business — and answers five pressing questions for founders.

Business News

New Southwest Airlines Major Investor Wants to Force Out CEO, Slams Company's 'Stubborn Unwillingness to Evolve'

Elliot Investment Management announced a $1.9 billion stake in the Dallas-based Southwest Airlines on Monday and is urging shareholders to vote for new leadership.

Science & Technology

Why We Shouldn't Fear AI in Education (and How to Use It Effectively)

Facing resistance to new technologies in the educational process is nothing new, and AI is no exception. Yet, this powerful tool is set to overcome these challenges and revolutionize education, preparing students and professionals for a future of unparalleled efficiency and personalized learning.

Business News

A Former Corporate Lawyer Now Makes Six Figures on YouTube — Here's How She Does It

Here are the secrets to starting and growing a successful YouTube channel, according to a YouTuber with millions of subscribers.

Business News

Apple's AI Has a Catch — And It Could Help Boost Sales

Not every iPhone owner will get to use the new Apple Intelligence.