Exclusive | COVID-19 taught us you can never be too prepared: Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham

Image: Forbes India (P Ravi Kumar)

The coronavirus outbreak has battered the economy and changed the way businesses operate. Girish Mathrubootham, the founder-CEO of Freshworks, the enterprise software unicorn valued at $3.5 billion, tells Moneycontrol’s M Sriram in an email interview about running a company during a lockdown, management techniques, and how the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry will change in the post-COVID world. Edited excerpts:

Q: What does your average day look like now and how is it from different earlier?

I miss going to the office everyday and meeting people face to face. But the average day today looks the same and the weekdays and weekends are merging to form a blur. On the positive side, we are spending more time together as a family and not having to deal with the airports, planes and jet lag is a big relief.

Being able to catch up on exercise and movies is something that I am enjoying. From a productivity standpoint, we are doing more as an organisation but the social connect is important for me and I miss it.

Q: Do you e-socialise with your teams outside work as all your colleagues must be working remotely?

In the past three months, I have spent more time talking to different teams at Freshworks than I normally would have and we are doing more all-hands, more management meetings and more leadership meetings than ever before. I have also done several AMA sessions with different teams and am enjoying it. We also did a movie recommendation meeting!

Q: Now that you work from home, how much time do you spend with the family? Any activity that you take up regularly and enjoy with your family?

I think it has been a great opportunity for all of us to balance time with family. At Freshworks, we have always spoken about work-life integration over work-life balance. I have always believed that as long as you get the work done with a ‘high level of craftsmanship’, you can spend time in a way you see fit.

It is important to understand that when working from home, regular visits from kids and pets are the norm and something we have to learn to integrate with work. Every day, I walk 10 kilometres. The first seven, I walk with my wife. Also, we are mostly eating home food and enjoying it.

Q: Freshworks is in a unique position where you can see the impact of COVID-19 across small, medium and large businesses and the SaaS industry as well. Does this give you a chance to refocus some of your offerings? 

The core Freshworks products focused on omnichannel customer engagement,  customer relationship management (CRM) and IT ServiceDesk are all the more important now when businesses need to engage with customers remotely over channels like chat and WhatsApp and since all employees are working from home, the need for a SaaS solution becomes all the more important. We feel that in the long run COVID-19 will be one of the largest drivers of SaaS adoption.

Q: Which of your products has taken the worst hit during this time and for which product the outbreak is an opportunity?

From our vantage point, we are seeing an increased demand for products that enable companies to engage and support their customers remotely. Our chat product, Freshchat, is seeing a lot of increased demand from customers looking to engage online and via channels like WhatsApp. Our telephony product, Freshcaller, is also seeing an increased usage as it enables companies to route customer calls to employees who are working remote from home.

The whole customer contact centre has become distributed and remote now. We are also seeing increased demand for Freshservice - our IT ServiceDesk product. This helps IT departments gear up to support remote workers using self service catalogues, bots and automation. The hit is mostly in existing customers who are in travel, hospitality and wellness industries.

Q: By when do you think business will get to pre-COVID levels and consistent growth? Will there be a permanent and rapid shift towards companies using paid enterprise software?

The return to normalcy will definitely be in stages and not an overnight transition. Companies should look at it as a marathon and not a sprint.

SaaS will definitely stand to gain as companies aim to go digital and want the flexibility that SaaS inherently has on offer. But May is already looking better than April, so let’s all hope that things will start improving in Q3 and Q4.Q: What is that one big management learning you have gained during the lockdown?

You can never be too prepared. When we had extensive Business Continuity Protocols (BCP) in place before COVID-19, it felt like an overkill. But when the pandemic happened and we had to move over 3,000 employees from 13 offices, the BCP protocols helped us move from 13 offices to 3,000 home offices in just a few days!

Q: Freshworks was planning for an IPO in 2021 and even hired Tyler Sloat as CFO as part of the move to go public. Will you have to push your plans by a couple of years or even more?

We are actively focusing on building the business, driving growth in new markets and strengthening our position in existing markets. We will aim for an IPO if and when a public offering proves opportune for the business.

Q: Do you think COVID-19 will hit overall SaaS startup valuations like we saw for consumer internet? What permanent changes will the SaaS industry see?

If you are following the US stock markets, you will see that the best SaaS companies are still holding on to their valuations and that is based on their solid business model and continued growth.

Q: Do you also see this as an opportunity for M&A and acquire smaller firms in verticals you may be targeting at cheaper valuations?

We are always on the lookout for talent and technology that fits the Freshworks product portfolio. Valuations aren’t the primary criteria. We look for great products and technology and founders who would be a culture fit at Freshworks.

Q: While B2B and software firms generally have unit economics better than their consumer peers, do SaaS firms also face a danger of being over capitalised and burning out? 

In all industries we have good, well-run businesses and businesses with poor unit economics. At Freshworks, we believe in hiring great people, creating an amazing culture, building world-class products and being a true friend to our customers. If we can continue doing that, we will win in the long term.

Q: The lawsuit that Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu has filed against you has left a lot of people wondering why matters came to such a pass, given that you are a Zoho alumnus. What is your message to Zoho and Sridhar?

Freshworks respects intellectual property rights and takes all allegations very seriously. Beyond that, we cannot comment further on a pending litigation.