One quick thing: LinkedIn is jumping onto the gaming bandwagon with 3 new puzzle games.

In today's newsletter:

• Freshworks' Girish Mathrubootham hands over CEO reins
• Sell more, earn more: Byju's to sales staff
• AC rentals on the rise in Bengaluru

P.S. Ever dreamed of staying in a floating house, like in the Pixar movie Up? Now you can. Scroll below for more deets!

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At Freshworks, the poster child of Indian SaaS, it wasn’t a regular earnings day. The firm dropped a bombshell announcement that slightly shook everyone, maybe even Rajnikanth, if he was a SaaS enthusiast.

In a major management rejig, Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham stepped down as the company’s CEO and transitioned to the executive chairman role. 

• President Dennis Woodside is now taking over as the chief executive of the firm.

For some of us it seems like the developments were sudden and surprising, but Mathrubootham told us that it was a long planned move.

"We had been working on it for some time, at least 18 months and we reached a good point where the business was witnessing growing market opportunities and It felt comfortable to go ahead with this now," Mathrubootham told us in an exclusive interview.

While employees are still trying to understand what's happening, the markets have reacted strongly. 

• Freshworks' shares have fallen 26% to $13.5 per share at the US market open today.

Mathrubootham will now be spending more time on the long-term product vision, innovation and AI strategy from US and India while the newly-appointed CEO Woodside's key focus will be on improving the firm's revenues and inching towards profitability.

• Freshworks reported consolidated revenue of $165.1 million, up 20 percent year-on-year (YoY), with non-GAAP operating profit zooming to $21.8 million as against $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Woodside faces a tough task ahead as the macroeconomic pressure is still bogging down SaaS firms across the world. In fact, the SaaS major has reduced its full year guidance by a notch to $659.5-$709 million to be prudent.

Read our interview with Mathrubootham where he talks more about his future plans and the path ahead for the company.

Desperate times call for desperate measures - Byju’s has been living with this motto in the recent past.

• Now unable to cover staff payroll, the beleaguered edtech giant has rolled out a new policy to keep its sales engine chugging.

Byju's will now directly pay a percentage of weekly revenue generated by each sales staff to them, at the end of the seven-day period, according to an internal document we saw. 

• In short, if you sell more, you earn more.

The new policy seems to be an attempt to motivate sales staff to bring in new enrollments during the April to June quarter, which is typically the peak sales season for test-prep companies.

• This comes as Byju's is left with no cash to cover payroll and has paid only a part of staff salaries for February and March, after weeks of delay.

The policy applies to Byju’s Inside Sales and Exam Prep teams, which constitute the company’s sales engine.

• Introduced within the company on April 24, the policy will be valid for four weeks till May 21.

In case, employees in managerial positions fail to retain a specified number of sales associates during this period, it can result in reduced payout.

• The move comes as Byju’s is reportedly witnessing high employee exits on the back of salary delays and operational challenges.

Meanwhile, the firm continues to battle legal showdowns with multiple stakeholders.

In the latest, mobile phone manufacturer Oppo filed an insolvency plea in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Bengaluru, followed by McGraw Hill education and Cogent E-services.

• The addition of three pleas take the total number of insolvency pleas filed against Byju's to seven.

Go deeper

Bengaluru, once hailed as the air-conditioned haven, is now sweating it out through one of its hottest summers yet*

The city, known as India's tech capital, is home to a large migrant population, many of whom reside in rented apartments.

• Now, to beat the heat, they're turning to a new solution: renting air conditioners.

Bengaluru, nestled over 3,000 feet above sea level, has long had pleasant climate as its trump card. 

However, recent months have seen scanty rainfall, leaving residents parched. In response, renting ACs has become the go-to option for temporary residents and renters.

• Startups like Rentomojo, Cityfurnish, and Furlenco have stepped in to fill the gap, offering ACs for rent at reasonable monthly rates ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.

• There also seems to be an ecosystem approach: Forging tie-ups with AC manufacturers for bulk purchases, logistics firms like Porter for delivery and Urban Company for installation and maintenance.

With temperatures soaring to unprecedented levels, Bengaluru has seen a surge in AC and cooler sales. However, this shift comes with consequences.

• The uptick in AC usage has led to increased power consumption, particularly at night.

• Air conditioners, notorious for their energy consumption, contribute significantly to global warming.

Go deeper

*P.S. Just as we were writing this, Bengaluru saw its first major rainfall after 160 days

• Microsoft will invest $2.2 billion over the next four years in Malaysia to support the country's digital transformation. This will include building cloud and AI infrastructure and creating AI skilling opportunities for 200,000 people.

• Anthropic has unveiled its first-ever enterprise offering, giving customers higher-priority access to all three of its latest Claude models. The plan will provide increased usage for members and tools for managing users and billing. The company has also launched an iOS app.

• Nvidia's experimental AI chatbot now supports Google’s Gemma model, OpenAI's CLIP, and voice queries, among others.

Have you ever imagined staying in a floating house like in the popular animated movie Up? Or, if you are a race car enthusiast, how about sleeping at the Ferrari Museum in a bed made from the same leather as their car seats? 

The best part - How about for free? You soon can through Airbnb's Icons, a new category of limited-time unique experiences in partnership with brands and celebrities in the areas of music, film, television, art, and sports among others.

• It offers 11 experiences at launch with more experiences dropping throughout the year. Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor's Chennai family home is one among them.

When an experience is live, one can request to book and answer a question about why they want to book it. Selected people will get a Willy Wonka-style golden ticket. Airbnb plans to give out more than 4,000 tickets this year.

P.S. In other travel-related trivia, here's a look at 10 most-searched domestic and international destinations by Indians.