Girish Mathrubootham is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of the nasdaq (USA) listed Public company, called Fresh Work.

In 2010 Girish Mathrubooham read an article in hacker news about ZenDesk raising their prices up to 60 to 300%. And how their customers are unhappy about this.

And then in 2010 he started the Fresh Desk ( Fresh Works) with his friend Shan, who is actually his colleague and good friend from Zoho Corps. So let’s dive a little deep into his life and events.

Girish Mathrubootham Early Life:

Girish Mathrubootham born in Trichy in Tamil Nadu. He spent his childhood in Trichy completed his school from campion higher secondary school. and went to Chennai later on to do Engineering. 

Here are some details about Girish Mathrubootham’s personal life:

• Date Of Birth: 29 March 1975 , Age: 49 Years
• Birth Place: Trichy (Tamil Nadu)
• Father’s Name: He is retired bank officer (we didn’t found his name till now)
• Education: Girish holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Shanmugha Arts Science Technology & Research Academy and MBA in Marketing from the University Of Madras.
• Spouse Name: Girish Mathrubootham’s wife’s name is Shobha Girish.

His Job Days:

In 2001 His Salary was $85000 per year and after the 9/11 attack in the USA Girish took a job of 40000 inr per month in chennai in Zoho Corp. It’s because between 2001 to 2004 there were more than 2 lakhs jobs gone due to the 9/11 crisis. And in his own words, he is not as successful as his friends in the eyes of his father.

His job journey are as follows:

1. HCL Cisco ODC – Member Technical Staff in February 1999 to April 2000
2. e-Force – Senior software Engineer July 2000 to July 2001
3. AdventNet Inc.(Zoho Corporation)
   1. Lead Engineer – Pre Sales Customer Support (August 2001 – June 2002) 
   2. Product Manager (June 2002 – September 2005)
4. Zoho Corporation
   1. Director Product Management (October 2005 – December 2007)
   2. Vice President Product Management (December 2007 – October 2010)

How Girish Mathrubootham Started Fresh Works (Fresh Desk Earlier):

In 2010 he was reading an article in a Hacker News website about ZenDesk’s price hike of its services up-to 60% to 300%. And in that article people are so furious about the price increase.

And there Girish saw an excellent opportunity. And from then his internal entrepreneur could not let him sleep for so many nights. Until he started up. 

See the timeline of FreshDesk:

• And in October 2010 he decided to start up and saw an expiring domain Freshdesk.com which is about to expire in one month. 
• He immediately booked it via a backdoor from Go-Daddy and after one month of waiting, the domain finally transferred to his account.
• So that time he needed the Co-Founder so he approached his good friend Shan Krishnasamy who is also his colleague from a long time. 
• Shan agreed immediately so they decided to work on weekends, But soon they realized that is not gonna work as they both have their families.
• So they decided to quit their stable High paying job at Zoho, and started working on their startup Fresh Works ( Fresh Desk then) 
• Between 2011-2015 fresh desk targeted small SMEs, and the average payment from them was 150$ per month to use fresh desk application and its support. And very soon they became so popular amongst small SMEs and they received thousands of clients.
• In 2016 Fresh Desk now Fresh Works launched their second product Fresh Sales a customer relationship management software (CRM)
• In 2017 FreshDesk officially changed their name to Fresh Works Inc.
• In 2018 company moved its headquarter to San Mateo california.
• In 2018 Company achieved annual recurring revenue of $100 millions.
• In 2020 Company reported annual recurring revenue of $200 millions.
• In 2021 Company reported annual recurring revenue of $300 millions.
• On September 22 year 2021 FreshWorks made its debut at IPO market on Nasdaq USA and closed its valuation at $13 billion on the first trading day.
• In 2022 the company reported annual recurring revenue of $400 millions.
• In 2023 Company reported annual recurring revenue of $596 millions.
• In 2024 FreshWorks set a goal to achieve a $1 Billion revenue mark.
• In May 2024 Girish Muthrubootham stepped down from the post of CEO of the FreshWorks.
• May 2024 Girish Muthrubootham announced Dennis Woodside as the CEO and the President of FreshWorks.
• May 2024 Girish Muthrubootham Became Executive Chairman of FreshWorks to focus more on long term product vision in innovation and AI.

Girish Muthrubootham’s Net Worth:

After the decision of stepping down as the ceo of freshworks share prices of FreshWorks at NASDAQ slumps nearly to 25%. Which will lead to his net worth also getting slumped, but from the recent data it’s assumed to be staggering $700 million dollars.

So we can say his net worth is $700 million.

Girish Mathrubootham’s Quote:

In 2010 when he discussed his idea with her wife he didn’t actually know how much it could make for him.

He just saw an opportunity to create and while discussing his Idea to her Wife he said..

 “I’m not starting a company for me to buy a BMW, I’m starting this so that everybody (employees) can do that,” 

He revealed about this in Indian Cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin’s Podcast.

Life Lessons From Girish:

Girish Mathrubooothams’s story says that as an entrepreneur you must have to look at the opportunity which is coming in front of you. You have to trust yourself. 

When he was just starting his company he believed in his Idea and trusted it so much that he decided to leave his high paying stable job at Zoho, and this shows how much he believed in his idea and also in himself.

External Resources – 

The Freshdesk story: How it started,Fresh Works Youtube,WikiPedia,Seed To Scale,LinkedIn,RaviChandran Ashwin’s YouTube,Indianeagle,Business Insider,Entrepreneur India,Dnaindia,Times Of India,Moneycontrol,factordaily

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