The Rise and Rise of Freshworks: Unfolding the Success Story

“We make uncomplicated service software to deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences.”

-          Freshworks

The sentence stated above encapsulates what Freshworks is all about: empowering customers and employees alike.

Trusted by over 73,000 businesses across the world today, we’ve known Freshworks as a cloud-based software-as-a-service company that provides tools for customer relationship management (CRM), IT service management (ITSM), and e-commerce marketing.

But the company wasn’t always what it is today.  

Way back in 2010, two ex-Zoho employees, Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy, laid the foundation of a company called Freshdesk in Chennai, India.  

Little did they know then that their brainchild would grow into a multimillion-dollar venture that would open the window of opportunities for other startups.

Intrigued about its journey of going from Freshdesk, a small-time startup to becoming Freshworks, a bigwig on Nasdaq? Join us to trace its path to success.

A Quick Rewind

Freshworks was founded by Girish Mathrubootham, who comes from a middle-class Indian family. He had a passion for technology from an early age. Consequently, he completed his Bachelor’s in Engineering, and went on to earn his MBA from the University of Madras.

In 1995, Mathrubootham relocated to the US for brighter prospects. Soon, the entrepreneur in him would come to the fore, and he’d co-found multiple successful tech startups, including Freshworks.

Before this, Mathrubootham made the software industry his haven. He even worked with Zoho Corporation as the Vice President of Engineering, where he was in charge of product strategy and customer support until 2009.

Inspiration Strikes

It was during Mathrubootham’s Zoho stint that he identified a glaring gap in the market for affordable and user-friendly customer support software.

It can also be said that Freshworks came into being due to his personal frustration with lackluster customer support experiences. While moving from Austin, Texas, to Chennai, India, he was forced to pay $500 to replace a damaged television because the customer service process couldn’t level up.

This unfortunate incident motivated Mathrubootham to develop customer-centric software solutions that would address real-world problems. After this, there was no stopping him.

He teamed up with Shanmugam Krishnasamy, a talented technical architect and his colleague at the time, who became the co-founder and CTO of Freshdesk.

The daring duo worked at night and during the weekends to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. However, they quickly understood that this venture would require their full-time attention and effort. In October 2010, they decided to bid goodbye to their jobs and officially started Freshdesk with a team of six people.

Soon, the company gained traction by offering cloud-based customer support solutions to businesses of all sizes. Freshworks’ suite of products included Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales, and Freshchat, all of which were designed to help businesses manage customer support, IT services, sales, and communication needs.

Fresh and In the Works

February 2021 was an eventful month for Freshdesk. Boasting more than 4,000 employees working across its sites, the company witnessed an annual recurring revenue of more than $300 million. In September of the same year, Freshworks was listed on the Nasdaq at a valuation of $10.1 billion, having raised $1.03 billion in its first public offering.

The new company’s dedication to prioritizing people over achieving financial objectives became clear to everyone. Today, Freshworks continues to function on its philosophies of people-centeredness and high-quality customer service.

However, this success did not come without challenges. Making it big in the global SaaS market is tough for any startup, let alone one that operated from a home-office in Chennai.

Through Freshdesk, the founders didn’t just want to build a world-class product; they also wanted to challenge stereotypes about software that was “Made in India.” In 2010, many Western customers were apprehensive about outsourcing their customer support to Indian platforms, questioning their quality, dependability, and service.

This bias was hard-wired among these customers. In fact, Mikkel Svane, the then-CEO of Zendesk and a direct competitor, publicly criticized Freshdesk and announced that it had copied Zendesk’s model. Others would have probably succumbed to this challenge, but Mathrubootham not only accepted it, he overcame it.

“We were called a rip-off. But that tweet from Zendesk’s CEO gave us more visibility than we could’ve ever bought.”

-          Girish Mathrubootham

The Opportunity in the Challenge

Mathrubootham did not get angry or defensive; he identified an opportunity here and grabbed it with both hands. As a response to Svane’s accusation, he penned a detailed blog post that established and clearly stated Freshdesk’s reason for existence and vision.

And just like that, Freshdesk was in the spotlight, garnering unwavering support from the Indian startup community.

Since then, Freshdesk increased its focus on innovation and product quality. It actually listened to what customers said and iterated swiftly based on their feedback. This way, it started proving that Freshdesk is exactly what modern SMBs need to evolve.

Overall, what was supposed to be a devastating roadblock in Freshdesk’s journey became a defining moment of glory for it. It also helped establish a solid base for a company that was poised to be bold, agile, and customer-centric in its approach.

Growing on Priority

“We didn’t want to build just one product. We wanted to build a suite that could power the full customer experience.”

-          Girish Mathrubootham

While Freshdesk began as a customer support product, it was quick to identify that its potential clients would need complementary tools that could further improve the customer journey. As a result, it came out with a full suite of SaaS products, including Freshmarketer, Freshsales, and Freshchat.

With this, Freshdesk provided a unified platform that empowered businesses to seamlessly integrate the critical trio of customer support, marketing, and sales. This combination gave rise to powerful cross-sell and upsell opportunities, helping Freshdesk grow its revenue. And things started getting better.

The company started targeting SMBs in developed markets like the US and Europe, something that was unheard of at the time because most companies believed that a local presence was a must to sell in international markets.

Freshdesk proved this notion wrong by hiring skilled sales professionals in Chennai and training them to strike deals remotely. This also helped the company increase its reach, scale, become cost-efficient, and achieve a competitive edge.

“We cracked the inside sales model from India to sell to the world. That gave us an edge on efficiency.”

-          Girish Mathrubootham

From “Desk” to “Works”

Freshdesk started in 2010 with the idea of giving customers a better help desk experience. Over time, the company expanded beyond customer support. It added products in IT service management (ITSM) and customer relationship management (CRM) to its kitty.

In 2014, Freshdesk launched its second product. Two years later, it introduced Freshsales to help businesses manage their sales processes. As the product range grew, the company felt the need to assemble everything under one brand. After all, a single name would make it easier to manage operations and present a clear identity to customers.

In 2017, Freshworks was launched as the parent brand. Under this umbrella, each product kept its own name, but was part of one unified company. This marked the transition from being known only for Freshdesk to being recognized as Freshworks, a broader provider of business software.

The all-new Freshworks became one of the most renowned companies in the world. It aimed to help businesses communicate better with customers and employees through simple, feature-laden software. By 2023, the company reached $337.8 million in revenue, showing strong year-over-year growth and steady profits.

In a rebranding-related post published on the Freshworks website, Mathrubootham emphatically stated, “I believe we are taking an important step towards expanding our horizon and changing the way we do things as a company. We are not in this just to change the way businesses do customer support; we are in it to change the way they do business.”

Milestones Along the Way

Come October 2025, Freshworks will celebrate its 15^th birthday. In this section, let’s look at some of the biggest milestones that have made the company what it is today.

October 2010

Two young, budding entrepreneurs launched their venture, Freshdesk, from a home-office in Chennai.

June 2011

Freshdesk earned its first customer, Atwell College in Australia. The company took just 103 days to reach 100 customers.

Before the company secured any overseas funding, it proved its mettle by winning $40,000 in Microsoft’s BizSpark startup competition. The money was spent on digital marketing, which increased their site traffic and customer signups. It also made VCs take notice of this upcoming company.

December 2011

VC firm Accel became the first funding partner with a $1 million minority stake in Freshdesk. This money helped Freshdesk hire more staff and shift to a new office the next year.

April 2012

It was time for a second round of funding for Freshdesk, $5 million in total. Support from Accel continued and a new partner, Tiger Global, came on board; as did CapitalG and Sequoia Capital.

November 2013

Freshdesk secured $6.99 million in the third round of funding from existing investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global. With this round, Freshdesk’s total capital reached $13 million.

Second half of 2014

Freshdesk opened an office in San Bruno, California (Silicon Valley), its first one outside of India.

August 2015

Freshdesk made its first acquisition, a video chat and co-browsing platform, 1CLICK.io. This paved the way for more acquisitions down the line, including AnswerIQ, Flint, CanvasFlip, Natero, and Framebench, among others.

June 2017

Freshworks was announced as the new umbrella brand that brought together a growing software suite, including Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales, and Freshcaller.

June 2018

Freshworks announced $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Along with that, came a new label: Unicorn.

September 2021

Freshworks debuted on Nasdaq and became the first Indian SaaS company to be listed on the exchange.

First half of 2022

The Freshworks family had been growing and how! It surpassed the 5,000-employee mark.

March 2023

Freshworks declared the generative AI enhancements to its AI engine, Freddy. This was followed by AI-driven features across the product suite in June 2023, and then the new Freshdesk Omni in August 2023.

Getting Their Marketing Right

“SaaS doesn’t have to be boring. We brought personality into our brand—and it resonated.”

-          Girish Mathrubootham

B2B software companies are typically associated with insipid marketing of their products, but Freshworks wanted to pivot from that. Rather than continuing with the usual, done-to-death technical messaging, Freshworks decided to deliberately take on a dynamic, consumer-friendly brand personality.

The company chose to defy the norm and invested in high-visibility sponsorships. It became the official CRM partner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and also decided to sponsor commercials during the Super Bowl. This positioned Freshworks as a B2B brand that was exciting, accessible, and a global player. Customers would then see Freshworks as reliable and credible across markets all over the world.

At the same time, Freshworks also focused on building long-term trust. It did so by sharing useful information and involving people in its community. The marketing team wrote blogs, hosted webinars, created templates, and developed tools for small and mid-sized businesses.

The company broke down complex ideas so they were easy to understand and use by the layman. This approach helped people see Freshworks as more than just a software provider. Basically, it became a partner in helping businesses grow.

On the ground, Freshworks built networks by hosting meetups, sponsoring tech conferences, and working with startup communities worldwide. The aim wasn’t only to find customers, but to create a shared effort to make business software easier to use, affordable, and centered around real human needs.

Bend in the Road: Co-founder Shan Krishnasamy’s Quiet Exit

As per a document by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Shan Krishnasamy was no longer a director on the board of Freshworks as of July 6, 2022.

A Freshworks employee confirmed this by saying, “This was announced in one of the all-hands around 3-4 months ago. Girish invited Shan on stage and said that Shan was leaving.”

Also, the Freshworks website does not feature Krishnasamy as Co-founder and CTO. According to the current details displayed on Freshworks’ Leadership page, Mr. Murali Swaminathan joined Freshworks as Chief Technology Officer in September 2024.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dennis Woodside became the CEO and President of Freshworks after joining the company as President in 2022.

Not much is known about Krishnasamy’s stake in Freshworks or what he is doing currently. Although the MCA document does list him as a Designated Partner at Skal Ventures LLP and related entities, and a Director at Sassist IO India Pvt. Ltd.

New Paths: Mathrubootham Steps Down as CEO

In May 2024, Freshworks announced that its founder Girish Mathrubootham had stepped down as the company’s chief executive officer and would be taking on the role of executive chairman.

In an emotional note to employees, Mathrubootham said, “A couple of years ago, I started talking with our board about my longer-term plans for Freshworks. I shared that when the time is right, I would like to shift my focus to our long-term product vision and invest in our presence in India. These are areas where I get the most energy and where I’m also playing to my strengths.”

He also said he was confident that Woodside would prove to be highly effective as the next CEO of the company.

Freshworks: A Legacy and a Name to Reckon With

The story of Freshworks is one of grit, determination, and perseverance. Mathrubootham’s commitment to innovation and quality became the two pillars that enabled him to build Freshworks from scratch and take it international.

What started as a home-office venture went on to become a $12 billion IPO on NASDAQ, a beacon of hope for an entire industry. Freshworks has inspired many startups to take on the stalwarts by providing customer-oriented solutions that actually solve problems. Moreover, the company has played a big role in opening the doors for other Indian startups to foray into global markets.

Back then being Girish Mathrubootham might not have been easy but today, it is certainly a matter of pride. Building a company that emphasizes empowerment and excellence means taking the path to continued success and achievements in the times to come.

That’s a Wrap: Key Takeaways from Freshworks’ Successful Journey

Freshworks might have started as one product to fix a simple problem, but nothing could keep it from becoming a global SaaS company serving 73,000+ businesses in over 120 countries.

From the start, the team focused on solving real issues for users instead of chasing trends. They took on competitors like Zendesk by keeping things simple, affordable, and user-friendly. This approach proved that you don’t need size to disrupt an industry; you only need purpose and execution.

Freshworks also showed that global companies can be built from anywhere. By using inside sales, creating easy-to-use tools for small and mid-sized businesses, and delivering consistent value, it proved that you do not need to be in Silicon Valley to go global.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, the Freshworks journey is full of lessons: lead with the product, define your brand, and stick to your principles. Girish Mathrubootham and his team proved you can build a top-notch business without giving up culture, creativity, or care for your customers.