The inspiring story of Girish Mathrubootham, from MBA on borrowed money to CEO of Rs 95,000 crore company

Hailing from a middle-class family belonging to the town of Trichy in Tamil Nadu, Girish decided to pursue engineering after school and landed in Chennai. An average student, he was unable to get on to merit list. In 1992, Girish decided to do MBA and asked his father for money. A government servant on an ordinary pay, Girish’s father had to seek a loan from a relative for his management aspiration.

Struggles and challenges arrived early in his life. At age seven, Girish witnessed the separation of his parents, a moment that he believes made him mature early and become self-dependent. In career, multiple failures came his way with unsuccessful startups. In between he had stints with multiple companies include with HCL in the US and finally with Zoho before founding his successful venture.

After 9 long years in a well-paying and comfortable job at Zoho, a comment on a website inspired Girish to create a new IT Helpdesk product. In 2010, he launched Freshworks (as Freshdesk) along with his friend and colleague Shan Krishnasamy our of a small 700 ft warehouse in Chennai.

His company went from Rs 0 in revenue to $100 million in 8 years and from there to $200 million in the next year and a half. Headquartered in California with global offices in India, Australian the UK, and Germany, Freshworks today is worth over Rs 95,000 crore ($13 billion) with more than 50,000 customers around the globe, a list that includes brands like Honda, Hugo Boss, Citizens Advice Toshiba and Cisco.

Girish is a huge Rajnikanth fan and has been known to use his phrases avidly. He is also a patron of football, having founded the grassroots youth football club, FC Madras. Girish is also a family man, who rang the IPO bell alongside his wife, two kids and a cute little dog. He brought the family culture to Freshworks, where around 76% of the employees are shareholders, 500 of which became crorepatis with the successful IPO.