Article · About 6 min read

A golden birthday: Turning 13 on the 13th

Sanjay Gupta · Freshworks Free Beginner

The dated timeline you need to check the story against: founded 13 October 2010, first customer June 2011, 100 customers in 103 days, 100 million ARR in June 2018.

  • Freshworks signed its first customer, a college in Australia 9,000 km away, in June 2011.
  • It reached 100 customers in 103 days.
  • It hit 100 million dollars of ARR in June 2018 and IPO'd on Nasdaq in September 2021.
  • Its first office outside India opened in San Bruno, California, only in the second half of 2014.
Open on freshworks.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How did Freshworks sell to the US from Chennai without a US sales team?

Read with it

  1. Five GTM bets from an Indian founder who reached $600M+ ARR, including spending $45k early to find which inbound channel would... SaaStr Article · ~10 min read Building A Global SaaS Empire: 5 Bets That Paid Off with Freshworks Founder CEO Girish Mathrubootham Girish Mathrubootham
  2. Video · Conference talk "Big Bets that Paid Off" with Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham | SaaStr Annual Girish Mathrubootham
  3. It contains the single cleanest proof of the no US sales team claim: the first paying customer was Atwell College in Australia,... Mixergy Podcast · Interview with full transcript The surprising place to find your business idea Girish Mathrubootham
  4. Written just after the Nasdaq listing, it states the arrangement plainly: based in Chennai with half of sales origination there... Forbes India Article · About 12 min read Startup to Scaleup: How Girish Mathrubhootham built the Saas-y Freshworks Harichandan Arakali
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