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The Bootstrapped Buddhist: How Sridhar Vembu built Zoho

Harichandan Arakali · Forbes India Free Beginner India

The best single profile of how Zoho funded itself, split into WebNMS, ManageEngine and Zoho.com, and built a talent pipeline that kept its cost base low enough to undercut everyone.

• Zoho started in 1996 as AdventNet and was profitable almost from the beginning, with no outside investors.
• Zoho University graduates, recruited straight from school, made up about 15 percent of the 3,600-person staff.
• The ManageEngine division alone was doing 120 million dollars a year while Zoho Corp overall neared 200 million.