Sometimes, a business idea does not begin with a detailed pitch deck or a carefully planned startup strategy. It can start with a problem that someone notices at the right time. For Girish Mathrubootham, the opportunity came while he was browsing Hacker News and reading frustrated comments from customers unhappy with rising software prices.
That moment eventually pushed the Zoho executive to leave his comfortable job and build what became Freshdesk, later renamed Freshworks. What started with a six-member team in Chennai eventually grew into a global software company that went public on Nasdaq.
Girish Mathrubootham’s Journey Before Freshworks
Mathrubootham had already spent years working in the software industry before becoming an entrepreneur. He joined AdventNet, now known as Zoho, in 2001 as a pre-sales engineer. He later moved into product management and eventually became vice president of product management at Zoho’s ManageEngine division.
His experience was particularly relevant to what he would build next. He had been working with on-premise helpdesk systems since 2004 and had experience across IT service management, customer support and facilities helpdesks. At the same time, his work at Zoho gave him a close look at the growing shift towards cloud computing. At that point, he had a stable career and a family. Leaving it all behind was not an easy decision.
The Hacker News Comment That Changed Everything
The turning point came in 2010. Mathrubootham came across a Hacker News discussion about Zendesk increasing its prices by 60% to 300%. Customers were unhappy about the change, and one particular comment caught his attention.
Looking back at that moment, Mathrubootham wrote, “That comment was like a slap on my face. Here was an opportunity sitting right in front of me,” He saw an opening for customer-support software that could be delivered through the software-as-a-service model. His experience in the helpdesk space meant he already understood the problems businesses were facing. The growing adoption of cloud computing made the timing even more interesting.
But the idea came with plenty of personal risk. Mathrubootham had children in school, a home mortgage and a family to support. He spent weeks studying the customer-support software market before deciding to take the plunge.
He Left Zoho And Started Freshdesk
Mathrubootham eventually approached his Zoho colleague Shan Krishnasamy to become his co-founder. The two initially worked on the startup during nights and weekends. It soon became clear that they could not build the company seriously while continuing their full-time jobs.
Both resigned from Zoho in October 2010. Freshdesk was launched in Chennai on October 13, 2010, with a team of just six people. The early team included three developers, a UI/UX designer, a QA/customer-support engineer and Mathrubootham, who handled product management and the CEO role. Even getting the company’s domain name required patience. Mathrubootham found that freshdesk.com was about to expire and placed a backorder for it. He eventually managed to acquire the domain.
From A Small Helpdesk Startup To Freshworks
The company initially focused on customer-support software. But the founders gradually expanded the product portfolio into other areas of enterprise software.
Freshdesk raised its first institutional funding in 2011, including a $1 million Series A led by Accel. More funding followed as the company expanded. It eventually added products covering IT service management, customer relationship management, voice and human resources. The broader product portfolio also led to the company adopting the Freshworks name in 2017.
The company reached unicorn status following its 2018 funding round. Freshworks later raised more private capital before taking another major step in its journey.
Freshworks Goes Public On Nasdaq
In September 2021, Freshworks went public on Nasdaq. The company raised around $1.03 billion through its IPO after selling shares at $36 apiece. Its initial public valuation was around $10 billion, while the shares closed their first trading day at $47.55, giving the company a market value of roughly $13 billion at the time.
The valuation has changed considerably since then. As of September 24, 2026, Freshworks had a market capitalisation of about $3.34 billion, which is broadly around Rs 32,000 crore at current exchange rates. For 2025, Freshworks reported revenue of $838.8 million, up from $720.4 million in 2024. The company had approximately 4,500 employees at the end of 2025.
Girish Mathrubootham’s Role Has Changed
Mathrubootham is no longer the CEO of Freshworks. Dennis Woodside currently serves as CEO, while Mathrubootham remains associated with the company as its co-founder. He has increasingly shifted his attention towards investing and backing other SaaS businesses. The journey from a Zoho executive to the founder of a Nasdaq-listed software company began with something surprisingly simple: paying attention to what unhappy customers were saying online.
A frustrated comment about software pricing gave Mathrubootham an idea. His experience in the industry helped him understand the opportunity. Leaving a secure job allowed him to pursue it. And over the years, that small Chennai startup grew into Freshworks, a global software business.
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