Girish Mathrubootham started small. That didn’t last long. Four days after launching Freshworks, his customer service platform in October 2010 from an air conditioning duct warehouse in Chennai, a metropolis in the South of India, and staffed with a team of six rockstar programmers, his startup was instantly international. Atwell College, a public high school in Perth, Australia, nearly four thousand miles away, spent a couple of hours poking around the platform Mathrubootham envisioned as an empowering customer experience, and signed on as the first Freshworks customer.

吉里什馬斯博瑟姆從小做起。但這并沒有持續(xù)太久。2010年10月，他在印度南部城市欽奈(Chennai)的一個(gè)空調(diào)管道倉(cāng)庫(kù)里推出了客戶服務(wù)平臺(tái)Freshworks,并組建了一個(gè)由六名搖滾明星程序員組成的團(tuán)隊(duì), 四天后他的初創(chuàng)公司立刻國(guó)際化了。阿特韋爾學(xué)院(Atwell College)是澳大利亞珀斯(Perth)的一所公立高中,距離該校近4000英里(約合4800公里)。馬斯博瑟姆把這個(gè)平臺(tái)設(shè)想為一種強(qiáng)大的客戶體驗(yàn)，在那里花了幾個(gè)小時(shí)，最終簽約成為Freshworks的第一個(gè)客戶。

Within 200 days—and no outside funding—Freshworks had 200 small and medium business customers spread across the globe. Venture capital firms such as Accel, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital caught wind of the startup’s steep trajectory and in 2018, Freshworks raised $100 million in Series G funding, hitting a $1.5 billion valuation and becoming India’s first enterprise tech unicorn. Now, in a week packed with public offerings, the Freshworks IPO is the most hotly anticipated, having raised $1.03 billion and joining Nasdaq on Wednesday with a $10.13 billion valuation. The company has priced 28.5 million shares at $36 per share.

在沒有外部資金的200天內(nèi)，freshworks在全球擁有了200家中小企業(yè)客戶。Accel、Tiger Global和紅杉資本(Sequoia capital)等風(fēng)投公司發(fā)現(xiàn)了這家初創(chuàng)公司的驚人的發(fā)展軌道。2018年，F(xiàn)reshworks在G輪融資中融資1億美元，估值達(dá)到15億美元，成為印度第一家企業(yè)科技獨(dú)角獸公司。如今，在忙碌準(zhǔn)備公開募股的一周中，F(xiàn)reshworks的IPO是最受期待的，它已融資10.3億美元，并于周三以101.3億美元的估值加入納斯達(dá)克。該公司將2850萬股股票定價(jià)為每股36美元。
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“If you asked me, did we know that we are going to go public in the U.S. or we will become this successful, I would have said absolutely no,” Mathrubootham, 46, tells Forbes. Now headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks serves 50,000 customers in 120 countries. It’s expanded offerings explain excitement around its IPO. Along with turn-key customer service software, the four-time list maker on the Forbes Cloud 100 offers a full suite of enterprise tech software tools supporting sales, productivity, marketing, human resources and IT.

46歲的馬斯博瑟姆在接受《福布斯》采訪時(shí)表示:“如果你問我，我們是否知道自己會(huì)在美國(guó)上市，或者會(huì)取得如此大的成功，我會(huì)說絕對(duì)不知道?！盕reshworks總部位于加州圣馬特奧，服務(wù)于120個(gè)國(guó)家的5萬名客戶。它擴(kuò)大了上市范圍，這也解釋了人們對(duì)其IPO的興趣。除了交鑰匙（turn-key）客戶服務(wù)軟件，這家四次入選福布斯云計(jì)算100強(qiáng)的公司還提供一整套支持銷售、生產(chǎn)力、營(yíng)銷、人力資源和IT的企業(yè)技術(shù)軟件工具。

“Our mission is very clear,” Mathrubootham says. “We want to make it fast and easy for every business to delight their customers and their employees.” As Freshworks enters what the company estimates as a $120 million market, it faces heavyweight competition. Key rival Salesforce generates $21 billion in annual revenue. Zendesk, Oracle, Atlassian and Microsoft are also in the mix. Mathrubootham doesn’t fear the competition. “We truly believe that the world of CRM (customer relationship management technology) needs a refresh, pun intended. Plus, it’s a huge market,” he says.

“我們的使命非常明確，”馬斯博瑟姆說?！拔覀兿Ｍ屆恳患移髽I(yè)都能快速、輕松地取悅他們的客戶和員工?！盕reshworks預(yù)計(jì)這個(gè)市場(chǎng)的規(guī)模將達(dá)到1.2億美元，它面臨著激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。主要競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Salesforce的年收入為210億美元。Zendesk、甲骨文、Atlassian和微軟也在其中。馬塞洛布瑟姆并不害怕競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。“我們真的相信CRM(客戶關(guān)系管理技術(shù))的世界需要更新。此外，這也是一個(gè)巨大的市場(chǎng)?！?/b>

It’s a huge step for an Indian enterprise software company to go public in the U.S., says Shekhar Kirani, a partner at Accel, one of the initial investors in Freshworks. “When Freshworks started there were no other global SaaS tech companies out of India and no mainstream investors were excited,” says Kirani, who loved the product Girish and team had built and invested $1 million funding in 2011. Freshworks now shares the India startup spotlight with 100 unicorns, according to Credit Suisse. The country is currently experiencing a tech boom, and Indian food delivery startup Zomato only increased the investing frenzy when its shares jumped over 80% during its market debut in July.

Freshworks最初的投資者之一、Accel的合伙人謝卡爾·基拉尼(Shekhar Kirani)表示，對(duì)于一家印度企業(yè)軟件公司來說，在美國(guó)上市是一大步。Kirani說:“Freshworks剛成立的時(shí)候，印度以外還沒有其他全球性軟件即服務(wù)技術(shù)公司，主流投資者也沒有對(duì)此感到興奮。”Kirani很喜歡Girish和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)在2011年創(chuàng)建的產(chǎn)品，并投資了100萬美元。據(jù)瑞士信貸(Credit Suisse)稱，F(xiàn)reshworks現(xiàn)在與100家獨(dú)角獸公司一樣成為印度初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的焦點(diǎn)。印度目前正經(jīng)歷一場(chǎng)科技熱潮，而印度外賣初創(chuàng)公司Zomato在7月份上市時(shí)的股價(jià)飆升超過80%，更是加劇了投資熱潮。

Times have changed since Freshworks’ zero-funding days in the air conditioner duct warehouse. “Our grouping goal in 2011, when we launched our first product, Freshdesk, was to try and get to $1 million revenue.” In the first six months of 2021, Freshworks reported $168.9 in revenue and a loss of $9.8 million, compared with $110.5 million and a loss of $57.1 million for the same period in 2020. Freshworks has grown from six employees to more than 4,000 employees, with 80% working out of India.

自從Freshworks在空調(diào)管道倉(cāng)庫(kù)提供零資金以來，時(shí)代已經(jīng)發(fā)生了變化。2011年，當(dāng)我們推出第一款產(chǎn)品Freshdesk時(shí)，我們的目標(biāo)是實(shí)現(xiàn)100萬美元的營(yíng)收?！?021年前6個(gè)月，F(xiàn)reshworks報(bào)告收入168.9美元，虧損980萬美元，而2020年同期為1.105億美元，虧損5710萬美元。Freshworks已經(jīng)從6名員工發(fā)展到4000多名員工，其中80%在印度工作。
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Mathrubootham spent 10 years at Indian web-based tools company Zoho, rising to the rank of vice president of product management, but he was inspired to launch Freshworks following an unfortunately familiar bad customer service experience. He sought to fix that widely shared bad experience by developing and providing easy to use software that facilitates better customer engagement.

馬塞洛布瑟姆在印度網(wǎng)絡(luò)工具公司Zoho工作了10年，后來晉升為產(chǎn)品管理副總裁，但不幸的是，一次糟糕的客戶服務(wù)經(jīng)歷讓他受到啟發(fā)，創(chuàng)辦了Freshworks。他試圖通過開發(fā)和提供易于使用的軟件來改善這種已經(jīng)普遍的糟糕體驗(yàn)，以促進(jìn)更好的客戶參與。

From that idea to Wednesday’s IPO, Mathrubootham hit a few rough patches. He recalls that one of the tougher phases for him as a CEO was in 2015 when he was still trying to manage every front of his booming business, including customer calls and negotiating discounts. “So that's when I decided I need to build a management team,” he says, adding that struggle was integral to building the product and dreaming big. “I am a believer that startups actually get creative when there are constraints. I don't think if I started Freshworks today all over again, we probably may not be even successful.”

從這個(gè)想法到周三的IPO，馬斯博瑟姆遇到了一些困難。他回憶說，作為CEO，他最艱難的階段之一是在2015年，當(dāng)時(shí)他還在努力管理他蓬勃發(fā)展的業(yè)務(wù)的每一個(gè)方面，包括客戶電話和談判折扣。他說:“因此，我決定組建一支管理團(tuán)隊(duì)?！彼a(bǔ)充說，奮斗是打造產(chǎn)品和實(shí)現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)大夢(mèng)想的必要條件?！拔蚁嘈牛瑒?chuàng)業(yè)公司在受到限制的情況下，實(shí)際上會(huì)發(fā)揮創(chuàng)造力。我不認(rèn)為如果我今天重新創(chuàng)辦Freshworks我們就不會(huì)成功。”

“We wanted to show that world-class products can come from India,” Mathrubootham remembers. Now, he is confident that this company’s products qualify among the best in the world and proud that Freshworks is setting an example for India’s emerging enterprise software startups. “Our IPO is giving a lot of hope to founders,” he says. “As a country, I think we all believe that SasS is the next big opportunity for India.”

“我們想要證明世界級(jí)的產(chǎn)品可以來自印度，”馬斯博瑟姆回憶道?，F(xiàn)在，他相信Freshworks的產(chǎn)品是世界上最好的，并為Freshworks為印度新興的企業(yè)軟件初創(chuàng)企業(yè)樹立了榜樣而感到自豪?！拔覀兊腎PO給了創(chuàng)始人很大的希望，”他表示?！白鳛橐粋€(gè)國(guó)家，我認(rèn)為我們都相信SasS是印度的下一個(gè)巨大機(jī)遇。”