4 ms·

Founder of ZOHO Gives Bootstrapping Tips on Mixergy

55 points by jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

DilipJ 17y ago
interesting interview. I never would have guessed Zoho was doing 40M in revenues, 12M+ in profits. They have a lot of great tools for small businesses. I have yet to find a better (and free!) CRM alternative than what they offer.Never again will Benioff or Ellison get a penny from me!
randv 17y ago
$40 mil revenue is largely from their products and services on the network management and element management side (called AdventNet). They are not exactly a typical startup.
- mwerty 17y ago
  Not sure what you mean. Which successful (non-acquired) startup do you consider typical?
andrewtj 17y ago
I got a good feel for the origins of Zoho from the interview but I am a bit disappointed with the drop outs. It's normally not an issue but this time it sounded like Andrew let a few points slide without clarification or followup. EDIT: Andrew - have you thought about having another band available for running your audio through when Skype's playing up?
- ryanhuff 17y ago
  I have to give Andrew and his guests credit for continuing through the skype issues. It must be tough after the nth disruption.
sridharvembu 17y ago
As I said in the interview, I am a regular on Hacker News, and would be happy to answer any follow up questions (well, at least the ones I can answer ;-))
- netcan 17y ago
  What's your presence in India? Do you develop locally?, sell locally? Is it still an exciting place to be for a software person?
  - sridharvembu 17y ago
    Our office is in Chennai, where we have over 1000 employees. All our software development is in Chennai. Is India an exciting place to be for a software person? Yes, absolutely!
    - yarapavan 17y ago
      Great work SridharVembu and zoho team. I'm interested to know the technical composition of the Zoho project teams? How does it work? Without engineering graduates and constantly evolving programming languages, frameworks, paradigms, and tools, how do you keep to speed and scale ?
- whatwhatwhat 17y ago
  Sridhar- I think that was a great comment by you when you mentioned that you do not have an ego at Zoho. It was in response to Andrew's mentioning of Zoho members being able to use Google to login to Zoho. I would also imagine that allowing members to use Google login on Zoho would somewhat beat the competitive advantage that Google has in this regard- in allowing their members to share one login across all of their apps. Good move. I wonder how Zoho is able to manage so many apps. Do you have many different development divisions? You mentioned that you have over 1,000 employees. How many does it take to maintain just one of the apps? I'm sure it will be dependent on that app itself, but if you would allow us an estimation merely for the insight. Thanks
SingAlong 17y ago
Is there anyway to download that video from mixergy? I would like to save a local copy. (Heard mixergy is a paid services for older articles)
- netcan 17y ago
  You can get the audio as a podcast. http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mixergy-main-podcast http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mixergy-main-podcast Also: http://mixergy.com/wp-content/audio/Mixergy-ZOHO-Sridhar-Vembu.mp3 http://mixergy.com/wp-content/audio/Mixergy-ZOHO-Sridhar-Vem...
- vibhavs 17y ago
  I may be downvoted for this, but... -If you're on a Mac, navigate to the page using Safari. -Start playing the video -Open the Activity window (shortcut: command + option + a) -You should see a large file being downloaded into your cache. (In this case, it'll be from Wistia CDN). -Hold the option key down and double click on the file. -The file will now download to your downloads folder as a .flv which can be opened by VLC. This will work for most video sites on the web: Youtube, etc.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
sushi 17y ago
How do you hire engineers? I have heard that you hire kids from schools in Chennai/Madras itself and teach them programming and basically equip them to create practical solutions. Also, how come we hardly get to hear about some Zoho engineers leaving the company to create their own startup. What's the secret that engineers are so happy working with you?
- ordinaryman 17y ago
  // Sridhar, allow me to answer the 2nd part. I guess you don't imply that Zoho engineers who leave the company to create their own startups were not happy working there. I was happy. That was the reason that I ended up working for over 8 years instead of just 2 years in some software company to gain experience and then start out on my own, which was my goal when I joined there from college. Regarding the secret, I believe it boils down to the work culture. He encourages and respects feedback from every employee. Anyone can provide feedback/opinion - including about CEO's actions, directly on a company wide forum and have the CEO respond to it. He agrees if he may be wrong and does not mock at you if you were silly. That attitude encourages open culture. So you do not have "Yes Sir, OK Sir" coding-monkeys, but much better engineers who are satisfied with their work.
johnrob 17y ago
Fascinating comment thread on the first TC write up of Zoho: http://techcrunch.com/2005/10/02/zoho-writers-ajax-word-processor/ http://techcrunch.com/2005/10/02/zoho-writers-ajax-word-proc... The first comment (from Jason Fried): That’s a total rip of Backpack. I’d think twice about covering such blatant rips like this — it hurts your credibility to support these sorts of businesses and ventures. Zoho is yet another example of why competition is not something to avoid!
chaosprophet 17y ago
Hey sridhar, question for you: I have heard the reasoning behind zoho hiring out of schools rather than colleges, but considering that most of the most pleasant as well as least pleasant experiences of my life occurred inside college, don't you think you're depriving people of an experience that they can get nowhere else? I know that it's upto the kids to decide whether they want to take the job or not, but if I had been given a study for 4 more years or start earning now offer, before I entered college, I would have taken the job. I would hardly do the same now that I know more about life in college.
- yuvipanda 17y ago
  Most of the 'engineering' colleges in chennai are geared towards churning out Outsourcing/BPO fodder. Technically minded folks would have a hard time there.

interesting interview. I never would have guessed Zoho was doing 40M in revenues, 12M+ in profits. They have a lot of great tools for small businesses. I have yet to find a better (and free!) CRM alternative than what they offer.Never again will Benioff or Ellison get a penny from me!

randv 17y ago

$40 mil revenue is largely from their products and services on the network management and element management side (called AdventNet). They are not exactly a typical startup.

mwerty 17y ago
Not sure what you mean. Which successful (non-acquired) startup do you consider typical?

andrewtj 17y ago

I got a good feel for the origins of Zoho from the interview but I am a bit disappointed with the drop outs. It's normally not an issue but this time it sounded like Andrew let a few points slide without clarification or followup. EDIT: Andrew - have you thought about having another band available for running your audio through when Skype's playing up?

ryanhuff 17y ago
I have to give Andrew and his guests credit for continuing through the skype issues. It must be tough after the nth disruption.

sridharvembu 17y ago

As I said in the interview, I am a regular on Hacker News, and would be happy to answer any follow up questions (well, at least the ones I can answer ;-))

netcan 17y ago
What's your presence in India? Do you develop locally?, sell locally? Is it still an exciting place to be for a software person?
- sridharvembu 17y ago
  Our office is in Chennai, where we have over 1000 employees. All our software development is in Chennai. Is India an exciting place to be for a software person? Yes, absolutely!
  - yarapavan 17y ago
    Great work SridharVembu and zoho team. I'm interested to know the technical composition of the Zoho project teams? How does it work? Without engineering graduates and constantly evolving programming languages, frameworks, paradigms, and tools, how do you keep to speed and scale ?
whatwhatwhat 17y ago
Sridhar- I think that was a great comment by you when you mentioned that you do not have an ego at Zoho. It was in response to Andrew's mentioning of Zoho members being able to use Google to login to Zoho. I would also imagine that allowing members to use Google login on Zoho would somewhat beat the competitive advantage that Google has in this regard- in allowing their members to share one login across all of their apps. Good move. I wonder how Zoho is able to manage so many apps. Do you have many different development divisions? You mentioned that you have over 1,000 employees. How many does it take to maintain just one of the apps? I'm sure it will be dependent on that app itself, but if you would allow us an estimation merely for the insight. Thanks

SingAlong 17y ago

Is there anyway to download that video from mixergy? I would like to save a local copy. (Heard mixergy is a paid services for older articles)

netcan 17y ago
You can get the audio as a podcast. http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mixergy-main-podcast http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mixergy-main-podcast Also: http://mixergy.com/wp-content/audio/Mixergy-ZOHO-Sridhar-Vembu.mp3 http://mixergy.com/wp-content/audio/Mixergy-ZOHO-Sridhar-Vem...
vibhavs 17y ago
I may be downvoted for this, but... -If you're on a Mac, navigate to the page using Safari. -Start playing the video -Open the Activity window (shortcut: command + option + a) -You should see a large file being downloaded into your cache. (In this case, it'll be from Wistia CDN). -Hold the option key down and double click on the file. -The file will now download to your downloads folder as a .flv which can be opened by VLC. This will work for most video sites on the web: Youtube, etc.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

sushi 17y ago

How do you hire engineers? I have heard that you hire kids from schools in Chennai/Madras itself and teach them programming and basically equip them to create practical solutions. Also, how come we hardly get to hear about some Zoho engineers leaving the company to create their own startup. What's the secret that engineers are so happy working with you?

ordinaryman 17y ago
// Sridhar, allow me to answer the 2nd part. I guess you don't imply that Zoho engineers who leave the company to create their own startups were not happy working there. I was happy. That was the reason that I ended up working for over 8 years instead of just 2 years in some software company to gain experience and then start out on my own, which was my goal when I joined there from college. Regarding the secret, I believe it boils down to the work culture. He encourages and respects feedback from every employee. Anyone can provide feedback/opinion - including about CEO's actions, directly on a company wide forum and have the CEO respond to it. He agrees if he may be wrong and does not mock at you if you were silly. That attitude encourages open culture. So you do not have "Yes Sir, OK Sir" coding-monkeys, but much better engineers who are satisfied with their work.

johnrob 17y ago

Fascinating comment thread on the first TC write up of Zoho: http://techcrunch.com/2005/10/02/zoho-writers-ajax-word-processor/ http://techcrunch.com/2005/10/02/zoho-writers-ajax-word-proc... The first comment (from Jason Fried): That’s a total rip of Backpack. I’d think twice about covering such blatant rips like this — it hurts your credibility to support these sorts of businesses and ventures. Zoho is yet another example of why competition is not something to avoid!

chaosprophet 17y ago

Hey sridhar, question for you: I have heard the reasoning behind zoho hiring out of schools rather than colleges, but considering that most of the most pleasant as well as least pleasant experiences of my life occurred inside college, don't you think you're depriving people of an experience that they can get nowhere else? I know that it's upto the kids to decide whether they want to take the job or not, but if I had been given a study for 4 more years or start earning now offer, before I entered college, I would have taken the job. I would hardly do the same now that I know more about life in college.

yuvipanda 17y ago
Most of the 'engineering' colleges in chennai are geared towards churning out Outsourcing/BPO fodder. Technically minded folks would have a hard time there.