Girish Mathrubootham’s Action Plan For SaaS Startups Amid Coronavirus

As the coronavirus pandemic rises significantly in India with over 250 cases, most individuals and businesses are not only trying to do their part public to control the unnecessary movement and take precautions but also helping others who are in a difficult position. SaaS unicorn Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham has taken up the onus to help SaaS community to tackle the business challenges.

In a video addressed to founders who were part of SaaSBoomi, a yearly community event, Mathrubootham said that these are tough times and hence, several businesses and customers are suffering. He shared the lessons from what he has already put in place in Freshworks and advised founders to follow a similar strategy.

Mathrubootham confessed that two weeks earlier, he was also in the mindset that business is important, “not suited for work from home in India” but now after reading and getting updates, he has realised the importance of remote work as safety and security of employees is a priority. He said that Freshworks has put in place mandatory work from home policy.

“Invest in spending time with families, focus on internal improvements in the company, personal learnings, and also manage your health, hangout with employees remotely to manage the mood,” he added.

Freshworks has implemented daily management meetings, dashboards to track all processes from traffic to signups to customer acquisition to lead generation to customer support etc. While there has been a lot of impact on businesses already, there will more of this going forward, Mathrubootham noted.

“SMB business hasn’t been impacted that much, mid-market deals are pushed out and we are tracking this on a daily basis,” Mathrubootham added.

He also said that this quarter may have a smaller impact, but next quarter will have a larger impact on the company’s business. He suggested that CEOs need to re-examine the revenue cycles etc and should go into cash-conservation mode.

“Good talent will be available in the market during these tough times because of the stress of the system, so, we want to plan our expenditure. I would suggest you SaaS founders to make alternate plans,” Mathrubootham said.

With the pandemic locking people inside their homes, VC funding and investments are also expected to dry up.

“I am not here to give you panic. We will come out of this, bad times will end, it is important to manage bad times strongly. Companies with strong value systems, which manage their employees well will be able to retain talent. If we can take care of your employees, we can come out stronger,” he added.