Leadership Change At Freshworks: Girish Mathrubootham Steps Down As CEO, Dennis Woodside Takes Charge

In a major internal rejig, Freshworks’ chief executive officer Girish Mathrubootham has stepped down from his role, while the Nasdaq-listed SaaS giant’s president Dennis Woodside has been named as his successor effective May 1.

Mathrubootham will be redesignated as executive chairman.

“I have decided to step down as CEO of Freshworks and transition into the role of executive chairman. This decision was not made lightly and comes with a deep belief in our collective vision and the future of our company,” Mathrubootham said.

He added, “When I recruited Dennis to Freshworks, my hope was that he would eventually succeed me and that we would work together to make a thoughtful and smooth transition.”

Mathrubootham will now allocate more time to the long-term product vision, innovation, and AI strategy.

“Our mission remains unchanged, and our future is bright. The road ahead is filled with limitless possibilities, and I am excited to see where Dennis’ leadership takes us,” he added.

Since founding Freshworks in 2010, Mathrubootham has been instrumental in guiding the company’s transformation from a small startup in Chennai to a Nasdaq-listed software firm in the US.

Prior to this, Mathrubootham held positions at companies such as Zoho Corporation, AdventNet Inc., eForce, and HCL Cisco ODC.

Mathrubootham guided Freshworks through an IPO on Nasdaq in September 2021, a significant achievement as Freshworks became the first India-born SaaS firm to trade on a US exchange.

The top rejig coincides with a series of management changes within the SaaS firm.

Earlier this month, Freshworks’ India head Karthik Rajaram quit the SaaS startup to join software company Elastic. 

In Q4, the SaaS major’s chief revenue officer Pradeep Rathinam resigned, while the company’s cofounder and chief technology officer (CTO) Shan Krishnaswamy bid adieu to the company in 2022 after a company-wide rejig.

Meanwhile, it recently roped in ex-Adobe executive Mika Yamamoto as its first chief customer and marketing officer (CCMO) and also appointed Johanna Jackman as the new Chief People Officer (CPO).

Amid all this, Freshworks continues to narrow its losses while shoring up revenues. The Nasdaq-listed company narrowed its net loss 49% year-on-year (YoY) to $28.1 Mn in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023. Meanwhile, revenue jumped to $160.1 Mn for the quarter, up 20% from $133.2 Mn in Q4 2022.

Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam (Shan) Krishnasamy, Freshworks offers a suite of software for customer service and support, customer engagement and IT service management. The company went public in 2021.