Today is the era of small startups mushrooming in every corner of India and across the globe relying on angel investments and VC funds to make it big or even to get into operation. But, here, we will discuss the rags-to-riches story of a bootstrapped tech-giant who shot to sky-rocketing heights in a short span of time. Meet Sridhar Vembu, the man behind Zoho – an Indian multinational technology company that makes web-based business tools.
Chasing customer satisfaction has always proved to be more profitable than chasing investors. Sridhar Vembu is an inveterate nationalist who showcases a powerful example of how resilience, excellence and determination can help one build a healthy and profitable business. Much is said about how he managed to take Zoho from humble beginnings to scaling heights, but few know much about the founder himself. Here is a short story covering his early life, education, early career, awards and interesting tidbits.
Early Life and Education
Sridhar Vembu was born in 1968 in a middle-class Tamil family in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. He earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1989. He later went on to complete his MS and PhD from Princeton University, New Jersey.
Career
His professional working career started as a wireless engineer for Qualcomm in San Diego, California. Later, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1996, Vembu, along with his two brothers founded a software development house for network equipment providers called AdventNet.
AdventNet was renamed Zoho in 2009. By then, the company had begun focusing on providing SaaS support to Customer Relationship Management services. Zoho proved to be a profitable company right from day one. Currently, he holds a 88% stake in the company. As per Forbes, his estimated net worth is $2.44 billion.
Important Decisions Taken at the Beginning of his Career
Sridhar Vembu is a die-hard nationalist who believed in giving back to his country. He had a dream of taking the Silicon Valley to the Villages in India. He was one of the first people who took software and product development functions to rural villages in India. After moving to India from the Bay Area, he established the Zoho office in the rural area of Mathalamparai, Tenkasi district, Tamil Nadu and in Renigunta, Andhra Pradesh.
He always had the vision to hire rural students into his firm. He set up Zoho schools in 2004 to provide vocational software development training to rural students. Around 15 to 20% of his engineers do not have a formal college degree. In 2020, he launched a ‘rural school startup’ that would focus on free primary education.
Sridhar Vembu wanted to operate from the village because he believes that it brings a lot of cross-fertilization of ideas. He believed that when city folk come into the villages to work for Zoho, they can mentor and coach the local youth of the villages, which will be later recruited by Zoho. By now, more than 800 students have graduated from Zoho Schools and are employed by Zoho Corp.
A Little About Zoho
Zoho initially was started as AdventNet, a company that focused to make software products at a time when IT services were the new rage. In 2009, AdventNet was renamed Zoho and it began focusing on providing innovative online applications and services.
Zoho today offers cloud-based customer relationship management solutions and SaaS applications, inventory management services, human resource services and online accounting solutions, right from the office located at the Mathalamparai village. Today, there are around 50 million Zoho users globally. The app launched in the wake of the pandemic – Zoho Remotely, was quite famous.
Awards and Accolades
- Sridhar Vembu was awarded the Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ in 2019.
- He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2021.
- He was appointed to the National Security Advisory Board in 2021.
Interesting Tidbits from his Life
- His typical day begins at 4 am when he needs to call the US offices. He goes for a long walk at 6 am and sometimes takes a swim in the village well. He enjoys snake-spotting and sometimes, even catching them, during his morning walk.
- Apart from doing his office work, he also engages in farming in the village. He grows paddy, brinjal, okra and a few fruits in his fields.
- He is uninterested in modern luxuries and often does not indulge in lavish buys.
- He believes in Bootstrapping, which is investing and re-investing in the initial years of your business to make it a profitable business later on. He also believes in not relying on funds or investors.
Many young Indians from rural sectors dream to go to cities to earn degrees and better jobs. But, Sridhar Vembu, managed to make this dream come true in the villages. He has managed to generate more jobs in the rural sectors of India, proving that you need not go to urban dwellings to earn more. A capitalist who does not care about his net worth, Sridhar Vembu dreams of getting into politics in the near future. He is visionary par excellence, he is a living example of the term ‘vocal for local’.
