Freshworks, which just listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, has become the poster child for Indian SaaS startups that want to build global businesses. Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director at Sequoia India, talks with Freshworks co-founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham about the early design choices on product, pricing and positioning that made the company so successful. The conversation took place in July 2021 during an AMA at Surge, our rapid scale-up program for early-stage startups.

Show notes:

• Everything begins with framing the customer problem well [2:19]
• Dreaming in increments to create a wedge [4:36]
• Sharpening product differentiation to support outbound sales [6:16]
• Using pricing as a weapon, and landing the first set of customers [10:33]
• How churn is a killer in product-led growth [13:05]
• Building a global company with its soul in Chennai [15:23]
• Increasing your standard of giving [18:45]
• Feeling like an Indian athlete that has a chance to run at the Olympics [21:45]