On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation (moderated by Frederic Lardinois at TechCrunch).

Sridhar built Zoho, a software product firm valued at over a billion dollars, without a rupee of external funding—almost completely bootstrapped. Months before the pandemic, he moved from Silicon Valley to a village in Tamil Nadu, where he is now based. Years before Atmanirbhar Bharat became a slogan, Sridhar championed the cause of self-reliance and the creation of local employment.

We hear about inequality, college debt, and a lot of other issues. Sridhar believes that the private sector has to solve these problems. 

"We are entrepreneurs and capitalists, and all of us have a responsibility."

This is Sridhar's passion now.

With exceptional clarity, superlative focus, and a philosophical "zen" like approach to both life in general and building software, Sridhar is the original “Sage of Software 2.0.”

Podcast highlights:

1:43 - What Zoho used to be vs what it is now

6:20 - Doing things right against competitors

9:48 - Starting out without any venture capital

14:51 - The temptation to IPO

18:31 - How to market 44 products

19:52 - Additional potential Zoho products

22:55 - How to stay focused

24:07 - Zoho University

Learn more at https://tractionconf.io

Connect with Sridhar Vembu: https://twitter.com/svembu

Learn more about Zoho at https://www.zoho.com/

This episode is brought to you by:

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Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca

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