Freshworks was founded in 2010 and specializes in providing cloud-based software solutions for companies. CRM software for sales, recruiting tools, and help desk software for customer support are all part of the company’s product line. The company has grown rapidly to over 1,000 employees worldwide, spread across five offices, and its software is already used by over 130,000 organizations.
How did Freshworks, an Indian start-up, successfully hold its own against large, established competitors?
In addition to bringing merchandise to an area dominated by large established companies, Freshworks had the lofty goal of serving businesses of all sizes, including the notoriously inaccessible SMB market.
Freshworks has used Google search advertising since its inception to grow its customer base in mature regions in the US and Europe. Freshworks was able to pour more money into its digital marketing budget and improve the customer onboarding experience thanks to a unique global inside sales approach that reduced the company’s selling costs. This enabled the company to compete directly with its main competitors.
Freshworks and Google worked together to filter leads through Analytics and Google Ads to optimize campaigns and increase ROI from search to ensure quality growth.
While search is the company’s primary marketing channel, it has been effectively expanded to other Google products with the help of Google. In 2016, YouTube played an important role in its branding strategy and has since experimented with Google Marketing Platform and YouTube to complement its Google Ads campaigns.
Freshworks is now a leading global provider of cloud-based business software, with North America accounting for the majority of sales, followed by Europe. The company now has over 130,000 customers, with Google merchandise accounting for 60% of its sales.
Google’s analytics and insights have been critical to understanding and continuing the company’s growth, as well as budget management. “Google tools are the most advanced for analyzing the effectiveness of a channel,” said Ramesh Ravishankar, Marketing Director of Freshworks. When it comes to the discussion about the return on investment of Google products, we are well prepared. “
The company will use various Google tools to increase brand awareness around the world and acquire new customers. With the growing portfolio of Freshworks products, the company plans to expand into new global markets using Google Translation Services.
Earlier this month, Freshworks raised over $ 1 billion through an IPO on the Nasdaq. CapitalG owns approximately 8.2 percent of the company’s market value after the IPO, or $ 1 billion.
The Google factor
While financial assistance is important, CapitalG has a lot more to offer. The company’s in-house team provides extensive hands-on growth support, as well as access to Google and Alphabet specialists, including CEO Sundar Pichai. CapitalG helps entrepreneurs simplify all elements of their business, from sales and marketing to AI and security.
CapitalG helped Freshworks with its “go-to-market,” explains Frantz, by helping digital customer acquisition, an area where Google had tremendous insight and understanding.
Over the years, around 1,200 employees at the portfolio company have been trained in machine learning, technical leadership, and other topics by more than 2,500 Google employees. A number of Freshworks engineers were also enrolled in similar programs.
Freshworks and Nasdaq
Freshworks has been with the investment firm since it was founded in Chennai and moved to San Mateo, California in 2019. Therefore, it is aware of the company’s vision and development. Freshworks, for example, is still a loss-making company on paper. However, these setbacks are not alarming. For one, its net loss fell to $ 9.8 million from $ 57 million last year, suggesting the company is cutting costs. Second, making losses in startups is usually intentional. “It just has to be clear that you could be profitable if you wanted to,” said Frantz. “However, many companies, like Freshworks, are investing in growth.” “Investors want to know [loss-making] is a decision, not the result of some systematic problem in business that prevents them from being successful. “
Freshworks had a hugely successful public premiere in the United States. However, it had all the necessary ingredients: with a presence in over 120 countries, it’s a global company. A significant number of senior executives are seasoned Silicon Valley veterans. Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital are among the company’s funders. And the company’s sales and growth numbers have always been strong.
According to Frantz, “getting the quarter-to-quarter predictability and long-term growth story that it takes to go public is really difficult.” In addition, “it is necessary to have procedures and processes in place to run a business that the US has high standards for.”
However, this does not rule out other Indian companies from being successful. In fact, Freshworks is viewed by Frantz as a “torchbearer” for Indian SaaS startups, and he believes the trend will continue. Another SaaS company, Druva, is planning an IPO in the United States.
According to Frantz, these companies could look west because the US market is “more developed than the Indian market”. “There is more liquidity and the message to customers is a little stronger.”
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