Girish Mathrubootham says Indian Startups Building Global Products will be a ‘Big Long Trend’

According to Girish Mathrubootham, co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, a NASDAQ-listed software-as-a-service (SAAS) company, the number of startups coming from India and building products for the global market is set to be a "very big long-term trend." Mathrubootham was speaking with Brian E Taptich, VP, Worldwide Specialist Organization at Amazon Web Services (AWS), at Business Insider India's SAAS Scions web series.

"What we are seeing is how durable the Indian startup opportunity is," Mathrubootham explained the Indian startup opportunity. Taptich stated that the country now has over 9000 SAAS companies, which is nearly double the number that existed in 2018. Some of these businesses, such as Gupshup, have achieved unicorn valuations.

"It's an exciting time to be an entrepreneur in India," Mathrubootham declared. He cited a recent Mckinsey report that stated that over 450 different categories of SAAS software are vulnerable to disruption, creating more opportunities for SAAS companies in India to build new products.

According to Mathrubootham, the growth of India's startup community has been aided in part by AWS, "which is levelling the playing field" in such a way that anyone sitting anywhere in India can begin working on a startup. This, along with a "disruptive go-to-market capability" via online customer acquisition and "product-led growth," could be the secret sauce for startups to succeed in India, according to Mathrubootham.