Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham steps down as CEO
Mathrubootham, who has been replaced by Dennis Woodside, said the decision was taken to help craft an ambitious growth plan for the company under Dennis’ leadership and to allow himself to spend more time on the long-term product vision, innovation and AI strategy
Software-as-a-service major Freshworks Inc. on Wednesday (May 1) announced that its founder Girish Mathrubootham has stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer, paving the way for the appointment of Dennis Woodside to the post.
In a release, the company said Mathrubootham would transition to a new role of executive chairman while retaining his post as the chairman of the board of directors. Woodside will also remain a member of the board of directors.
Announcing his stepdown from the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in a blog posted on the company’s website, Mathrubootham said the decision to appoint Woodside as the new CEO was taken to craft an ambitious growth plan for the company which he believes Woodside would deliver, and to allow himself to “spend more time on the long-term product vision, innovation and AI strategy”.
“A couple of years ago, I started talking with our board about my longer-term plans for Freshworks. I shared that when the time is right, I would like to shift my focus to our long-term product vision and invest in our presence in India. These are areas where I get the most energy and where I’m also playing to my strengths,” he said.
Stating that he saw in Dennis a potential to lead the company when he recruited him, Mathrubootham said the latter’s deep understanding of the Freshworks business, his love and admiration of the company’s work and people in India, and his ability to attract top talent and build world-class teams made him the perfect fit for the CEO’s role.
“Dennis has a deep understanding of Freshworks’ business, customers and our employees, and a strong track record of building and scaling large global teams – he is the right leader to become our next CEO. I’m thrilled to announce this transition,” Mathrubootham said.
Mathrubootham's job cut out
The company statement said that in his new role as executive chairman, Mathrubootham will remain "highly engaged with product vision, customers, and employees".
“He will work across the company to bring Freshworks’ long-term vision to life and consult with Woodside on strategic decisions. The transition frees him up to spend more time with our product teams in India, and our customers globally, and stay engaged with other external stakeholders,” it said.
What led to the leadership change
The news of Mathrubootham’s stepdown on Wednesday triggered led a massive selloff of company stocks with Freshworks shares witnessing a 25 per cent drop during after-market hours trading on Nasdaq.
The latest changes in the company structures comes months after its board cancelled Mathrubootham’s performance-based stock award of 6 million shares.
“As a result of macroeconomic conditions that are entirely outside the control of the company’s leadership team, the stock price hurdles were too far ahead of the current stock price for the CEO PRSU award to have the retention value expected at the time the award was granted,” the company had said in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 16.
About Freshworks
The company, founded in Chennai in 2010, creates AI-boosted business software, mainly targeting small and medium businesses as its clients.
The company, which is now headquartered in San Mateo, California, operates around the world, serving more than 67,000 clients including American Express, Blue Nile, Databricks, Bridgestone, Fila and OfficeMax. It has over 4,900 employees worldwide.
