Founder of ZOHO Gives Bootstrapping Tips on Mixergy
Published in 2010, this chronicle by @jasonlbaptiste details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 55 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 18 comments
Hey sridhar, question for you: I have heard the reasoning behind zoho hiring out of schools rather than colleges, but considering that most of the most pleasant as well as least pleasant experiences of my life occurred inside college, don't you think you're depriving people of an experience that they can get nowhere else?
I know that it's upto the kids to decide whether they want to take the job or not, but if I had been given a study for 4 more years or start earning now offer, before I entered college, I would have taken the job. I would hardly do the same now that I know more about life in college.
Fascinating comment thread on the first TC write up of Zoho:
http://techcrunch.com/2005/10/02/zoho-writers-ajax-word-processor/
The first comment (from Jason Fried): That’s a total rip of Backpack. I’d think twice about covering such blatant rips like this — it hurts your credibility to support these sorts of businesses and ventures.
Zoho is yet another example of why competition is not something to avoid!
How do you hire engineers? I have heard that you hire kids from schools in Chennai/Madras itself and teach them programming and basically equip them to create practical solutions.
Also, how come we hardly get to hear about some Zoho engineers leaving the company to create their own startup. What's the secret that engineers are so happy working with you?
I got a good feel for the origins of Zoho from the interview but I am a bit disappointed with the drop outs. It's normally not an issue but this time it sounded like Andrew let a few points slide without clarification or followup.
EDIT: Andrew - have you thought about having another band available for running your audio through when Skype's playing up?
interesting interview. I never would have guessed Zoho was doing 40M in revenues, 12M+ in profits. They have a lot of great tools for small businesses. I have yet to find a better (and free!) CRM alternative than what they offer.Never again will Benioff or Ellison get a penny from me!