Sridhar Vembu: Silicon Valley’s Unknown Indian

The story of Sridhar Vembu’s innovative bootstrapping. A story all entrepreneurs should understand.

Happily Bootstrapping: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu (Part 4)

AdventNet provides a safety zone from which to launch Zoho, which is why I was looking to gain an understanding of the revenue and cash position of the company. While competition will be stiff from Google and Microsoft, as well as other CRM and group meeting companies, Zoho seems to have a unique philosophy of

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Happily Bootstrapping: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu (Part 3)

During the downturn after the bubble burst, many companies took significant hits. Here, it is revealing to notice there was really only one tough year for Adventnet, which could actually be described as an R&D year. That could have taken place anytime in the company’s history. The bubble burst did not destroy the company, they

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Happily Bootstrapping: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu (Part 2)

Sridhar’s experience in bootstrapping is something to learn from, especially for entrepreneurs in India, who keep complaining about the lack of funding availability from venture sources. Along the way, he weathered many storms, as all good entrepreneurs learn to do. SM: How did you fund your early initiative? SV: It was all bootstrapped. My wife

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Happily Bootstrapping: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  [Also check out my Entrepreneur Journeys book, Seed India – How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap in India] Sridhar Vembu is the CEO of AdventNet, which owns Zoho, a new on-demand office suite we’ve been hearing about a lot lately. I spoke with Sridhar about his rather unorthodox but

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