Here we begin to explore the current status of Zoho a bit further. Impressive numbers considering there has been no advertising campaigns conducted. The business model is simple – let users try the service for free, when they are comfortable they will migrate over. Afterwards, they compete based on pricing (less than 20% of the
Interesting comparisons here by Sridhar between the Zoho CRM and the SalesForce CRM products; while SalesForce has a high focus on sales teams (and one of the best telesales teams anywhere in the world), Zoho is simply looking to take a competitive advantage in terms of pricing. According to Sridhar this shows in the construct
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
SM: Describe some of your team building experiences. Is your management team complete now? PF: We’ve built an extremely talented team across the board – from developers to sales executives. A large proportion found their jobs through Indeed itself, which is gratifying. We’re continuing to build the team and our current open positions are listed
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
SM: What are your top target segments? PF: As a comprehensive search engine for jobs, Indeed.com isn’t targeting particular segments. We’re covering all jobs in all fields. Having said that, we do have a disproportionate number of web-savvy, early-adopter types who have discovered the beauty of comprehensive job search. SM: How did you penetrate the
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
SM: What was the market landscape like when you founded the company? PF: Online recruitment has been dominated by job boards, particularly Careerbuilder, Monster and Hotjobs and specialized sites like Dice for technology professionals. Indeed.com makes it possible for job seekers to search across these sites to find exactly the right jobs. Job seekers click