Thanks to
Rasheeda Bhagat for this nice article
The first thing that strikes you about Sridhar Vembu, CEO of software
products company Zoho Corporation, is basic honesty and zero hyperbole.
Started in 1994 in a room in his Chennai house, with two computers his
brother Kumar had brought from the US, Zoho today employs 1,600 people
at its offices in the US, Chennai, Japan, China and Europe, and clocks
annual sales of $150-200 million.
The son of a stenographer in the Madras High Court, Vembu studied in the
Tamil medium, becoming the first from his school to get into IIT
Madras. After a B.Tech in electrical engineering, in 1989 he headed to
Princeton on a scholarship for a Ph.D. Both at IIT and Princeton, he
avoided computer science as “it meant writing software and I felt
building was better than sitting in front of a computer.” Interested in
maths and economics, he wanted to become a teacher.
But destiny willed otherwise, and just before completing his doctorate
he had doubts about his vocation. “The best analogy is that of the
Catholic Church; I trained to be a bishop and I started to question God.
If you do that, you are in deep trouble,” he laughs.
Sunny weather
So he turned down a teaching assignment in Australia and joined
Qualcomm, then in San Diego, primarily because its “sunny weather” was
much better than the freezing winters in Princeton. “Just like you marry
a girl because she looks good… a superficial reason, I accepted the job
because of the weather.”
Vembu stayed there for two years, writing codes. Soon he realised that
“whatever you design — car engine, camera — everything involved
software.” Models were first built, simulated and tested on computers
before the real thing was built. He realised that “software is the real
essence of everything. It allows you to do things much faster; change
things, run experiments.” This hit him even more while building a
satellite-based communications system in Qualcomm… virtually on the
computer.
Meanwhile, his brother Kumar, a software engineer, had also joined
Qualcomm. “Those days the US was short of software engineers and you
could literally board a plane and go there.” It was 1994. The two
brothers would discuss the future, how India was on the verge of
something big in software, “where you don’t need capital, equipment or
infrastructure; only your brain. That’s how Infosys started! So should
we start something…”
An enterprise begins
Soon the home-sick Kumar left, and with his two computers, started
writing software. He asked his brother Sridhar to scout for clients. “I
made a few calls, wasn’t very successful, quit, and moved to Silicon
Valley in my broken car.” His savings of $20,000 quickly disappeared in
five months and his first venture failed. So he worked for three months
as a software programmer on contract and “lived very frugally. I still
have the same habits, nothing has changed and you can see that,” he
grins, pointing to his crumpled T-shirt, ill-fitting jeans and
inexpensive sandals.
About six months into his contract work, a senior from IIT, Tony Thomas,
sought his help — with marketing his software programs! So Vembu linked
Thomas and Kumar, promptly printed a card calling himself
“VP–Marketing” of the venture (it wasn’t a company yet) and looked for
business. Small orders started trickling in, initially for $2,000 to
$10,000. “In principle it was no different from a fruit seller’s work,
or you eat what you kill. But we were surviving,” says Vembu.
By 1998 they were making enough money — sales of $300,000 — to pay
themselves. Thomas moved to Silicon Valley, the Indian operations were
scaled up, and AdventNet was born with Thomas as CEO. In 1999, the sales
jumped to $1 million, “and we kept growing to $3 million and then $10
million, and knew we have a successful business.” Thomas insisted that
the CEO’s title should pass from him to Vembu as he was the business
brain. Vembu dithered for a while but took on the mantle in 2000. After
two years, Thomas branched out and formed his own company. In 2009 the
firm’s name was changed to Zoho Corporation.
No suit-tie for him!
So, is he planning an IPO?
“Not at all; I like the freedom of doing what I want to do and I have unusual interests.”
Such as? I prod him. “Like dressing like this… I really don’t care how I
look, I don’t like to talk to Wall Street or our Dalal Street guys
wearing a suit and a tie. I don’t socialise in those circles. I don’t
play golf — I’m not interested and consciously avoid all of it. I do
whatever I do with passion.”
Also, he hates to talk about his personal net-worth; “that is one of the
reasons why I don’t go public, because that will be constantly talked
about. I am not defined by the number of zeroes. I am more interesting
than that.”
Suddenly, turning serious, he says softly, “You know… to have a lot of
money and no vision, is a very sad place to be in. When you have money
and don’t know what to do with it, it’s sad. But I have lots of
interesting things to do.”
Running a 10-mile marathon is one of them. He doesn’t have a trainer;
“you simply have to keep running. I can now go up to 3 miles.”
Today Zoho has over 150,000 customers, half of them in the US, where he
spends two-thirds of his time. He got married to Pramilla, who now runs
her own company in the US, while at Princeton.
The two of them, “mostly her, home-school our child, who is autistic. He
is 13, very good with the piano… my wife is now teaching him software
writing too.”
That brings us to the recruitment strategies of Zoho, with 1,600
employees, spelt out in an earlier article
(http://tinyurl.com/zohosuccess). While in the beginning, they recruited
from lesser-known engineering colleges, as students from better
colleges would naturally opt for an Infosys or TCS, Zoho University now
takes Plus-Two students and trains them in code writing.
Women don’t take risks
At Zoho, the gender ratio is a little skewed with only 30 per cent
women. This is because, being better academic achievers, they “get
recruited by bigger companies and go for what they think are better
jobs,” says Vembu.
Are women equally imaginative and creative, or are men better at product design and development?
“I don’t want to say that. What I’d say is that you have to sometimes
break rules, think different, like Steve Jobs said, but women don’t want
to break rules or take risks. They are more cautious and that sometimes
hinders… Men are willing to take risks. Men get killed in accidents
because they take stupid risks on roads, women are safer drivers. But in
product business, you have to take risks. There is no other way to make
progress.”
Innovation and thinking differently have been a hallmark of this
entrepreneur, who has to his credit the creation of one of the first
online office suites (cloud computing). He has been instrumental in
broadening Zoho’s software portfolio to include innovative,
cost-effective products for the SME sector.
We talk about why our MBAs and other brilliant professionals line up for
jobs rather than become entrepreneurs. Is it fear? Vembu’s response:
“Actually, these are all big words. Think about the lady who is selling
flowers. She is an entrepreneur too; she has no fear because she has no
choice.” He quotes Helen Keller: “Security is mostly a superstition. It
does not exist in nature. Nor do children of men experience it as a
whole. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
With child-like wonder, he adds, “This is the absolute truth;
I saw this
only recently, but I’ve lived the spirit… that is why I could connect
with it. If you give excessive structure, like 9–5 schooling, people
will seek security.”
All of 15, he would often wonder about security being an illusion.
“Buddhism tells you that you can be rich one day and poor the next. And
then everybody dies, and what can be worse than death? So why are we so
afraid?”
Thanks to Vembu’s ability to “break rules”, veil-clad Ayisha Shahjehan, a
Plus-Two student, earns Rs 20,000 at the age of 20 — “much, much more
than what my father makes”.
There’s also Nandini, a railway policeman’s daughter who earns a little
more at 21. More than the money, he has given both the girls, and scores
of other youngsters, confidence as well as a career. As they chat and
joke with him, they don’t know, or care about the zeroes in his
net-worth. Neither does he.
Zen and the art of software coding
Religion
I’ve never been religious, I was always bored by rituals. These days
I’ve become more partial to Buddhism. Buddha never talks about God.
Buddhism is what they call the science of the mind, how you find peace
within yourself. Like the Dalai Lama says, the whole purpose of
everything is to be happy.
Movies
I love the movies of Akira Kurosawa, the Japanese moviemaker, and I
watch Westerns, the Clint Eastwood kind… they are similar to the samurai
movies, and take influences from Kurosawa. They have similar roots. I
find Indian movies too long and too emotional. I like understated movies
and the Japanese are understated.
Music
Not much, but my wife is an excellent Carnatic music singer; she is
world class. She sings occasionally, and we do give home concerts. I
don’t know Carnatic music but listen to it. I listen to Yanni — I just
love his music.
Growing polarisation on religious lines
I am sad about it. I think we all need to chill out a little bit… take
this Vishwaroopam thing… it’s only a movie — why take it so seriously?
There is nothing right or wrong... that is Buddhist philosophy.
Food
I mostly like South Indian vegetarian food… and yes, I do know how to cook!
Reading
I do a lot of reading, entirely non-fiction. I love travel stories…
travelling is a way of finding yourself. I read a lot on travel in
China; I’m fascinated by Naipaul’s writing; he is brilliant.
Holidays
Any peaceful place. I went to my village in Thanjavur last weekend, and
was very happy. My parents were there, so we watched the harvest. Our
home in the US is in the countryside… a big house in a big farm; my son
loves the solitude and so do I. We now have an office in Tenkasi, which
is very peaceful and scenic.
