An Entrepreneur Who Inspires Me

He is an Electrical Engineer by degree and the CEO of a technology company by profession. His company Zoho is clocking billions of dollars in profits and the best part, this man runs it from a village. When the tech startups burn their investor's capital ... this company is towering above all as super profitable. The biggest surprise, it has not raised funding to date.

This is the story of one of my idols Sridhar Vembu ji. When I was starting as an entrepreneur he used to guide me through his TV interviews and life stories.

I've been reading about him for so long, if I'm being honest one article isn't enough to cover his incredible story. But here I'll try my level best to convey the true greatness of this living legend.

His Background

Vembu was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu, India with his 2 brothers Kumar and Shekhar. He did his schooling at a Tamil medium government school. When Vembu completed his schooling, he was one of the toppers. He then displayed his academic prowess by getting admission into IIT Madras.

During his college days,

• Vembu saw the flaws in the Indian education system. The lack of depth in the subjects was as clear as fire in the dark.
• He discovers his passion for computers. This helped in giving direction to his career.

Side Note: In India, it's said that engineers do everything except Engineering.

Then he did his MS and PhD at Princeton University. After completing his studies Vembu ji starts working for Qualcomm as an Engineer.

The Shift: Purple Patch

While working at Qualcomm Vembu's brothers started a network management software company. The company's name was Adventnet. The company was giving telecom services, and telecom was booming back then. one day, Sridhar gets a call from his brothers asking to help them with Sales and Marketing. Sridhar despite lacking a Sales background said yes. And thus his life as an entrepreneur starts.

Soon he started closing deals. Within 2 years, I became the VP of Marketing and Business Development. Within 2 years Adventnet was generating USD 1 Million and in 1999 it crossed USD 10 Million.

What helped Vembu Ji the most was:

• Keeping low margins.
• Building slow and steady.
• Prioritizing customer satisfaction.

These served as the cornerstone for his future success. These may sound cliche and simplistic, but it is the simple stuff that people struggle with the most.

While starting, I didn't go after the big fish straight away. To give you some context I help entrepreneurs set up their businesses in other locations. So I did not go after the popular high-competition regions (like Seychelles, BVI, and Belize) from day 1. Instead, my first 6 contracts were not high-paying, they were for business setup in Oman. For Oman, the margins are low so it was easy to crack the first set of clients. Once I got my first client I gave my 200% in delivering the promises made in less time than decided. One satisfied client refers to another and thus a domino effect starts. The starting was slow but the growth was fast.

It took us around 2 years to start earning some enviable numbers. But this was possible due to the not-so-big pay contracts in the initial days. Without them, this would be impossible.

Investment Offer -

Every startup at one point considers raising funds. There is intense competition as quality investors are not accessible to all. So not every business gets the funding it desires. But what if your startup gets an investment offer and you still decline it? This is another side of Vembu ji.

After seeing success with Adventnet, Vembu ji got an investment offer of USD 10 Million. This is before the year 2000, so you can imagine how big the actual sum would have been.

'The philosophy of taking somebody's money and promising them what they want looks like a gamble to me. So, like a good man, I said no to the money. But, at the time, I was termed arrogant by the VC, and he left the office fuming,"- Sridhar Vembuji

The Rough Patch

No successful story can be complete without some roadblocks, right?

The year 2000 was important in the global startup ecosystem, the Dotcom bubble burst! Reputable companies like Pets.com, Webvan, Boo.com, etc went bankrupt. Adventnet also took severe damage. But it was among the few companies to survive and bounce back.

Adventnet had some major advantages:

• They were employing Indian staff. They were working from India.
• The frugal approach meant that their operational costs were less.
• And they had enough reserves to last a few more years.

Soon the scorecard started changing, and the revenue charts were becoming green. But this was not the end.

Intense internal struggles broke out within the company. As a result, all the partners deserted the company. Sridhar was all alone to look after his child.

Bounce Back

I cannot enunciate how much of a toll it can take. We were opening a branch office in Oman when my co-founder left. I was in a lurch. Out of nowhere, I became the CEO: Chief of Everything Officer. I was doing the commercial registration in Oman, hiring manpower, giving instructions, etc.

Once I forgot to pay my employees their salaries. Every day there was a fire somewhere to put out. I often tell people entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. People avoid risks, we entrepreneurs have it for breakfast.

Sridhar Vembu ji took 1 year to stabilize the boat but he did what he had to. He also launched a new product named ManageEngine, its an IT management software. In 2005 he started a new division naming it ... Zoho.

Birth of Zoho

Zoho was born out of an opportunity Vembuji spotted in the market. Companies were looking for 2 solutions:

• Securing their data.
• Reducing their server-related costs.

Vembuji grabbed this opportunity with both hands. He introduced Zoho as a whole suite of software for businesses. From spreadsheets, and project management systems to CRMs. And Zoho research team is always working on new products.

In 2008, Zoho crossed 1 Million users. And Vembuji even changed the name of his organization from AdventNet to Zoho Corp.

Zoho is among the leading profitable cloud service businesses across the globe. And if we make a list of bootstrapped cloud service companies, I don't see any competition at all.

Ending Thoughts

We discussed at the start that Vembuji doesn't have a technology background. Did you know that around 15-20% of Zoho engineers haven't been to a proper college?

This is what I love the most about him. When you become successful, you share it with others to create more success stories.

From working at Qualcomm to building Zoho, this is the story of Sir Sridhar Vembuji.

Best Regards

Nazir Mehrab

PS: My organization assists entrepreneurs with offshore company formation in a stress-free way.