tech 25 CLASS OF 2021

Launched in 2017by Entrepreneur India magazine, this is the 5th edition of Tech25, an annual listicle of the best technology entrepreneurs in the country. The Tech 25 issue carefully curates entrepreneurs with their play in technology as an enabler for change in their respective sectors. The focus on the impact of technology in sectors like healthcare, education, finance, agriculture, etc. is deeply looked at. Every business is becoming a technology business Not many good things have come out from this pandemic but one thing that has driven home is that technology and business have become one. We are moving in a decade where only two kinds of businesses are best designed to succeed and thrive. The first – companies whose business is tech and the second – companies where tech is how they conduct business. Going forward, technology will play a key role in rebuilding economies that have been shattered by covid. With this thought, this year we introduce a special IP in this edition focused on the Rising Tech Stars who are at the helm of technology and entrepreneurship. This issue is all about technology entrepreneurs who are changing our country with cutting-edge solutions.

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THE BILLIONAIRE BUDDHA

SRIDHAR VEMBU CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, ZOHO CORP ON LIVING IN THE CLOUDS AND STAYING GROUNDED

Sridhar Vembu’s business philosophy has been clear from the start, neither being answerable to shareholders nor to investors, only to customers. This has resulted in the company remaining bootstrapped and private resulting in making it a profitable unicorn software company. This independent vision has further resulted in drastic decisions taken by the founder himself, which would have not been possible otherwise.

By Punita Sabharwal

The simple-looking software-making man Sridhar Vembu who has portraits of God hung at his backdrop wall during our Zoho call is a man who preaches what he practices. Our more than an hour-long conversation takes place over Zoho’s app, which works well for a video and audio conversation. My last conversation with Vembu was three years back wherein he focused on running the entire business on Zoho’s apps which is used the world over. Today, when the entrepreneur himself has moved to India I can gauge how true it seems to be running his business entirely on Zoho software while sitting out of Zoho’s Tenkasi office in Chennai, India. Sridhar went on to share his vision even before the pandemic changed our lives and work since 2020; the leader was all the more prepared to make work happen from anywhere as he moved back to India in 2019. Few minutes into the conversation with Vembu, I realize it’s not only the work that runs over this entrepreneur, he has a greater impact and a personal belief system that runs along.