SRIDHAR VEMBU’S journey with Zoho Corp, which he co-founded in 1996 and has been leading since 2000, has been an eventful one. Zoho is now the largest software product company in India and is among the major SaaS (software as a service) companies in the world. An alumnus of IIT–Madras and Princeton University, Vembu is a Padma Shri awardee. In an exclusive interview, he talks about the opportunities, the challenges and a possible recession. Excerpts:
Q/ There have been talks about a recession. How would it affect Indian SaaS and other technology companies?
A/ Most of the companies in the SaaS space have not been profitable. This is the fundamental issue now when the recession is about to strike. It has mostly been because of the excessive marketing expenditure, as they have spent a lot of money on customer acquisitions because there are too many players in the ecosystem. Recession is a time when such kind of overcapacity issues get resolved. The process is painful. However, in terms of customer adoption, I am very bullish that more and more organisations will adopt the SaaS model.
Q/How does the Indian market compare with the more mature SaaS ecosystems in the west?
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