Dennis Woodside to lead Freshworks as CEO, Mathrubootham shifts to Chairman role

Freshworks Inc., a Chennai/US-based IT company, has appointed Dennis Woodside as its CEO and president, effective later today. Woodside, currently Freshworks’ President, will succeed Girish Mathrubootham, the company’s Founder, as CEO. 

Mathrubootham will transition to a new role of Executive Chairman. He will remain the chairman of the Board of Directors, and Woodside will also remain a member of the Board of Directors, says a company statement. 

The announcement led to a 21 per cent decline in the share price to $13.71 in the extended trading. 

Since founding Freshworks in 2010, Mathrubootham has transformed Freshworks from a startup in Chennai into a leading SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, US, with products that make it easy for every business to delight their employees and customers. He steered Freshworks through an IPO on Nasdaq in September 2021, making Freshworks the first India-born SaaS firm to trade on a US exchange. Under his leadership, the business has grown to serve more than 67,000 customers globally, powered by approximately 4,900 talented employees operating globally in 13 locations. 

“When I first proposed this next step to the Freshworks Board, we were starting to chart the next phase of our company’s journey. We brought Dennis on board to partner with me on crafting an ambitious growth plan, and my hope was that he could eventually lead the team of talented employees around the world to execute it, which would allow me to spend more time on the long-term product vision, innovation and AI strategy,” said Mathrubootham. “Dennis has a deep understanding of Freshworks’ business, customers and our employees, and a strong track record of building and scaling large global teams – he is the right leader to become our next CEO. I’m thrilled to announce this transition.” 

Woodside joined Freshworks as President in September 2022. Since then, Woodside has accelerated Freshworks’ investments in enterprise-grade products and driven increased focus on the growth of mid-market and enterprise customers. 

For the first quarter ended March 31, 2024, the reported lower net loss from operations of $32.2 million compared with $48.1 million in the first quarter of 2023. Total revenue was $165.1 million, a 20 per cent growth over the same quarter last year.