Q. Making in India for the world. What does it take to do that?
We’ve been doing this for 30 years—building in India for the world. One of the ideas we pioneered is that we have to tap into talent that is not widely recognised. Very often, the complaint is that there isn’t enough talent. That’s the challenge we tackle head-on: We create it and nurture it over time.
The second is you need patience. Too many companies apply the ‘This worked in Silicon Valley, therefore it will work here’ approach. The problem is that in Silicon Valley, if you’re a new startup, you draw upon decades of established companies and their talent pool. Even if the founders are young or new, once something takes off, you recruit from established companies. There’s a history of such companies. For example, Yahoo drew from Cisco, Google drew from Yahoo, Facebook drew from Google, and so on. OpenAI has drawn from Google, for instance.
That works because there’s an established ecosystem of large companies. Without creating that, a new startup cannot assume it will draw upon experienced talent from somewhere—because there is no ‘somewhere’. We have to build that. That’s the second major difference.
Those two ideas go together. The most important problem to solve is: Where are we going to find experienced people? My answer is—create them.
Q. That’s what you do with Zoho Schools….
Zoho Schools is a reflection of that idea, put into concrete practice. Today, about 20 percent of our talent comes from there. What we say is that we don’t even need a traditional college degree for this. Instead, we set up our own training. We provide that, and in doing so, we expose talent to all the technologies we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Zoho Schools also operate within the broader context of the company, which gives strong motivation to those kids. They think, ’If I do well, I can do what they’re doing. I can have fun too. I can build all this’.
For example, in my day-to-day work, I have about 30 Zoho Schools graduates working in my team. The median age of my team is around 20—they keep me on my toes!
When I visit the next incoming batch that’s being trained, I tell them, ‘The guys just one year senior to you are working with me. If you aspire to join my team, you’d better learn all of this. Bug your seniors about what they’re doing so you understand their work. Many of them are interns right now—find out what they do during their internship. That way, you’ll get a head start on what you’ll need to know when you come to my team’. That’s the idea.
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Q. A lot of people complain that Gen Z doesn’t have the same work ethic as millennials or previous generations. Do you think that’s true?
Two and a half thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher lamented that the youth had no discipline. One sign of getting old is thinking all young people are useless.
Every generation has slackers. I had classmates in my generation who were slackers. It’s never universally true. In any generation, you’ll find some people who are hardworking and ambitious, and some who just get by.
It’s the same through every generation.
So by labelling Gen Z, we are over-generalising.
Q. Have you not been tempted to sell your stake in Zoho or a part of it, to earn big money?
Yes, naturally. And now I’ll come to Hindu philosophy. At its core, as taught by our saints, the virtues are contentment and humility. It’s not about worshipping this God or performing that ritual—those are secondary. The essence is having an attitude of contentment woven into your fabric, and humility about the universe.
Humility is also a scientific attitude. A curious mind is a humble mind because it admits, ’I don’t know this. Why does this work this way?’ That’s what sparks scientific questions. True engineers and scientists tend to be humble.
As for contentment, at a practical level, there is no limit to greed. If I have four phones, why not five? There’s no end. Modern economics assumes there should be no limit—but that’s incompatible with physics. We live on a finite Earth. Resources are finite. That’s why, to me, the only attitude compatible with the long-term welfare of humanity is contentment. It’s also essential for personal happiness. If I’m constantly jealous of what someone else has, I’m never at peace. Contentment removes those cravings.
Q. Currently, Mani [Vembu] is heading the business side of things. What’s it like working so closely with family?
In fact, most of the time we only meet at work [laughs]. If I need to meet Mani, I go to the office. Everyone is so passionately tied to their work that it’s actually nice. And when we argue, it’s about technology or products—always work-centric conversations.
Q. Between the two of you, who’s more risk-averse?
Mani is much bolder. I’m probably more risk-averse than Mani.
Q. What’s holding India back from building more world-class products?
Fundamentally, it’s about mindset—self-belief. That’s what we need first and foremost: Confidence that we can do it, and the will to make it happen.
People complain about government, infrastructure, funding—all of that is secondary. The first step is wanting to do this. Once that’s in place, everything else will follow.
Too often, we talk ourselves out of it. We say, ‘It cannot be done’. But if we get that right—if we believe it can be done—it will happen. Our own journey is proof of that. Zoho is proof it can be done. But it starts with the will. We must absolutely want to do it.
Q. How do you think entrepreneurship is evolving compared to the Western model?
Today, a lot of our startup ecosystem has unquestioningly borrowed from the Silicon Valley or American playbook—100 percent. I would say, look deeper. Study experiences from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan—all of them.
Learn alternative models, because what fits us is not necessarily what worked in Silicon Valley. Even in America, there is only one Silicon Valley. All the attempts to replicate it—whether in Boston, New York, Raleigh, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis—have failed.
Many of those places have technology companies, but none became a true alternative to Silicon Valley. So simply borrowing that model may not do us much good. We have to think differently.
Q. Many founders today are quick to take their money and leave—or take up non-executive positions. They don’t like running operations. What’s your take on this?
Being a venture-funded or public company wears you out. Many people report feeling like they’re on an endless financial treadmill. It’s very stressful.
That’s why you see founder attrition. Even the average tenure of an S&P 500 CEO has been dropping. It’s not just startups or tech—it’s across the board. CEOs voluntarily quit after five or six years because there’s only so much you can do.
Every quarter, you have to meet the numbers—never fail to make the numbers. It’s drilled into you like a religious doctrine. Companies resort to ‘cookie jar’ accounting—holding back from a good quarter to pad the next one. All of that happens.
It becomes tiresome after a while. That’s why we’ve stayed away from that treadmill. We never had to deal with that part—and I consider that a blessing.
First Published: Dec 11, 2025, 10:52
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