Investors may find Dennis Woodside a better chief for Freshworks

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : When Freshworks Inc. first brought in Dennis Woodside as its president in September 2022, there were already murmurs on whether founder and chief executive Girish Mathrubootham would be stepping aside. A former CEO of Motorola Mobility and chief operating officer of Dropbox, Woodside, 55, was already a known name among Silicon Valley investors and the analyst community.

Mathrubootham conceded this in a note to employees early Thursday, noting that the previous 18 months had been one of transition. While he’s transitioning into the role of executive chairman, Woodside has taken charge as CEO effective 1 May. “A couple of years ago, I started talking with our board about my longer-term plans for Freshworks.

I shared that when the time is right, I would like to shift my focus to our long-term product vision and invest in our presence in India. These are areas where I get the most energy and where I’m also playing to my strengths," he wrote. “When I recruited Dennis to Freshworks, my hope was that he would eventually succeed me, and that we would work together to make a thoughtful and smooth transition, one that keeps the needs of our customers and employees front and center." Both the executives addressed the transition during the company’s earnings call on Thursday.

While Mathrubootham noted that Woodside as Dropbox’s COO had scaled it from $200 million to over $1 billion in revenue, Freshwork’s new CEO said the company’s founder had been focussed on AI (artificial intelligence) initiatives over the past year while he took charge of near-term strategies and scaling up. “Internally, (the transition) would not be viewed as sudden," Woodside said. The transition may not have been a surprise to investors either.